Yuri Lyapkin was a great Soviet defenseman who won Olympic gold and starred in the legendary Summit Series of 1972. Lyapkin won a gold medal with the undefeated Soviet Union team at the 1976 Olympics. He was a key member of Soviet teams that won gold at hockey's World Championships in 1971, 1973, 1974 and 1975. He won silver at the championships in 1976.

The Summit Series was a seminal event in hockey history which pitted, for the first time, the best players from the sport's two great powers of the era, Canada and the USSR. In the hard-fought, widely watched series, Lyapkin led all defensemen on both teams in scoring, with six points in six games. Lyapkin starred with Soviet Championship League teams HC Spartak Moscow and Khimi Voskresensk for 13 seasons. He was inducted into the Russian and Soviet Hockey Hall of Fame in 1973.