Larissa Latynina

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Olympic medalist
Larissa Latynina
Medal record
Women's Artistic Gymnastics
Gold	1956 Melbourne	Team competition
Gold	1956 Melbourne	All-around
Gold	1956 Melbourne	Vault
Gold	1956 Melbourne	Floor exercise
Gold	1960 Rome	Team competition
Gold	1960 Rome	All-around
Gold	1960 Rome	Floor exercise
Gold	1964 Tokyo	Team competition
Gold	1964 Tokyo	Floor exercise
Silver	1956 Melbourne	Uneven bars
Silver	1960 Rome	Uneven bars
Silver	1960 Rome	Balance beam
Silver	1964 Tokyo	All-around
Silver	1964 Tokyo	Vault
Bronze	1956 Melbourne	Team, portable apparatus
Bronze	1960 Rome	Vault
Bronze	1964 Tokyo	Uneven bars
Bronze	1964 Tokyo	Balance beam

Larisa Siemjonovna Latynina (Russian: Лари́са Семёновна Латы́нина; born December 27, 1934 in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR) was a Soviet gymnast who was the first female athlete to win nine Olympic golds. She still holds the record for most Olympic medals at 18 (9 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 4 bronze medals).

Born Larisa Dirij, she first practiced ballet, but turned to gymnastics after her choreographer moved out of town. She graduated from high school in 1953 and moved to Kiev to attend the Lenin Polytechnic Institute and continue training. There Latynina trained at the Burevestnik Voluntary Sports Society. At age 19, she debuted internationally at the 1954 Rome World Championships, winning the gold medal in the team competition.

At the 1956 Summer Olympics, she battled with Ágnes Keleti of Hungary to become the most successful gymnast of the Olympics. Latynina beat Keleti in the all-around event, and the Soviet team also won the team event. In the event finals, Latynina won gold medals on the floor (shared with Keleti) and vault, a silver medal on the uneven bars, and a bronze medal in the now discontinued team event with portable apparatus. Keleti also won six medals, but won four golds and two silvers.

After a very successful World Championships (winning 5 out of 6 titles), Latynina was again the top favorite for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. In the all-around event, she led the Soviet Union to take the first four places, thereby also securing a win in the team competition by a stunning margin of 9 points. Latynina also successfully defended her floor title, while winning silver medals in the balance beam and uneven bars event. Finally, she won the bronze in the vault competition.

Latynina won all-around titles at the 1958 World Championships and 1962 World Championships, beating Věra Čáslavská of Czechoslovakia in the latter. Still the defending World Champion at the 1964 Summer Olympics, she was overcome by Čáslavská in the all-around competition. Latynina did however add two more gold medals to her tally, winning the team event and the floor event both for the third time in a row. A silver medal and two bronzes in the other apparatus events brought her total of Olympic medals to eighteen — nine gold medals, five silver and four bronze. She won a medal in every event in which she competed.

Latynina retired after the 1966 World Championships and became a coach for the Soviet national gymnastics team, a position she would hold until 1977. She organized the gymnastics competition at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.

She is a citizen of Russia, and lives (as of 2004) in her estate near the town Semenovskoye, Moscow region.

[edit] Awards and honors

1989: Olympic Order (silver), International Olympic Committee
1998: Inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame ^[1]

[edit] Other Facts

• Appears in the "Soviet Sports Wars" episode of the PBS documentary "The Red Files" (circa 2000) discussing her experiences as a gymnast and Soviet coach.
• Competed in the 1958 World Championships while pregnant with daughter Tanya.

[edit] Bibliography

Larissa Latynina (1975). The Balance (in Russian). Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya. 

[edit] Reference

1. ^ LARISSA LATYNINA. International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Retrieved on March 26, 2006.

[edit] External links

• International Olympic Committee's profile on Latynina
• Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique profile for Larissa Latynina
• International Gymnast's profile on Latynina
• Gymn Forum: Complete list of Latynina's competitive results
• profile on DatabaseOlympics.com