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 had been awarded in a beforehand unknown seventh occasion. Gymnasts who gained 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 adorned Olympic athlete in girls’s creative 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 presently 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 adorned gymnast on the Olympics whereas Biles is probably the most adorned gymnast on the World Championships. However when their medals are mixed, they’re satirically in a lifeless tie.

That was till now when new data surfaced that Latynina has a beforehand uncounted further medal on the 1954 World Championships. This may 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 generally known as Group Transportable Equipment or “Group-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 Group-PA. This consists of Larissa Latynina who has an Olympic medal in Group-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 Fifties the World Championships had been held solely within the years 1950, 1954, and 1958. Gymnastics historical past aficionados who observe the Fifties have lengthy been fascinated with a selected query. If Olympic WAG had medals in Group-PA on the Olympics in each 1952 and 1956, what concerning 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 recognized that Group-PA occasions had been held on the 1954 World Championships and the ensuing scores had been even recorded within the official document e book. Group-PA scores had been even used to calculate the ultimate standings within the conventional staff competitors. The supply of the confusion was how these scores had been used for awarding medals in different occasions. Previous to the late Nineteen Sixties totally different gymnastics occasions had 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 staff competitors, all-around, and uneven bars. This was not how issues had been completed previous to the 1968 Olympics. There have been no Occasion Finals or All-Round Finals again then. As an alternative, the gymnasts with the best scores in these occasions had been awarded medals primarily based on their performances within the staff competitors.

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

This previous 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 Fifties and Nineteen Sixties All-Round standings had been in a position to 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 staff medal at stake, or was there a second staff medal at stake within the Group-PA class?

The reply to the long-running query of the 1954 World Championships and Group-PA was lastly solved by Gymnastics-Historical past* which is run by the extensively standard and extremely revered gymnastics commentator generally known as “Uncle Tim.”

*Word: To keep away from confusion, there are two web sites generally known as “Gymnastics Historical past.” There may be gymnasticshistory.co.uk which covers British historical past, and gymnastics-history.com which is run by Uncle Tim. Previously I’ve referenced the wonderful work of each web sites on TMC.

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

As a part of his course of Uncle Tim locates such paperwork in Europe, ships them to the USA, 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 in a position to verify that just like the 1952 and 1956 Olympics, the 1950 World Championships had a separate staff medal for Group-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 gained them.

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

By this level each different competitors of the period had affirmation concerning the standing of Group-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 solely 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 will be discovered right here.

The contents of the rulebook clearly point out that Group-PA had its personal awards. Which means just like the 1950 World Championships, the 1952 Olympics and the 1956 Olympics, the 1954 World Championships awarded medals in two totally different staff occasions in WAG. Medals had been awarded primarily based on who gained the normal staff occasion, and a separate medal was awarded for attaining the best scores in Group-PA.

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

Within the trendy period males’s creative gymnastics, girls’s creative 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 technology 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 staff 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 influence on the WAG document e book as a result of just about the entire prime gymnasts had been absent from this competitors. However 1954 was totally different.

Larissa Latynina is on no account the one gymnast who must have her official medal tally elevated by a single medal. In truth, she isn’t even the one Corridor of Fame gymnast who’s impacted by Group-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 Group-PA medals from 1954.

Not solely will Latynina surpass Simone Biles within the all-time medal rankings, Nastia Liukin shall be surpassed by Tamara Manina and Nadia Comaneci shall 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 perform as public figures of their respective international locations. Most of the others handed away solely very 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).

Although lots of the gymnasts concerned on this occasion had been nonetheless alive to inform their story, their accomplishments and ensuing Group-PA medals nonetheless appeared to have been collectively forgotten.

It was by no means supposed for Larissa Latynina’s Group-PA medal on the 1954 World Championships to be the medal that units her aside from Simone Biles. Hypothesis throughout the gymnastics neighborhood over the lacking Group-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 count on Simone Biles and Larissa Latynina to search out themselves in a tie for whole medals.

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

It needs to be identified that Simone continues to be technically the medal chief (32 vs 31) within the six conventional occasions (staff, all-around, vault, bars, beam, and ground). It might nonetheless be correct to name Simone Biles the all-time medal chief in the usual gymnastics occasions. However in Latynina’s protection, it’s exhausting to justify not counting 1954 Group-PA as a real medal when this exact same occasion is handled as a authentic 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 needs to 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 take care of consistency with the Olympics versus doing issues the opposite manner 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 had been all big benefits that Latynina had in her period and are authentic arguments to make whereas defending Simone Biles.

But it surely also needs to be famous that Simone Biles has an enormous benefit of her personal. Latynina competed in an period the place the World Championships had 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 making an attempt 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, it will 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 concerning Group-PA unveils dozens of gymnasts from 1950 and 1954 who need to have yet another medal listed on their official medal tally.