Nikolai Andrianov
Rebeca Andrade
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The verdict
Nikolai Andrianov leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Nikolai Andrianov at #5 and Rebeca Andrade at #12.
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The case for Nikolai Andrianov
The most decorated male gymnast in Olympic history, with 15 medals across three Games — seven gold, five silver and three bronze between 1972, 1976 and 1980 — a total that stood as the record for any male Olympian in any sport until Michael Phelps. Montreal 1976 was his masterpiece: he won the all-around, floor, rings and vault, taking four golds at a single Games in an era when Japan owned the men's team title. He added the world all-around crown in Strasbourg in 1978 and finished with 12 World Championship medals. Andrianov was the first great male all-arounder of the television age, technically complete across all six apparatus at a time when the Soviet system generally produced specialists, and he combined the vaulting power of a tumbler with the shoulder strength required for rings — a combination that remains rare. He later coached in Japan, where his influence fed directly into the country's subsequent revival.
The case for Rebeca Andrade
The best gymnast Latin America has produced and the only woman to beat Simone Biles in a major all-around final in a decade, taking the world title in Liverpool in 2022 while Biles was on hiatus. Andrade won Brazil's first Olympic gymnastics gold on vault in Tokyo in 2021 along with all-around silver, then returned in Paris in 2024 to win floor exercise ahead of Biles, with silver in the all-around and on vault and bronze with the Brazilian team — six Olympic medals in total, making her the most decorated Olympian in Brazilian history across all sports. She did it after three separate anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions, an injury history that ended most careers before hers began. Her Paris floor gold produced the image of the Games, with Biles and Jordan Chiles bowing to her on the podium, and she has become the single biggest driver of gymnastics participation in South America.