A legend whose Olympic record is still being hunted today

Nine times gold, five silver, four bronze. These numbers, Larissa Latynina’s numbers, are still unmatched today. When Latynina celebrates her 90th birthday in Moscow on Friday, she will still be the most successful Olympian in history – even if things got really tight in Paris in 2024.

Between 1956 and 1964, the artistic gymnast from Ukraine won a total of 18 Olympic medals for the Soviet Union.

60 years after their last gold, they watched as their long-term record was almost broken by Katie Ledecky. But the American “only” managed gold number eight and nine, silver number four and bronze number one in the Paris pool. Latynina also retained her title – for now.

It only became apparent late that the virtuoso, who is now the second most successful athlete in Olympic history across gender behind Michael Phelps (23 gold medals), would one day become an artistic gymnastics legend. Until the age of 16, young Larissa was torn between the gym and the ballet hall.

“It was only when my coach Mikhail Sotnichenko forced me to make a decision that I decided, not lightly, to put ballet on the back burner,” Latynina once recalled. Just four years later, she won the first of her nine world titles at the 1954 World Championships in Rome.

The years of hard training in the cultural center in her hometown of Kherson, which has now become sadly famous due to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, benefited Latynina especially on the ground. Three Olympic victories in a row documented their superiority on this device.

Latynina explained that she had always been fascinated by dancers. As a trainer for the USSR national team in the 1960s, Latynina was a regular guest at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater and always got inspiration for her work there. During the confusion surrounding the breakup of the Soviet Union, Latynina ended up in Japan. She worked there as a coach at several clubs.

She maintained contact with her homeland through regular visits from her children Andrej and Tatjana. Her daughter realized her mother’s second dream and had a great career as a ballet dancer. However, only the dream of an all-time Olympic record could happen in the near future. The only 27-year-old Ledecky, who has already won medals at the four (!) past Summer Games, will certainly jump into the pool in Los Angeles in 2028.

When record-breaker Phelps surpassed her in London in 2012, Latynina was there and smiled patronizingly. “As an athlete,” she said at the time, “I can only be happy that there is such a talented athlete who has broken this record.”