Nastia Liukin — gymnastics with roots in the USSR
Nastia Liukin (born Anastasia Valeryevna Lyukina, 30 October 1989, Moscow) is an American artistic gymnast. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics she won the all-around gold medal and five medals in total. She also won nine World Championship medals. She is the daughter of Soviet gymnasts Valeri Liukin, a 1988 Olympic champion, and Anna Kotchneva, a rhythmic gymnastics world champion, and works as a gymnastics analyst for NBC Sports.
Tracing the roots — Moscow (Russian SFSR)
Born in Moscow in 1989 to Soviet gymnasts Valeri Liukin and Anna Kotchneva. After the breakup of the Soviet Union the family emigrated to the United States when she was two and a half, settling first in New Orleans and then in Texas.
Moscow (Russian SFSR). At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.