The History of Olympic Gymnastics

The sport of gymnastics has been present at the Summer Olympics in some form since the 1896 games in Athens, Greece. Originally, only men were permitted to compete--female gymnasts first competed at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. Traditional events have included floor exercises, vault, rings, uneven bars, parallel bars, balance beam and pommel horse, though rhythmic gymnastics and the trampoline have also been added.

  1. First Men's Medalists

    • There were a total of eight different gymnastics events featured at the 1896 games. Germany won a total of 10 medals, five of them gold, while Greece claimed six total medals and Switzerland managed three.

    First Women's Medalists

    • The women's all-around team competition was the only event held for the ladies during the 1928 games. The gold medal was claimed by the squad from the Netherlands, while the Italians took silver and the British ladies managed bronze.

    All-Time Medal Standings

    • The Soviet Union has won 81 gold medals and 200 total medals in gymnastics to lead all other nations by a considerable margin, as of 2009. Japan is second in both categories with 28 gold medals and 90 overall medals, followed by the United States in third with 27 gold medals and 83 total medals.

    Youngest Medalists

    • The youngest person ever to win an Olympic medal in gymnastics was Dimitrios Loundras of Greece, who won a silver in team parallel bars at the age of 10 years and 218 days. At 11 years and 302 days, Luigina Giavotti of Italy is the youngest woman to ever win a medal as of 2009.

    Most Medals, Single Olympics

    • Aleksandr Dityatin competed in all eight gymnastics events in 1980 and earned a medal in each of them. In 1952, Maria Gorokhovskaya of the USSR won seven medals, the most ever by a woman.

    Most Gold Medals, Single Olympics

    • Vitaly Scherbo won six events during the 1992 Barcelona Games, setting the record for most gold medals in a single Olympics. Four gymnasts--most recently Romania's Ecaterina Szabo in 1984--share the women's record of four medals at a single Olympics.

    Most Career Medals

    • Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union holds the records for most career medals (18) and most career gold medals (9) as of 2009. Latynina competed in the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics, winning three more medals all-time than male record holder Nikolai Andrianov and one more career gold medal than Japan's Sawao Kato.