Analysis Reveals Larissa Latynina Has a Beforehand Unknown Medal Which Places Her Forward of Simone Biles within the All-Time Medal Rankings – An Previous College Gymnastics Weblog

It has been found that on the 1954 World Championships medals have been awarded in a beforehand unknown seventh occasion. Gymnasts who received on this explicit occasion have had their medal wrongly omitted from their aggressive resumes for many years. One of many gymnasts impacted by this was Larissa Latynina.

Larissa Latynina is probably the most embellished Olympic athlete in ladies’s inventive gymnastics (WAG). With 18 medals on the Olympics Latynina ranks #1 on the all-time medals listing in Olympic WAG. On the World Championships Latynina has 14 medals which locations her #4 within the rankings for many medals on the World Championships in WAG.

Simone Biles at present has 25 medals on the World Championships which locations her #1 within the rankings for WAG. On the Olympics Biles has 7 medals which places her at #9 within the Olympic medal rankings for WAG.

The maths is easy:

Larissa Latynina: 18 + 14 = 32 medals
Simone Biles: 25 + 7 = 32 medals

Latynina is probably the most embellished gymnast on the Olympics whereas Biles is probably the most embellished gymnast on the World Championships. However when their medals are mixed, they’re mockingly in a useless tie.

That was till now when new data surfaced that Latynina has a beforehand uncounted additional medal on the 1954 World Championships. This could give her 15 profession medals on the World Championships and enhance Latynina’s tally to 33 profession medals. Thus giving her the lead over Simone Biles within the all-time medal rankings by only a single medal.

The medal in query got here in an occasion referred to as Staff Transportable Equipment or “Staff-PA” that has since been discontinued. This occasion was contested at each the 1952 and 1956 Olympics and gymnasts have formally acknowledged medals from these Olympic Video games in Staff-PA. This contains Larissa Latynina who has an Olympic medal in Staff-PA in 1956 and it’s one in all her 18 profession Olympic medals.

On the time the World Championships was held solely as soon as each 4 years. Within the Nineteen Fifties the World Championships have been held solely within the years 1950, 1954, and 1958. Gymnastics historical past aficionados who monitor the Nineteen Fifties have lengthy been fascinated with a selected query. If Olympic WAG had medals in Staff-PA on the Olympics in each 1952 and 1956, what in regards to the World Championships in 1954? It by no means made sense that the Olympics would have 7-medals in WAG for 1952 and 1956, whereas the World Championships seemingly solely had 6-medals in 1954.

It has all the time been identified that Staff-PA occasions have been held on the 1954 World Championships and the ensuing scores have been even recorded within the official document e book. Staff-PA scores have been even used to calculate the ultimate standings within the conventional crew competitors. The supply of the confusion was how these scores have been used for awarding medals in different occasions. Previous to the late Nineteen Sixties totally different gymnastics occasions have been contested concurrently.

Within the trendy period totally different gymnastics occasions are contested one by one and a gymnast should repeat her routines every time if she desires to win medals within the crew competitors, all-around, and uneven bars. This was not how issues have been performed previous to the 1968 Olympics. There have been no Occasion Finals or All-Round Finals again then. As a substitute, the gymnasts with the very best scores in these occasions have been awarded medals based mostly on their performances within the crew competitors.

Gymnastics was compelled to abolish this ruleset after the IOC objected to the idea that gymnasts might win a number of medals without delay.

This outdated format is why the 1954 World Championships has All-Round standings from 1st place to 126th place. There was no top-36 or top-24 again then. Within the Nineteen Fifties and Nineteen Sixties All-Round standings have been capable of rank all gymnasts in attendance as a result of there was no such factor as a “finalist” within the particular person occasions. The query was, when gymnasts competed on the 1954 World Championships, did they log routines with one crew medal at stake, or was there a second crew medal at stake within the Staff-PA class?

The reply to the long-running query of the 1954 World Championships and Staff-PA was lastly solved by Gymnastics-Historical past* which is run by the broadly well-liked and extremely revered gymnastics commentator referred to as “Uncle Tim.”

*Observe: To keep away from confusion, there are two web sites referred to as “Gymnastics Historical past.” There’s gymnasticshistory.co.uk which covers British historical past, and gymnastics-history.com which is run by Uncle Tim. Up to now I’ve referenced the superb work of each web sites on TMC.

Uncle Tim at present has a collection on his web site the place he’s going although all the assorted gymnastics competitions of the previous utilizing solely probably the most official sources he can discover akin to newspaper protection from the time interval, official occasion rule books, and FIG paperwork to recap the competitions utilizing major sources from the period.

As a part of his course of Uncle Tim locates such paperwork in Europe, ships them to the US, after which interprets them. The method of discovering and transport such materials comes at nice private expense and is a time consuming affair which is why I encourage TMC readers to assist Uncle Tim’s work and contribute to his donations web page to assist him proceed it.

In February Uncle Tim accomplished his analysis on the 1950 World Championships* and wrote a number of articles on that individual competitors. Amongst Uncle Tim’s revelations was he was capable of verify that just like the 1952 and 1956 Olympics, the 1950 World Championships had a separate crew medal for Staff-PA. In 1950 Sweden had taken gold, the silver went to Yugoslavia, whereas the bronze medal had gone to France. Up till then these medals had not been correctly credited to the gymnasts who received them.

*Uncle Tim wrote six (!!!) articles on the 1950 World Championships. The hyperlinks to them may be discovered right here.

By this level each different competitors of the period had affirmation relating to the standing of Staff-PA. It was confirmed for the years 1950, 1952, and 1956. It was all however sure that it could be true for 1954 as properly. It was roughly a month in the past that Uncle Tim tracked down a rule e book from the 1954 World Championships and it was final week that it lastly arrived within the mail. Whereas Uncle Tim has not but printed his collection on the 1954 World Championships, he did message me the small print of what he discovered.*

*I have to emphasize that 100% of the credit score for this text goes to Uncle Tim because it was completely his analysis that made this discovery doable, and he was variety sufficient to let me reveal particulars of what he discovered. Uncle Tim supplied to uploaded a duplicate of the 1954 French rule e book so TMC readers can learn it for themselves. The rulebook may be discovered right here.

The contents of the rulebook clearly point out that Staff-PA had its personal awards. That means just like the 1950 World Championships, the 1952 Olympics and the 1956 Olympics, the 1954 World Championships awarded medals in two totally different crew occasions in WAG. Medals have been awarded based mostly on who received the normal crew occasion, and a separate medal was awarded for reaching the very best scores in Staff-PA.

Staff-PA was successfully the identical factor as group rhythmic gymnastics. Whereas in the present day rhythmic gymnastics, ladies’s inventive gymnastics, and males’s inventive gymnastics are three separate sports activities with three separate swimming pools of athletes, this wasn’t the case within the early Nineteen Fifties. Within the Forties and early Nineteen Fifties not solely did feminine gymnasts compete on the 4 commonplace occasions, (vault, uneven bars, stability beam, and ground train), additionally they skilled on occasions akin to excessive bar, pommel horse, rings, and parallel bars. Occasions that in the present day are actually unique to males’s gymnastics. On high of that, they competed in Staff-PA which was an identical in idea to trendy rhythmic gymnastics.

Within the trendy period males’s inventive gymnastics, ladies’s inventive gymnastics, and rhythmic gymnastics are the three most high-profile disciplines in FIG. However for the early years of Latynina’s profession she and her era needed to carry out occasions in all three of those disciplines.

The large information story is that Larissa Latynina does have a beforehand uncounted medal that may permit her to surpass Simone Biles. However this was a crew occasion. In 1954 international locations had groups of eight which implies 24 whole gymnasts have a gold, silver, or bronze medal that’s lacking from their official tally.

Altering medal outcomes from the 1950 World Championships would have solely a minor affect on the WAG document e book as a result of nearly all the high gymnasts have been absent from this competitors. However 1954 was totally different.

Larissa Latynina is under no circumstances the one gymnast who must have her official medal tally elevated by a single medal. The truth is, she isn’t even the one Corridor of Fame gymnast who’s impacted by Staff-PA outcomes on the 1954 World Championships. Gymnasts on the all-time Olympic medals listing ranked #1 (Latynina), #3 (Agnes Keleti), #7 (Sofia Muratova), #15 (Olga Tass), #15 (Tamara Manina) and #23 (Erzsebet Gulyas) all have lacking Staff-PA medals from 1954.

Not solely will Latynina surpass Simone Biles within the all-time medal rankings, Nastia Liukin will probably be surpassed by Tamara Manina and Nadia Comaneci will probably be surpassed by Agnes Keleti. It’s the most important overhauls to the all-time medals listing that WAG will ever expertise. The 24 gymnasts of 1954 are as adopted:

Hungary (Gold Medal): Edit Perenyi, Erzsebet Gulyas, Alice Kertesz, Eva Banati, Ilona Banhegyi, Olga Tass, Laszlone Daruhazi, Agnes Keleti

Soviet Union (Silver Medal): Galina Shamrai, Nina Bocharova, Maria Gorokhovskaya, Galina Minaicheva, Larissa Latynina, Tamara Manina, Pelageya Danilova, Sofia Muratova

Sweden (Bronze Medal): Evy Berggren, Ann-Sofi Pettersson, Hjordis Nordin, Karin Lindberg, Gunbritt Broman, Vanja Blomberg, Eva Ronstrom, Doris Hedberg

These gymnasts lived very lengthy lives. A lot of them are nonetheless alive and properly. Most notably Larissa Latynina (age 87) and Agnes Keleti (age 101) who nonetheless operate as public figures of their respective international locations. Lots of the others handed away solely very just lately together with Evy Berggren (December 2018), Erzsebet Gulyas (June 2019), Edit Perenyi (December 2019), Olga Tass (July 2020), Nina Bocharova (August 2020), Karin Lindberg (December 2020), Eva Ronstrom (October 2021), and Galina Shamrai (February 2022).

Despite the fact that lots of the gymnasts concerned on this occasion have been nonetheless alive to inform their story, their accomplishments and ensuing Staff-PA medals nonetheless appeared to have been collectively forgotten.

It was by no means supposed for Larissa Latynina’s Staff-PA medal on the 1954 World Championships to be the medal that units her other than Simone Biles. Hypothesis throughout the gymnastics neighborhood over the lacking Staff-PA medals from the 1950 and 1954 World Championships predates the profession of Simone Biles. It was one of many nice gymnastics mysteries that has lastly been solved. Nor did gymnastics followers ever anticipate Simone Biles and Larissa Latynina to seek out themselves in a tie for whole medals.

Biles was anticipated to surpass Latynina in all-time medals by a snug margin on the Tokyo-2021 Olympics. However when Biles was compelled to withdraw on most of her occasions throughout Tokyo-2021, the unlikely outcome produced a tie for first place on the all-time medal rankings that nobody anticipated to occur. Earlier than final yr the opportunity of Latynina having a beforehand unknown thirty third medal had no bearing on who could be probably the most embellished gymnast within the historical past of the game.

It must be identified that Simone continues to be technically the medal chief (32 vs 31) within the six conventional occasions (crew, all-around, vault, bars, beam, and ground). It could nonetheless be correct to name Simone Biles the all-time medal chief in the usual gymnastics occasions. However in Latynina’s protection, it’s arduous to justify not counting 1954 Staff-PA as a real medal when this exact same occasion is handled as a reputable medal at each the 1952 and 1956 Olympics.

As issues stand now, crediting Latynina with solely 32 medals creates a contradiction the place a discontinued occasion is formally counted on the Olympics, however not the World Championships from the exact same Olympic quad. For the sake of consistency, Latynina must be credited with both 31 or 33 medals. However to credit score Latynina with solely 31 medals is problematic as a result of it entails rewriting the Olympic document e book and discounting an official Olympic medal. Which is why even probably the most fervent supporters of Simone Biles would discover it extra cheap to change our interpretation of the 1954 World Championships to keep up consistency with the Olympics versus doing issues the opposite method round.

It’s inevitable that readers responding to this story will spotlight the absurdity of Latynina with the ability to depend a discontinued occasion, that she had seven possibilities to medal in a single competitors, and there was no such factor as an All-Round Finals or Occasion Finals in her period. These have been all large benefits that Latynina had in her period and are reputable arguments to make whereas defending Simone Biles.

Nevertheless it must also be famous that Simone Biles has a large benefit of her personal. Latynina competed in an period the place the World Championships have been held simply 1x each 4 years. Biles competes in an period the place this competitors is held 3x each 4 years. The World Championships didn’t begin being held with such frequency till 1991. Of the six gymnasts with 12 or extra medals on the World Championships, Larissa Latynina is the one one who predates the Nineties.

How a lot did this harm Latynina’s medal tally? Again in 2019 I wrote an article attempting to reply this very query and concluded it costed Latynina dozens of medals over the course of her profession. Latynina might have completed someplace between 56 and 63 whole medals had there been a World Championships in 1953, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, and 1965.

No matter whether or not Larissa Latynina has 33 or 32 medals, no matter whether or not Simone ranks #1 or #2 on the all-time medals listing, this may do little to undercut Biles’ standing because the gymnast most individuals choose for the best of all-time. The one distinction this story actually makes is who’s technically the medal chief in WAG historical past. And whereas this text covers the dynamic between Simone Biles and Larissa Latynina, the revelation relating to Staff-PA unveils dozens of gymnasts from 1950 and 1954 who need to have yet another medal listed on their official medal tally.