Background and career
Valeri Viktorovich Liukin (Russian: Валерий Викторович Люкин; born 17 December 1966) is a Kazakh and American former 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.
