Larisa Latynina

Larisa Latynina was born in Kherson, in what was then Soviet Ukraine, and was still a small child when the Second World War reached the region. Her father was killed fighting at the front, and her mother worked long hours to support the family through the occupation and its aftermath. She turned first to ballet, but the local school closed and she moved into gymnastics instead, training in conditions that were basic even by the standards of postwar Soviet sport.

Her talent carried her quickly through the Soviet system, and she made her Olympic debut at the 1956 Melbourne Games, winning six medals including individual all-around gold. She repeated the all-around title in Rome in 1960 and added more medals in Tokyo in 1964, competing at three consecutive Olympics through her twenties while also raising a young daughter.

By the end of her career she had won 18 Olympic medals in total, nine of them gold, a record for the most Olympic medals won by any athlete in any sport that stood for nearly half a century until it was surpassed by the swimmer Michael Phelps. Her total in gymnastics specifically remains unmatched.

After retiring she became head coach of the Soviet women's gymnastics team through several more Olympic cycles and remained a central figure in the sport's international federation for decades, an authority whose own career had begun in the rubble of a besieged wartime childhood.