18
Most Olympic medals by a gymnast
Nine gold, five silver and four bronze across three Games. The record for any Olympian in any sport until Michael Phelps passed it in 2012, and still the gymnastics record.
Gymnastics records fall into two categories that are not really comparable. Those set before 1997 belong to an era of younger athletes, more medal events per Games and smaller competitive fields; those set since belong to a sport with an age minimum, a two-per-country cap and a global talent pool. Both are listed here with the years attached so the context is visible.
Figures below cover senior Olympic and World Championship competition in artistic gymnastics only, excluding World Cup, continental and university events. Career totals are given as of the end of the Paris 2024 Olympic cycle.
Records
9
Most Olympic gold medals by a gymnast
Including two Olympic all-around titles, in Melbourne in 1956 and Rome in 1960. Sawao Kato's eight is the men's record.
15
Most Olympic medals by a male gymnast
Seven gold, five silver and three bronze. Four of the golds came at Montreal in 1976, where he won the all-around, floor, rings and vault.
6
Most Olympic gold medals at a single Games
Team, all-around, pommel horse, rings, vault and parallel bars in Barcelona, competing for the Unified Team. No gymnast has won more than four at any other Games.
30
Most World Championship medals
Including a record 23 world titles. Her combined Olympic and World total of 41 medals, 30 of them gold, is the most in the history of artistic gymnastics.
6
Most world all-around titles
Won in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2023. Kohei Uchimura holds the men's record with six consecutive titles from 2009 to 2015.
10.00
First perfect 10 at the Olympics
Scored on the uneven bars in Montreal on 18 July 1976. The scoreboard displayed 1.00 because it had been built with only three digits, no one having anticipated a perfect score.
14 years old
Youngest Olympic all-around champion
A record made permanent by the 1997 rule requiring senior women to turn 16 during the competition year. No gymnast that young can now enter an Olympic Games.
35 years old
Oldest women's Olympic gymnastics champion
The Hungarian won four golds in Melbourne at 35, having survived the Holocaust in hiding. She lived to 103, dying in January 2025 as the oldest living Olympic champion.
8 Games
Most Olympic appearances by a gymnast
Competed for the Unified Team, Uzbekistan and Germany from Barcelona 1992 to Tokyo 2020, winning team gold in 1992 and vault silver in 2008 at the age of 33.
7
Most medals by a woman at a single Games
Two golds and five silvers in Helsinki, the most medals won by any woman at a single Olympic Games in any sport, achieved at the Soviet Union's Olympic debut.
10 consecutive
Longest run of Olympic women's team titles
Every women's Olympic team title from Helsinki to Barcelona, spanning eleven Games including the boycotted 1984 edition the USSR did not attend.
5 consecutive
Longest run of Olympic men's team titles
Rome, Tokyo, Mexico City, Munich and Montreal, built around Yukio Endo and Sawao Kato. Japan won the men's Olympic team title again in Rio 2016 and Paris 2024.
6.4 difficulty
Highest-valued women's vault
The Yurchenko double pike, named Biles II when she competed it at the Antwerp World Championships. No other woman has performed it in international competition.
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