The Best Female Artistic Gymnasts
Many of the top gymnasts in artistic gymnastics have gone on to become household names in the mainstream media. Some of the most well-known American gymnasts are:-
Cathy Rigby: First American to become a world medalist (silver on beam, 1970)
- Marcia Frederick: First American woman to become a world champion (bars, 1978)
- Mary Lou Retton: First American Olympic all-around champion (1984)
- Kim Zmeskal: First American to win a world all-around title (1991)
- Shannon Miller: Two-time Olympic gold medalist (1996), back-to-back world all-around champion (1993, 1994)
- Dominique Dawes: Three-time Olympian (1992, 1996, 2000)
- Dominique Moceanu: The youngest senior national champion ever (age 13)
- Kerri Strug: 1992 and 1996 Olympian (and famous for her final vault at the 1996 Olympics)
- Carly Patterson: 2004 Olympic all-around champion
- Nastia Liukin: 2008 Olympic all-around champion
- Shawn Johnson: 2007 world all-around champion, 2008 Olympic all-around silver medalist
The most accomplished foreign competitors include:
- Larissa Latynina (the former USSR): 18-time Olympic medalist, winning nine gold medals (1956, 1960, 1964)
- Vera Cáslavská (the former Czechoslovakia): Olympic all-around champion in 1964 and 1968
- Ludmilla Tourischeva (the former USSR): 1972 Olympic all-around champion and seven-time world champion
- Olga Korbut (the former USSR): four-time Olympic gold medalist (1972, 1976)
- Nadia Comaneci (Romania): 1976 Olympic all-around champion and eight-time Olympic medalist
- Ecaterina Szabo (Romania): four-time Olympic gold medalist (1984)
- Daniela Silivas (Romania): Olympic medalist on every event in 1988 (gold: bars, beam, floor; silver: all-around, team; bronze: vault), seven-time world champion (1985, 1987, 1989)
- Olga Mostepanova (the former USSR): earned a perfect 10.0 on every event at the 1984 “alternate” games (attended by countries boycotting the 1984 Olympics)
- Svetlana Boguinskaya (the former USSR, Belarus): five-time Olympic medalist (1988, 1992) and five-time World gold medalist (1989, 1991)
- Lilia Podkopayeva (Ukraine): 1995 world all-around champion and 1996 Olympic all-around champion
- Svetlana Khorkina (Russia): Three-time world champion in the all-around (1997, 2001, 2003)
Poll: Who would you name as the best female American gymnast of all time?
