Valeri Liukin — gymnastics with roots in the USSR
Valeri Liukin is a Kazakhstani-born Soviet and American gymnastics coach who won two Olympic gold medals as a gymnast at the 1988 Seoul Games before emigrating to the United States and founding World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) in Texas — where he trained his daughter Nastia Liukin to Olympic all-around gold in 2008.
Tracing the roots — Aktobe (Kazakhstan)
Born in Aktobe (Kazakhstan SSR) in 1959 and trained at the Soviet elite gymnastics programme, Liukin represents the Soviet athletic tradition at its highest level — both as an Olympic champion himself and as the coach who transplanted that tradition to American soil. His daughter's 2008 Olympic gold is the direct product of Soviet gymnastics culture carried to Texas.
Aktobe (Kazakhstan). At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.