Valeri Liukin
| Valeri Liukin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Liukin as a coach at the 2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Valeri Viktorovich Liukin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 17 December 1966 Aktyubinsk, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gymnastics career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Men's artistic gymnastics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Former countries represented | Kazakhstan Soviet Union | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | October 6, 1994 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Valeri Viktorovich Liukin (Russian: Валерий Викторович Люкин; born 17 December 1966 in Aktyubinsk, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union) is a Kazakh-American retired artistic gymnast currently working as a gymnastics coach. Representing the former Soviet Union, Liukin was the 1988 Olympic champion in the team competition and individually on the horizontal bar, and Olympic silver medalist in the all-around and the parallel bars.
Liukin was the first man to do a triple back flip on floor and both a layout Tkatchev and a Jaeger with full twist on high bar. He also has one of the most difficult skills in men's artistic gymnastics named after him, the triple back (tucked) somersault.
Liukin moved to the United States in 1992 and became a U.S. citizen in 2000. He is married to Anna Kotchneva, and is the father and coach of 2008 Olympic champion Nastia Liukin. He is co-owner of the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy with longtime friend Yevgeny Marchenko.
On 15 December 2015, it was announced that Liukin had been inducted as part of the 2016 class into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
From 16 September 2016 to 2 February 2018, he was the coordinator for the United States women's national gymnastics team, replacing Márta Károlyi. He coached the Brazilian women's national gymnastics team as of 2018.