Larisa Semyonovna Latynina is a Soviet former artistic gymnast. Between 1956 and 1964 she won 14 individual Olympic medals and four team medals. She holds the record for the most Olympic gold medals by a female gymnast with nine. Her total of 18 Olympic medals was a record for 48 years. She held the record for individual event medals for over 52 years, winning 14. She is credited with helping to establish the Soviet Union as a dominant force in gymnastics.
Věra Čáslavská was a Czechoslovak artistic gymnast and Czech sports official. She won a total of 22 international titles between 1959 and 1968 including seven Olympic gold medals, four world titles and eleven European championships. Čáslavská is the most decorated Czech gymnast in history and is one of only three female gymnasts, along with the Soviet Larisa Latynina and American Simone Biles, to win the all-around gold medal at two Olympics. She remains the only gymnast, male or female, to have won an Olympic gold medal in each individual event. She was also the first gymnast to achieve a perfect 10 at a major competition in the post-1952 era. She held the record for the most individual gold medals among all female athletes in Olympic history as well until it was broken by swimmer Katie Ledecky in 2024.
Yelena Lvovna Shushunova was a Soviet Russian gymnast. Shushunova was one of five women who have won all-around titles at all major competitions: Olympics, World Championships and European/Continental Championships and one of eleven women who medaled on every event at World Championships. Shushunova was renowned for pioneering complex skills as well as her explosive and dynamic tumbling and high consistency.
Nellie Vladimirovna Kim is a retired Soviet and Belarusian gymnast of Sakhalin Korean and Tatar descent who won three gold medals and a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, and two gold medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. She was the second woman in Olympic history to earn a perfect 10 score and the first woman to score it on the vault and on the floor exercise, rivaling Nadia Comăneci, Ludmilla Tourischeva, and other strong competitors of the 1970s.
Lavinia Corina Miloșovici is a retired Romanian artistic gymnast. An exceptionally successful athlete on the international competition circuit, Miloșovici, also known as "Milo" in the gymnastics community, is considered to be one of Romania's top gymnasts ever and one of the most prolific female all-around medalists ever, earning a total 19 World Championships or Olympic medals in a span of six years. She medalled in every single World Championships meet, Olympic Games and European Championships between 1991 and 1996, and is only the third female gymnast ever, after Larisa Latynina and Věra Čáslavská, to win at least one World Championships or Olympic title on all four events. Miloșovici was also the last gymnast along with Lu Li to ever receive the perfect mark of 10.0 in an Olympic competition and the last to receive the benchmark score of 9.95 at the World Championships. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2011. Her trademarks included her four-event mastery, consistency, longevity, versatile skill set, and leadership abilities.
Daniela Viorica Silivaș-Harper is a Romanian former artistic gymnast best known for medaling in every single event at one Olympics, winning six medals at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul. In doing so, she was the fourth female gymnast to achieve this, after Maria Gorokhovskaya (1952), Larisa Latynina and Věra Čáslavská (1968). As of 2024, Silivaș is the last gymnast, male or female, to have accomplished this feat.
Gina Elena Gogean is a retired artistic gymnast from Romania who competed internationally in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. During her career she won an impressive number of 30 medals at Olympic Games, world championships or continental championships. Her best events were the floor exercise, the vault and the balance beam. She was also an excellent all around gymnast winning several medals on this event, the European title in 1994, a silver Olympic medal (1996) and a silver medal at the 1993 World Championships. She helped the Romanian team win three consecutive world titles and two Olympic team medals, a silver and a bronze. Gogean was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2013. Criticized for her lack of artistry and expression, Gogean nonetheless had nearly unmatched consistency, longevity, and efficiency that made her a backbone of the Romanian team in the 1990s.
Ecaterina Szabo is a former Romanian artistic gymnast who won 20 Olympic, world and continental medals.
Henrietta Ónodi is a Hungarian artistic gymnast. She competed at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics and won a gold and a silver medal in 1992. After retiring from gymnastics in 1997 she moved to the United States, married American Olympic pentathlete Jimbo Haley, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen. In 2010, she was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
Olga Vasilyevna Mostepanova is a retired former Soviet gymnast. She won three gold medals at the World Championships.
Natalia Alexandrovna Kuchinskaya, also known as Natasha Kuchinskaya is a retired Russian Olympic gymnast. She won four medals at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
Valeri Viktorovich Liukin is a Kazakh-American retired artistic gymnast currently working as a gymnastics coach. Representing the former Soviet Union, Liukin was the 1988 Olympic champion in the team competition and individually on the horizontal bar, and Olympic silver medalist in the all-around and the parallel bars.
Erika Zuchold was an East German gymnast who competed at the European, World, and Olympic level from the mid-1960s to early 1970s.
Cristina Bontaş is a Romanian former artistic gymnast, who competed in international events between 1987 and 1993. Her best events were the floor exercise, the vault, and the all around. She is a world champion on floor, a double olympic medalist and a six-time world medalist. Bontaş scored a perfect ten on floor in the all around event of the 1989 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
Elena Leușteanu-Popescu was a Romanian artistic gymnast who competed at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics. During her career she won three Olympic bronze medals, one world bronze medal and five continental silver medals. She was the first Romanian artistic gymnast to win an individual Olympic medal.
Eugenia Golea is a retired Romanian artistic gymnast, who competed in international events between 1984 and 1988. She is known for scoring a perfect 10 for the vault optional in the team competition of the 1987 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and for being the first gymnast to compete two consecutive layout stepout jumps. She helped her team to win an Olympic silver medal, a world title and a world silver medal. She liked all the events equally, though she excelled in vaulting and floor. On vault she won a world silver medal and a continental bronze and on beam she won a continental silver medal.
Maria Neculiță is a Romanian artistic gymnast who competed in international events between 1988 and 1992. Her best events were the floor and the beam. She won the team silver medal at the 1992 Olympics and team bronze at the 1991 World Championships. Individually, she won silver on beam and bronze on floor at the 1992 Worlds and a continental bronze on beam in 1990.
Lăcrămioara Filip (-Moldovan) is a retired Romanian artistic and aerobic gymnast. She is a world silver medalist with the team and a European gold medalist in the group event. Filip is also known to be the first gymnast to perform a tucked double front dismount from the uneven bars.
Natalia Georgiyevna Kalinina, is a former artistic gymnast that competed for the Soviet Union and Ukraine. She was a member of the last Soviet world championship team to win a gold medal in 1991. She was the 1990 European champion on the uneven bars. At the 1990 Goodwill Games, she won a medal on every event with 4 golds and 2 silvers, including the all-around gold medal. She was not selected to compete for the Unified Team at the 1992 Summer Olympics. She believes that politics would only allow three gymnasts to come from one republic, and there were already three gymnasts from Ukraine selected.
