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Nadia Elena Comăneci (UK: /ˌkɒməˈnɛtʃ(i)/,[3][4] US: /ˈkoʊməniːtʃ/,[4] Romanian: [ˈnadi.a koməˈnetʃʲ] (About this soundlisten); born November 12, 1961) is a Romanian retired gymnast and a five-time Olympic gold medalist, all in individual events. In 1976 at the age of 14, Comăneci was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 at the Olympic Games.[5] At the same Games (1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal), she received six more perfect 10s for events en route to winning three gold medals. At the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Comăneci won two more gold medals and attained two more perfect 10s. During her career, Comăneci won nine Olympic medals and four World Artistic Gymnastics Championship medals.

Comăneci is one of the worlds best-known gymnasts and is credited with popularizing the sport around the globe.[6] In 2000, she was named as one of the Athletes of the 20th Century by the Laureus World Sports Academy.[7] She has lived in the United States since 1989, when she defected from then-Communist Romania before its revolution in December that year. She later worked with and married American Olympic gold medal gymnast Bart Conner, who set up his own school. In 2001 she became a naturalized United States citizen, and has dual citizenship, also maintaining her Romanian citizenship.

Contents

1Early life

2Early gymnastics career

31976

3.1American Cup

3.2Summer Olympics in Montreal

3.3"Nadias Theme"

41977–1979

51980–1984

5.11980 Summer Olympics

5.2"Nadia 81"

5.31984 Summer Olympics

61984–1990

71990–present

8Leadership roles

9Honors and awards

10Special skills

11Book and films

12See also

13References

13.1Citations

13.2Cited sources

14Further reading

15External links

Early life

Onești (Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej between 1965 and 1989), the town where Comăneci was born

Nadia Elena Comăneci was born on November 12, 1961, in Onești, a small town in the Carpathian Mountains, in Bacău County, Romania, in the historical region of Western Moldavia.[8][9] She was born to Gheorghe (1936–2012) and Ștefania Comăneci, and has a younger brother.[10] Her parents separated in the 1970s, and her father later moved to Bucharest, the capital.[11] She and her younger brother Adrian were raised in the Romanian Orthodox Church.[12] In a 2011 interview, Nadias mother Ștefania said that she enrolled her daughter into gymnastics classes because she was a child who was so full of energy and active that she was difficult to manage.[13] After years of top-level athletic competition, Comăneci graduated from Politehnica University of Bucharest with a degree in sports education, which gave her the qualifications to coach gymnastics.[14]

Early gymnastics career

Comăneci in the 1970s

Comăneci began gymnastics in kindergarten with a local team called Flacăra ("The Flame"), with coaches Duncan and Munteanu.[15][16] At age 6, she was chosen to attend Béla Károlyis experimental gymnastics school after Károlyi spotted her and a friend turning cartwheels in a schoolyard.[17][18] Károlyi was looking for gymnasts he could train from a young age. When recess ended, the girls quickly went inside and Károlyi went around the classrooms trying to find them; he eventually spotted Comăneci. (The other girl, Viorica Dumitru, developed in a different direction and became one of Romanias top ballerinas.)

By 1968, when she was seven, Comăneci had started training with Károlyi. She was one of the first students at the gymnastics school established in Onești by Béla and his wife, Márta. As a resident of the town, Comăneci was able to live at home for many years; most of the other students boarded at the school.

In 1970, Comăneci began competing as a member of her hometown team and, at age nine, became the youngest gymnast ever to win the Romanian Nationals. In 1971, she participated in her first international competition, a dual junior meet between Romania and Yugoslavia, winning her first all-around title, and contributing to the team gold. For the next few years, she competed as a junior in numerous national contests in Romania and dual meets with countries such as Hungary, Italy, and Poland.[19] At the age of 11, in 1973, she won the all-around gold, as well as the vault and uneven bars titles, at the Junior Friendship Tournament (Druzhba), an important international meet for junior gymnasts.[19][20]

Comănecis first major international success came at the age of 13, when she nearly swept the 1975 European Womens Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Skien, Norway. She won the all-around and gold medals in every event but the floor exercise, in which she placed second. She continued to enjoy success that year, winning the all-around at the "Champions All" competition, and placing first in the all-around, vault, beam, and bars at the Romanian National Championships. In the pre-Olympic test event in Montreal, Comăneci won the all-around and the balance beam golds, as well as silvers in the vault, floor, and bars. Accomplished Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim won the golds in those events and was one of Comănecis greatest rivals during the next five years.[19]

1976

American Cup

Comăneci wearing her medals

In March 1976, Comăneci competed in the inaugural edition of the American Cup at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. She received rare scores of 10, which signified a perfect routine without any deductions, for her vault in the preliminary stage and for her floor exercise routine in the final of the all-around competition, which she won.[21] During this competition, Comăneci met American gymnast Bart Conner for the first time. While he remembered this meeting, Comăneci noted in her memoirs that she had to be reminded of it later in life. She was 14 and Conner was celebrating his 18th birthday.[22] They both won a silver cup and were photographed together. A few months later, they participated in the 1976 Summer Olympics that Comăneci dominated, while Conner was a marginal figure. Conner later said, "Nobody knew me, and [Comăneci] certainly didnt pay attention to me."[23]

Summer Olympics in Montreal

Comăneci at the 1976 Olympics

Nadia Comăneci in Montreal. Stamp of Romania, 1976

At Montreal [Comăneci] received four of her seven 10s on the uneven bars. The apparatus demands such a spectacular burst of energy in such a short time—only 23 seconds—that it attracts the most fanfare. But it is on the beam that her work seems more representative of her unbelievable skill. She scored three of her seven 10s on the beam. Her hands speak there as much as her body. Her pace magnifies her balance. Her command and distance hush the crowd.

— Sports Illustrated, 1976[18]

On July 18, 1976, Comăneci made history at the Montreal Olympics. During the team compulsory portion of the competition, she was awarded the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics for her routine on the uneven bars.[24][25][26] But Omega SA, the traditional Olympics scoreboard manufacturer, had been led to believe that competitors could not receive a perfect ten, and had not programmed the scoreboard to display that score.[27] Comănecis perfect 10 thus appeared as "1.00," the only means by which the judges could indicate that she had received a 10.[28][26]

During the remainder of the Montreal Games, Comăneci earned six additional "10s". She won gold medals for the individual all-around, the balance beam and uneven bars. She also won a bronze for the floor exercise and a silver as part of the team all-around.[29] Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim was her main rival during the Montreal Olympics; Kim became the second gymnast to receive a perfect ten, in her case for her performance on the vault.[30] Comăneci took over the media spotlight from gymnast Olga Korbut, who had been the darling of the 1972 Munich Games.

Comănecis achievements are pictured in the entrance area of Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, where she is shown presenting her perfect beam exercise.

Comăneci was the first Romanian gymnast to win the Olympic all-around title. She also holds the record as the youngest ever Olympic gymnastics all-around champion. The sport has revised its age-eligibility requirements. Gymnasts must be at least 16 in the same calendar year of the Olympics in order to compete during the Games. When Comăneci competed in 1976, gymnasts had only to be 14 by the first day of the competition.[31] As a result of changes to age eligibility, Comănecis record cannot be broken.

She was ranked as the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year for 1976[32] and the Associated Presss 1976 "Female Athlete of the Year".[33] Back home in Romania, Comăneci was awarded the Sickle and Hammer Gold Medal for her success,[34] and she was named a Hero of Socialist Labor. She was the youngest Romanian to receive such recognition during the administration of Nicolae Ceaușescu.[15]

"Nadias Theme"

"Nadias Theme" refers to an instrumental piece that became linked to Comăneci shortly after the 1976 Olympics. It was part of the musical score of the 1971 film Bless the Beasts and Children, and originally titled "Cottons Dream". It was also used as the title theme music for the American soap opera The Young and the Restless.

Robert Riger used it in association with slow-motion montages of Comăneci on the television program ABCs Wide World Of Sports. The song became a top-10 single in the fall of 1976, and composers Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin, Jr. renamed it as "Nadias Theme" in Comănecis honor.[35] Comăneci never performed to "Nadias Theme", however. Her floor exercise music was a medley of the songs "Yes Sir, Thats My Baby" and "Jump in the Line," arranged for piano.[18]

1977–1979

Comăneci successfully defended her European all-around title at the championship competition in 1977. When questions were raised at the competition about the scoring, Ceaușescu ordered the Romanian gymnasts to return home. The team followed orders amid controversy and walked out of the competition during the event finals.[15][36]

Following the 1977 Europeans, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation removed Comăneci from her longtime coaches, the Károlyis, and sent her to Bucharest on August 23 to train at the sports complex. She did not find this change positive, and was struggling with bodily changes as she grew older. Her gymnastics skills suffered, and she was unhappy to the point of losing the desire to live.[15][37] After surviving a suicide attempt,[38] Comăneci competed in the 1978 World Championships in Strasbourg "seven inches taller and a stone and a half [21 pounds] heavier" than she was in the 1976 Olympics.[27] A fall from the uneven bars resulted in a fourth-place finish in the all-around behind Soviets Elena Mukhina, Nellie Kim, and Natalia Shaposhnikova. Comăneci did win the world title on beam, and a silver on vault.[27]

After the 1978 "Worlds", Comăneci was permitted to return to Deva and the Károlyis school.[39] In 1979, Comăneci won her third consecutive European all-around title, becoming the first gymnast, male or female, to achieve this feat. At the World Championships in Fort Worth that December, Comăneci led the field after the compulsory competition. She was hospitalized before the optional portion of the team competition for blood poisoning, which had resulted from a cut in her wrist from her metal grip buckle. Against doctors orders, she left the hospital and competed on the beam, where she scored a 9.95. Her performance helped give the Romanians their first team gold medal. After her performance, Comăneci spent several days recovering in All Saints Hospital. She had to undergo a minor surgical procedure for the infected hand, which had developed an abscess.[40][41][42]

1980–1984

1980 Summer Olympics

Comăneci in Moscow, 1980

Comăneci was chosen to participate in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, then the capital of the Soviet Union. As a result of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter declared that the United States would boycott the Olympics (several other countries also participated in the boycott, though their reasons varied). According to Comăneci, the Romanian government "touted the 1980 Olympic games as the first all-Communist Games." However, she also noted in her memoir, "in Moscow, we walked into the mouth of a lions den; it was the Russians home turf."[43] She won two gold medals, one for the balance beam and one for the floor exercise (in which she tied with Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim, against whom she had also competed in the 1976 Montreal Olympics) and other events. She also won two silver medals, one for the team all-around and one for individual all-around. Controversies arose concerning the scoring in the all-around and floor exercise competitions.[27]

Her coach, Bela Károlyi, protested that she was scored unfairly. His protests were captured on television. According to Comănecis memoir, the Romanian government was upset about Károlyis public behavior, feeling that he had humiliated them. Life became very difficult for Károlyi from that point forward.[44]

"Nadia 81"

Comăneci on the balance beam, 1980

In 1981, the Gymnastics Federation contacted Comăneci and informed her that she would be part of an official tour of the United States named "Nadia 81" and her coaches Béla and Márta Károlyi would lead the group.[45] During this tour, Comănecis team shared a bus trip with American gymnasts; it was the third time she had encountered Bart Conner. They had earlier met in 1976. She later remembered thinking, "Conner was cute. He bounced around the bus talking to everyone—he was incredibly friendly and fun."[46]

Her coaches Béla and Márta Károlyi defected on the last day of the tour, along with the Romanian team choreographer Géza Pozsár. Prior to defecting, Károlyi hinted a few times to Comăneci that he might attempt to do so and indirectly asked if she wanted to join him. At that time, she had no interest in defecting, and said she wanted to go home to Romania.[47][48] After the defection of the Károlyis, life changed drastically for Comăneci in Romania, as she could not have predicted. Officials feared that she would also defect. Feeling she was a national asset, they strictly monitored her actions, refusing to allow her to travel outside the country.[49]

1984 Summer Olympics

The government did allow Comăneci to participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as part of the Romanian delegation. Although a number of Communist nations boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in a tit-for-tat against the U.S.-led boycott of the Olympics in Moscow four years before, Romania chose to participate. Comăneci later wrote in her memoir that many believed Romania went to the Olympics because an agreement had been made with the United States not to accept defectors. But Comăneci did not participate in the Games as a member of the Romanian team; she served as an observer (not a judge). She was able to see Károlyis new protégé, American gymnast Mary Lou Retton, who dominated the Olympics. The Romanian delegation did not allow her to talk with Károlyi and closely watched her the entire time.[50]

1984–1990

A 2016 Romanian postage stamp showing Comăneci on the balance beam at the 1976 Olympics

The Romanian government continued to restrict Comăneci from leaving Romania, aside from a few select trips to Moscow and Cuba. She had started thinking about retiring a few years earlier, but her official retirement ceremony took place in Bucharest in 1984. It was attended by the chairman of the International Olympic Committee.[28]

She later wrote in her memoir:

Life took on a new bleakness. I was cut off from making the small amount of extra money that had really made a difference in my familys life. It was also insulting that a normal person in Romania had the chance to travel, whereas I could not…. when my gymnastics career was over, there was no longer any need to keep me happy. I was to do as I was instructed, just as Id done my entire life…. If Bela hadnt defected, I would still have been watched, but his defection brought a spotlight on my life, and it was blinding. I started to feel like a prisoner.[51]

On the night of November 27, 1989, a few weeks before the Romanian Revolution, Comăneci defected with a group of other Romanians. They were guided by Constantin Panait, a Romanian who later became an American citizen after defecting. Their journey was mostly on foot and at night. They traveled through Communist Hungary and Austria and finally were able to take a plane to the United States.[15][29][52]

1990–present

Comăneci and her husband Bart Conner meeting First Lady Michelle Obama, 2009

Comăneci moved to Oklahoma in 1991 to help her friend Bart Conner, another Olympic gold medalist, with his gymnastics school. She lived with the family of Paul Ziert and eventually hired him as her manager.[53] Comăneci and Conner initially were just friends. They were together for four years before they became engaged.[54]

She returned to Romania for their 1996 wedding, which was held in Bucharest. This was after the fall of the Soviet Union and the establishment of an independent Romania; the government welcomed her as a national hero. The wedding was televised live throughout Romania, and the couples reception was held in the former presidential palace.[29][55]

In 2006, the couples son Dylan was born.[56][57] Comăneci became a naturalized US citizen in 2001, and is a dual citizen of Romania and the United States.[58]

She was the featured speaker at the 50th annual Independence Day Naturalization Ceremony on July 4, 2012 at Monticello, the first athlete invited to speak in the history of the ceremony.[59] In October 2017, an area in the Olympic Park in Montreal was renamed "Place Nadia Comaneci" in her honor.[60][61]

Leadership roles

Comăneci at the BRD Năstase Țiriac Trophy, April 2012

Comăneci is a well-known figure in the world of gymnastics; she serves as the honorary president of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, the honorary president of the Romanian Olympic Committee, the sports ambassador of Romania, and as a member of the International Gymnastics Federation Foundation. She and Conner own the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy, the Perfect 10 Production Company, and several sports equipment shops, and are the editors of International Gymnast Magazine.[citation needed]

She is also still involved with the Olympic Games. During the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, one of her perfect-10 Montreal uneven bars routines was featured in a commercial for Adidas.[62] In addition, both Comăneci and her husband Bart Conner provided television commentary for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.[63] A few years later, on July 21, 2012, Comăneci, along with former basketball star John Amaechi, carried the Olympic torch to the roof of the O2 Arena as part of the torch relay for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.[64] Prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro (featuring gymnast Simone Biles), Comăneci appeared in a TIDE advertisement called "The Evolution of Power" with Biles and three-time Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes.[65][66] She also offered daily analysis of the 2016 games (along with other Olympic champions such as Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis, and Conner), for the late-night show É Campeão, broadcast on Brazils SporTV.[67]

In addition, Comăneci is highly involved in fundraising for a number of charities. She personally funded the construction and operation of the Nadia Comăneci Childrens Clinic in Bucharest that provides low-cost and free medical and social support to Romanian children.[28] In 2003, the Romanian government appointed her as an honorary consul general of Romania to the United States to deal with bilateral relations between the two nations.[68] In addition, both Comăneci and Conner are involved with the Special Olympics.[69][70]

To raise money for charity, Comăneci participated in Donald Trumps reality show, The Celebrity Apprentice, season seven. Comăneci was a member of "The Empresario" team (all women), which lost to "The Hydra" team (all men) in the second episode. Trump responded to this loss by firing Comăneci,[71] thwarting her plan for raising money.[72] Comăneci later commented on her participation in the show, saying, "[she] had great fun. I only did it because it was all for charity."[73]

Honors and awards

1975 and 1976: The United Press International Athlete of the Year Award[74]

1976: Hero of Socialist Labour[75]

1976: Associated Press Athlete of the Year[76]

1976: BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year[77]

1983: The Olympic Order[78]

1990: International Womens Sports Hall of Fame[79]

1993: International Gymnastics Hall of Fame[80]

1998: Marca Leyenda[81]

1998: Flo Hyman Award[82]

2004: The Olympic Order[83]

2016: 2016 Great Immigrant Honoree: Carnegie Corporation of New York[84]

Special skills

Comăneci was known for her clean technique, innovative and difficult original skills, and her stoic, cool demeanor in competition.[18][85][86] On the balance beam, she was the first gymnast to successfully perform an aerial walkover and an aerial cartwheel-back handspring flight series. She is also credited as being the first gymnast to perform a double-twist dismount.[18][85] Her skills on the floor exercise included a tucked double back salto and a double twist.[85]

Comăneci salto[87]

Comăneci dismount[88]

Book and films

Comănecis 2004 memoir, Letters to a Young Gymnast, is part of the Art of Mentoring series by Basic Books.[89][90]

Katie Holmes directed a short 2015 documentary for ESPN about Comăneci entitled Eternal Princess that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.[91][92]

In 2016 Arte France produced a Pola Rapaport documentary about Comăneci entitled Nadia Comăneci, la gymnaste et le dictateur (Nadia Comăneci: The Gymnast and the Dictator).[93]

In 1984, Comăneci was the subject of an unauthorized biopic television film, Nadia.[94] The film was developed without her involvement or permission (although the content was described to her by others). She later stated publicly that the producers "never made contact with me ... I sincerely dont even want to see it, I feel so badly about it. It distorts my life so totally."[94]

In 2012, Universal Pictures chose Nadia to dub Granny Norma in Romanian in the animated movie The Lorax.[95]

Nadia Comaneci says shes going home whenever she heads to Romania.

She says the same when she returns to Oklahoma.

“I dont think many people consider in their heart that they have two places that are home,” she said.

But after living in Norman for more than two decades, the international gymnastics star feels as at home in Oklahoma as she does in her homeland of Romania. She jokes that shes lived here so long that maybe shes earned some sort of honorary status as an Oklahoman.

Safe to say, she has.

Comaneci will be inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame on Monday night. She wont be the first member born outside the state, but never before has the hall welcomed someone whose athletic success came as a representative of another country. But frankly, no one else in the hall is as big a star as Nadia.

She is known by more people than any other hall of famer. When the 14-year-old with the bouncy brunette ponytail became the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Olympics, she became an international darling.

Thirty-seven years later, shes still loved worldwide.

One of the YouTube videos of her historic routine has been viewed 2 million times in the past year alone.

But for as much as Nadia is linked to Romania, she feels every bit as tied to Oklahoma. This is where she and husband, Bart Conner, have made their home. This is where they are raising their son, Dylan. This is where she feels the most at peace.

The story of how she came to the United States is a remarkable one. While its been told before, its still an amazing but harrowing tale.

She retired from competitive gymnastics in 1981 after winning nine Olympic medals, including three golds at the 1976 Games in Montreal and two golds at the 1980 Games in Moscow. As the most famous Romanian ever, she lived a pampered life. She lived in a villa, had servants and wore expensive jewelry.

FROM THE HOMEPAGE

Skaters hit the ice at Edmonds Mitch Park

NEWSUpdated: 8 hours ago

But she was in a country governed by a Communist dictator — and a brutal one at that.

Nicolae Ceausescu was said to have combined the brute oppression of Stalins Soviet Union with the maniacal terrorism of Papa Doc Duvaliers Haiti.

Even with her favored status, Comaneci dreamed of escaping Romania for years, but she was so well-known that defecting would be no easy task.

Comaneci reached a breaking point, however, in late 1989.

On the night of Nov. 27, she and six others were driven in a rented Audi to a deserted road near the Romanian border with Hungary. Around midnight, they began walking.

About 10 miles of open countryside separated them from the border and freedom.

They trudged through mud and water and ice. Most of the time, they walked, but sometimes, they crawled.

Six hour later, they reached a barbed-wire fence and passed through an opening into Hungary. There were no border guards in sight, but they heard guard dogs in the distance.

FROM THE HOMEPAGE

Skaters hit the ice at Edmonds Mitch Park

NEWSUpdated: 8 hours ago

Two weeks later, she was in the United States.

Two weeks after that, the Ceausescu regime fell. He was captured, hastily tried, then publicly executed on Christmas Day 1989. It ushered in democracy and freedom and a new era in Romania.

When Comaneci decided to defect from Romania, she had no way of knowing that revolution was right around the corner.

“Probably if I would have known, I would have thought deeper about doing that,” she admitted.

But at the same time, she doesnt allow herself to dwell in what-ifs.

“I cannot change anything,” she said, “so I dont want to think about what I would have done.”

And besides, her life has turned out just fine.

A few months after leaving Romania, Comaneci joined a tour of former Olympic gymnasts and met Bart Conner. They eventually started dating.

A little over two years later, she moved part-time to Norman, where he had a gymnastics academy.

Then in 1996, they married.

Now, she travels the world making appearances, attending charity events and doing speaking engagements. She is on the board of Special Olympics International, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Laureus Sports For Good Foundation among others.

But no matter where she goes, Comaneci always returns to Oklahoma.

“It feels good when you come to a place like Oklahoma to charge up the batteries,” she said. “I need that.”

As she talked, she was only a few hours from getting on a plane and jetting off to Los Angeles for a few days of work with the Muscular Dystrophy Association

“I dont think I would be able to connect to so many things without touching a base where its gotta be just me in my warm-ups and my flip-flops.”

This is where shes comfortable.

This is home.

GYMNAST NADIA COMANECI BECAME THE QUEEN OF THE 1976 MONTREAL GAMES WHEN SHE WAS AWARDED THE FIRST PERFECT SCORE.

Early promise

Nadia Comaneci took up the sport of gymnastics aged six, becoming one of the first students at a school founded by coach Béla Károlyi. In 1975, 13-year-old Comaneci won gold in every event at the European Championships except the floor exercise.

Perfection

A year later in Montreal, she became the first gymnast in Olympic history to be awarded the perfect score of 10.0 for her performance on the uneven bars. She went on to record the perfect 10.0 six more times and became the youngest all-around Olympic gold medallist ever.

MORE OLYMPIC SUCCESS

Comaneci's career over the next four years was slightly less spectacular, judged against her own high standards. At the 1980 Olympic Games, she won her fourth and fifth golds but finished second in the all-around competition behind Yelena Davydova. Comaneci retired a year later, leaving her with a career haul of nine Olympic medals.

RETIREMENT

After her retirement, Comaneci was rarely allowed to travel outside her country. She defected to the United States in 1989. She has since married 1984 Olympic gold medallist Bart Conner, a gymnast she first met in the 1970s.

The Artistic Gymnastics World Championships[1][2] are the world championships for artistic gymnastics governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG). The first edition of the championships was held in 1903, exclusively for male gymnasts. Since the tenth edition of the tournament, in 1934, womens events are held together with mens events.

The FIG was founded in 1881 and was originally entitled FEG (Fédération Européenne de Gymnastique), but changed its name in 1921, becoming the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG)[3]; this name change roughly correlates with the actual naming of the World Championships. Although the first such games were held in 1903, they were not initially entitled the World Championships. The first competition actually referred to at the time as a World Championships was not until the 1930s, although sources differ on whether the first Worlds were those held in 1930 or those held in 1934.[3][4] The championships prior to the 1930s, beginning back in 1903, would eventually be recognized, retroactively, as the World Championships.[3]

Although the FIG had changed its name from the FEG back in 1921, the true transcontinental nature of the sport would not start to change at the World Championship level until Egypt sent athletes (a full male team) to the 1950 World Championships. By the time of these World Championships, a total of 60 male athletes from 6 different countries and 53 female athletes from 7 different countries comprised the competitive field.[5] By the 2013 World Championships, the competition had grown to include 264 men from 71 different countries and 134 women from 57 different countries.[5] As of 2019, over sixty different editions of the championships have been staged, and over forty different countries have earned medals in both mens and womens artistic gymnastics events.

The most successful nation, both in gold medal results and total number of medals, is the former Soviet Union. China is the second most successful country in total medals earned, and Japan is the third. Since the fall of the Soviet block, the traditional powerhouses in mens and womens individual and team events have been Russia, Ukraine, China, United States, Japan, and Romania with increasing results from Great Britain and Brazil and a recent decrease in results from the delegation from Romania. Currently, the championships are held annually in non-Olympic years, and all individual events (event and all-around) are held at every championships. However, the team event is omitted in the year after an Olympic Games.

Contents

1Editions

2All-time medal table

2.1Mens events

2.2Womens events

2.3Overall

3Statistics

3.1Multiple gold medalists

3.1.1Men

3.1.1.1All events

3.1.1.2Individual events

3.2Women

3.2.1All events

3.2.2Individual events

4Best results of top nations by event

4.1Mens results

4.2Womens results

5See also

6References

7External links

Editions

See also: Artistic Gymnastics Junior World Championships

YearEditionHost CityCountryEvents

(men/women)First in the Medal TableSecond in the Medal TableThird in the Medal Table

19031Antwerp Belgium6 / 0 France Luxembourg Netherlands

19052Bordeaux France5 / 0 France Netherlands Belgium

19073Prague Austria-Hungary5 / 0 Bohemia France Belgium

19094Luxembourg Luxembourg5 / 0 France Italy Bohemia

19115Turin Italy6 / 0 Bohemia Italy France

19136Paris France6 / 0 Italy France Bohemia

19227Ljubljana Yugoslavia6 / 0 Yugoslavia Czechoslovakia France

19268Lyon France6 / 0 Czechoslovakia Yugoslavia France

19309Luxembourg Luxembourg7 / 0 Yugoslavia Czechoslovakia Hungary

1931FIG 50th AnniversaryParis Francen/an/an/an/a

193410Budapest Hungary8 / 2 Switzerland Czechoslovakia Germany

193811Prague Czechoslovakia8 / 6 Czechoslovakia Switzerland Yugoslavia

195012Basel Switzerland8 / 6 Switzerland Poland Sweden

195413Rome Italy8 / 6 Soviet Union Japan Czechoslovakia

195814Moscow Soviet Union8 / 6 Soviet Union Japan Czechoslovakia

196215Prague Czechoslovakia8 / 6 Soviet Union Japan Czechoslovakia

196616Dortmund West Germany8 / 6 Soviet Union Japan Czechoslovakia

197017Ljubljana SFR Yugoslavia8 / 6 Japan Soviet Union East Germany

197418Varna Bulgaria8 / 6 Soviet Union Japan East Germany

197819Strasbourg France8 / 6 Soviet Union Japan United States

197920Fort Worth United States8 / 6 Soviet Union United States Romania

198121Moscow Soviet Union8 / 6 Soviet Union East Germany China

198322Budapest Hungary8 / 6 Soviet Union China Romania

198523Montreal Canada8 / 6 Soviet Union China East Germany

198724Rotterdam Netherlands8 / 6 Soviet Union Romania China

198925Stuttgart West Germany8 / 6 Soviet Union Romania China

199126Indianapolis United States8 / 6 Soviet Union China Romania

199227Paris France6 / 4 CIS China United States

199328Birmingham Great Britain7 / 5 Belarus United States Romania

199429Brisbane Australia7 / 5 Belarus Romania China

United States

199430Dortmund Germany1 / 1 China

RomaniaN/A Russia

199531Sabae Japan8 / 6 China Ukraine Romania

199632San Juan Puerto Rico6 / 4 Russia Romania Belarus

199733Lausanne Switzerland8 / 6 Romania Russia China

199934Tianjin China8 / 6 Russia China Romania

200135Ghent Belgium8 / 6 Romania Russia Bulgaria

200236Debrecen Hungary6 / 4 Romania China United States

200337Anaheim United States8 / 6 China United States Japan

200538Melbourne Australia7 / 5 United States China Slovenia

200639Aarhus Denmark8 / 6 China Romania Australia

200740Stuttgart Germany8 / 6 China United States Germany

200941London Great Britain7 / 5 China United States Romania

201042Rotterdam Netherlands8 / 6 China Russia United States

201143Tokyo Japan8 / 6 China United States Russia

201344Antwerp Belgium7 / 5 Japan United States China

201445Nanning China8 / 6 United States China North Korea

201546Glasgow Great Britain8 / 6 United States Japan Russia

201747Montreal Canada7 / 5 China Japan Russia

201848Doha Qatar8 / 6 United States China Russia

201949Stuttgart Germany8 / 6 United States Russia Great Britain

202150Kitakyushu Japan7 / 5Future event[6]

202251Liverpool Great Britain8 / 6Future event[7]

202352Antwerp Belgium8 / 6Future event[8]

Note

In 1931, an unofficial edition of the World Championships took place in Paris, France, with the participation of 10 different national federations.[9]

All-time medal table

Last updated after the 2019 World Championships.

Mens events

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal

Womens events

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal

Overall

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal

1 Soviet Union1118659256

2 China825444180

3 United States584739144

4 Japan485067165

5 Romania484542135

6 Russia364336115

7 Czechoslovakia34292083

8 France25302580

9 Switzerland19161550

10 East Germany17132959

11 Yugoslavia1711836

12 Italy14102852

13 Belarus1471132

14 Hungary1115834

15 Bohemia [a]1081028

16 North Korea83314

17 Ukraine7121635

18 Great Britain711927

19 Greece72211

20 Germany691631

21 South Korea62311

22 Netherlands58316

23 Bulgaria561324

24Brazil Brazil55414

25 CIS [c]53513

26 Poland52916

27 Slovenia3407

28 Spain3328

29 Sweden3126

30 Finland2518

West Germany2518

32 Belgium24511

33 Australia24410

34 Uzbekistan1236

35 Croatia1214

36 Austria1113

37 Turkey1102

38 Luxembourg1045

39 Philippines1012

40 Kazakhstan1001

41 Canada06511

42 Cuba0235

43 Israel0224

44 Chinese Taipei0213

Latvia0213

46 Austria-Hungary [b]0112

Mexico0112

48 Armenia0011

Azerbaijan0011

Ireland0011

Puerto Rico0011

Vietnam0011

–Unattached athlete [d]0011

Totals (52 nations)6345755691778

Notes

^[a] Official FIG documents credit medals earned by athletes from Bohemia as medals for Czechoslovakia.

^[b] Official FIG documents credit medals earned by athletes from Austria-Hungary as medals for Yugoslavia.

^[c] Official documents from the International Gymnastics Federation credit medals earned by athletes from former Soviet Union at the 1992 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Paris, France as medals for CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States).[10][11]

^[d] At the 1993 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Birmingham, Great Britain, Azerbaijani-born gymnast Valery Belenky earned a bronze medal competing as an unattached athlete (UNA) because Azerbaijan did not have a gymnastics federation for him to compete. Later, official documents from the International Gymnastics Federation credit his medal as a medal for Germany.[10][11]

Statistics

Multiple gold medalists

Boldface denotes active artistic gymnasts and highest medal count among all artistic gymnasts (including those not included in these tables) per type.

Men

All events

RankArtistic gymnastCountryFromToGoldSilverBronzeTotal

1Vitaly Scherbo Soviet Union

CIS

Belarus19911996127423

2Kōhei Uchimura Japan20092018106521

3Joseph Martinez France19031909101–11

4Yuri Korolyov Soviet Union1981198793113

5Dmitry Bilozerchev Soviet Union1983198784–12

6Li Xiaopeng China1997200582111

7Marian Drăgulescu Romania2001201582–10

8Chen Yibing China200620118––8

9Eizō Kenmotsu Japan1970197975315

10Alexander Dityatin Soviet Union1978198172312

Akinori Nakayama Japan1966197072312

Individual events

RankArtistic gymnastCountryFromToGoldSilverBronzeTotal

1Vitaly Scherbo Soviet Union

CIS

Belarus19911996117422

2Kōhei Uchimura Japan2009201593416

3Marian Drăgulescu Romania2001201582–10

4Dmitry Bilozerchev Soviet Union1983198773–10

5Joseph Martinez France1903190971–8

6Yuri Korolyov Soviet Union198119876219

7Eugen Mack Switzerland193419385319

8Marco Torrès France1909191353–8

9Akinori Nakayama Japan1966197052310

Alexei Nemov Russia1995200352310

Women

Main article: List of top female medalists at major artistic gymnastics events

All events

RankArtistic gymnastCountryFromToGoldSilverBronzeTotal

1Simone Biles United States20132019193325

2Svetlana Khorkina Russia1994200398320

3Larisa Latynina (Diriy) Soviet Union1954196694114

4Gina Gogean Romania1993199792415

5Ludmilla Tourischeva Soviet Union1970197472211

6Daniela Silivaș Romania1985198972110

7Simona Amânar Romania1994199964–10

8Nellie Kim Soviet Union1974197954211

Yelena Shushunova Soviet Union1985198754211

10Lavinia Miloșovici Romania1991199653513

Individual events

RankArtistic gymnastCountryFromToGoldSilverBronzeTotal

1Simone Biles United States20132019153321

2Svetlana Khorkina Russia1994200395216

3Larisa Latynina Soviet Union1958196263110

4Gina Gogean Romania1993199762412

5Daniela Silivaș Romania198519896–17

6Ludmilla Tourischeva Soviet Union197019745229

7Maxi Gnauck East Germany1979198351–6

Shannon Miller United States1991199451–6

9Yelena Shushunova Soviet Union198519874329

10Helena Rakoczy Poland195019544–37

Note

Few non-primary sources state that at the 1938 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, in Prague, Vlasta Děkanová of Czechoslovakia won 2 or 3 golds on multiple apparatuses. According to some sources, Děkanová and her compatriot Matylda Pálfyová shared gold medals in parallel bars (this event was replaced with uneven bars in the womens program at all subsequent world championships), while others state that Pálfyová shared this victory with Polish gymnast Marta Majowska, not Děkanová. The only primary source on the subject, a book officially released by the International Gymnastics Federation containing the results of the World Championships from 1903 to 2005, informs that medals were distributed only in the team all-around event and in the individual all-around event. Therefore, according to official reports, Děkanovás official number of gold medals is four, two in individual all-round (1934 and 1938) and two in team events (1934 and 1938) - not six or seven.[10]

Best results of top nations by event

Mens results

Only nations with medals in five or more events are listed. Positions below third place are not taken into account. Results for Germany and West Germany have been combined.

EventBelgium

BELBelarus

BLRBohemia

BOHBulgaria

BULChina

CHNCommonwealth of Independent States

CISFinland

FINFrance

FRAUnited Kingdom

GBREast Germany

GDRGermany

GERItaly

ITAJapan

JPNRomania

ROURussia

RUSSwitzerland

SUICzechoslovakia

TCHUkraine

UKRSoviet Union

URSUnited States

USASocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

YUG

Team2nd place, silver medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)–1st place, gold medalist(s)–2nd place, silver medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)2nd place, silver medalist(s)2nd place, silver medalist(s)3rd place, bronze medalist(s)3rd place, bronze medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)3rd place, bronze medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)3rd place, bronze medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)2nd place, silver medalist(s)2nd place, silver medalist(s)

Individual all-around2nd place, silver medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)3rd place, bronze medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)–3rd place, bronze medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)2nd place, silver medalist(s)3rd place, bronze medalist(s)2nd place, silver medalist(s)2nd place, silver medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)–1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)3rd place, bronze medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)

Floor exercise–1st place, gold medalist(s)–1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)–2nd place, silver medalist(s)2nd place, silver medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)3rd place, bronze medalist(s)3rd place, bronze medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)

Pommel horse––1st place, gold medalist(s)3rd place, bronze medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)–1st place.