Valeri Liukin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Olympic medal record
Men's Artistic Gymnastics
Gold 1988 Seoul Team competition
Gold 1988 Seoul Horizontal Bar
Silver 1988 Seoul All Around
Silver 1988 Seoul Parallel Bars
World Championships
Gold 1987 Rotterdam Team
Gold 1991 Indianapolis Team
Bronze 1991 Indianapolis All-around
European Championships
Gold 1987 Moscow All-around
Gold 1987 Moscow Floor exercise
Gold 1987 Moscow Parallel bars
Gold 1987 Moscow Horizontal bar
Silver 1987 Moscow Rings
Bronze 1987 Moscow Vault

Valeri Viktorovich Liukin (Russian: Валерий Викторович Люкин, born December 17, 1966, Aktyubinsk, Kazakh SSR)) is a world class former gymnast for the Soviet Union. He was a 1988 Olympics gold medalist and the first man to do a triple back flip on floor and both a layout reverse hect and a Jaeger with full twist on high bar. Liukin began gymnastics when he was 7 and moved to Moscow to join the Soviet Junior National team. His rise in the ranks was consistent and his world debut came at the 1985 Friendship Cup.

At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, Liukin was the gold medalist in the horizontal bar and the Soviet team won the team competition. In addition to his two golds, Liukin was the silver medalist in the parallel bars and All-Around. He medaled at each of the World Championships between 1987 and 1991 and was a member of the USSR National Team until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Once his gymnastics career was over, he turned to coaching. He was the International Coach of the Year in 2000 and 2004.

Currently, Liukin and his wife Anna (a former World medalist in rhythmic gymnastics) live in Plano, Texas coach their daughter Nastia, the 2005 and 2006 US National Champion as well as several other elite gymnasts. The gym he owns and coaches at is the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA).

[edit] External links and resources