Yevgeny Marchenko (born 24 February 1964) is a

Latvian-American Latvian Americans are Americans who are of Latvian ancestry. According to the 2008 American Community Survey, there are 93,498 Americans of full or partial Latvian descent. History The first significant wave of Latvian settlers who immigrated ...

artistic gymnastics coach, known for being the personal coach to

Carly Patterson Carly Rae Patterson (born February 4, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter and former artistic gymnast. She was the all-around champion at the 2004 Olympics, the first all-around champion for the United States at a non-boycotted Olympics, and ...

, who was the 2004 Olympic All-Around champion. He is of

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

descent.

Early years

Marchenko was born in

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

and competed in sports acrobatics gymnastics. During his career, he garnered five World champion titles, four European champion titles, and the Soviet national title.

Coaching career

Marchenko and close lifelong friend,

Valeri Liukin Valeri Viktorovich Liukin (russian: Валерий Викторович Люкин; born 17 December 1966 in Aktyubinsk, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union) is a Soviet-born Russian-American retired artistic gymnast turned gymnastics coach. As a competitor ...

, moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

following their retirements from Gymnastics. They had the intent of opening their own gym in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

until a chance visit from a friend who wanted to see them in

Plano, Texas Plano ( ) is a city in Collin County, Texas, Collin County and Denton County, Texas, United States. It had a population of 285,494 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a principal city of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Hist ...

. After seeing potential business opportunities in Texas, Marchenko and Liukin saved up and managed to afford their own gymnastics facility in Plano; and during the opening week, 140 gymnasts signed up to join. Marchenko has served as the personal coach to

Hollie Vise Hollie Diane Vise (born December 6, 1987) is an American former Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. A two-time world champion, Vise went on to compete for the University of Oklahoma. Early life and training Born in Dallas, Texas, Vise is not ...

and Ava Verdeflor in the past.

Awards

Merited Master of Sport of the USSR Unified Sports Classification System of the USSR (russian: Единая Всесоюзная спортивная классификация) is a document which provided general Soviet physical education system requirements for both athletes an ...

*International Coach of the Year - 2001-04

References

1964 births Living people Soviet acrobatic gymnasts Russian acrobatic gymnasts Latvian acrobatic gymnasts American gymnastics coaches Gymnastics in Texas Acrobats People from Plano, Texas World Olympic Gymnastics Academy Latvian emigrants to the United States {{Russia-acrobatic-gymnastics-bio-stub