Public Family Trees

Nastia Liukin Family Tree - The Liukin Gymnastics Family

The Liukins are a gymnastics family of champions: Olympic gold medallist Valeri Liukin, world champion Anna Kotchneva and their daughter Nastia Liukin. Nastia won the 2008 Olympic all-around title. ## Origins Valeri Liukin was born in Aktyubinsk, in the Kazakh SSR, in 1966, and became one of the leading gymnasts of the Soviet team, the first to perform a triple back somersault on floor. Anna Kotchneva was born in Moscow in 1970 and won the clubs title at the 1987 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships. They married in 1988, the year Valeri won two Olympic golds in Seoul, and their daughter Anastasia, known as Nastia, was born in Moscow in October 1989. When Nastia was two and a half, the family emigrated to the United States, settling first in New Orleans and then in Texas. In 1994 Valeri and his business partner Yevgeny Marchenko opened the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) in Plano, where Valeri went on to coach his daughter. ## Notable members - **Nastia Liukin**, 2008 Olympic all-around champion with five medals in Beijing and nine World Championship medals. - **Valeri Liukin**, 1988 Olympic champion with the team and on high bar, and co-founder of WOGA. - **Anna Kotchneva**, 1987 world clubs champion in rhythmic gymnastics. ## Significance Few families have produced champions in two gymnastics disciplines across two countries. The Liukins carried a Soviet training tradition to Texas, and WOGA became one of the most successful clubs in American gymnastics, producing an Olympic all-around champion coached by her own father. | Fact | Details | |---|---| | Family roots | Aktyubinsk (Kazakhstan) and Moscow (Russia) | | Family home | Plano, Texas, United States | | Best-known member | Nastia Liukin, artistic gymnast | | Olympic champions | Valeri (1988), Nastia (2008) | | World champions | Valeri, Anna and Nastia | | Family gym | World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA), founded 1994 |