Valeri Liukin

Valeri Liukin
— Gymnast —
Liukin on a 1987 Soviet stamp
Personal information
Full name	Valeri Viktorovich Liukin
Former countries represented	Kazakhstan  Soviet Union
Born	(1966-12-17) 17 December 1966 (age 50) Aktyubinsk, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union
Residence	Parker, Texas
Height	5 ft 4 in (1.63 m)
Discipline	Men's Artistic Gymnastics
Retired	1993
Medal record Men's Artistic Gymnastics Olympic Games 1988 Seoul Team 1988 Seoul Horizontal bar 1988 Seoul All-around 1988 Seoul Parallel bars World Championships 1987 Rotterdam Team 1991 Indianapolis Team 1991 Indianapolis All-around European Championships 1987 Moscow All-Around 1987 Moscow Floor 1987 Moscow Parallel bars 1987 Moscow Horizontal bar 1987 Moscow Rings 1987 Moscow Vault

Valeri Viktorovich Liukin (Russian: Валерий Викторович Люкин, born 17 December 1966) is a Kazakh-American retired artistic gymnast and a current gymnastics coach. As a competitor for the former Soviet Union, Liukin is 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. Following the 2016 Olympic Games, he succeeded Márta Károlyi as the coordinator for the U.S. Women's gymnastics team.

Liukin is 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 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 a 2016 class of the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

On 16 September 2016, he was named the coordinator for the United States women's national gymnastics team, replacing the retiring Márta Károlyi.

Liukin began gymnastics when he was 7 years old. He moved to Moscow to join the Soviet Junior National team, where he made his world debut at the 1985 Friendship Cup. Coached by Eduard Yarov, Liukin was a member of the Soviet Union National Team until the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union.