Gymnastics · 1964 · Tokyo, Japan
Eighteen Medals, A Record for 48 Years
At the end of her third and final Olympics, a Soviet gymnast has 18 medals, and no athlete in any sport will match that for almost half a century.
18 (9 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze)
Total Olympic medals
3 (1956, 1960, 1964)
Olympics competed
48 years, until 2012
Record stood
Larisa Latynina competed at three consecutive Olympics for the Soviet Union: Melbourne in 1956, Rome in 1960 and Tokyo in 1964. She took a medal in the all-around, in the team event, and in every individual apparatus final she reached, at all three. When she stood on the uneven bars podium in Tokyo on 23 October 1964 to collect a bronze, her last Olympic medal, the career total stood at 18: nine gold, five silver and four bronze.
No athlete in any sport, male or female, had ever won that many Olympic medals, and none would for a remarkably long time afterward. What set her apart was not power so much as consistency and artistry sustained across three Games and three different eras of the sport, competing into her late twenties against gymnasts a decade younger.
The record stood for 48 years, until Michael Phelps passed it in the pool at the 2012 London Olympics. She is still the most decorated female Olympian in history, and the standard any gymnast's longevity gets measured against.
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