Records Larysa Latynina

Larysa Latynina holds more Olympic medals than any other competitor, male or female, in any sport and was responsible for establishing the Soviet Union as the dominant force in gymnastics.

Between 1956 in Melbourne and 1964 in Tokyo, Latynina collected a record tally of 18 medals, including nine golds. Her total of 14 medals in individual events is also an Olympic record.

Graceful and stylish, Latynina revolutionized her sport, which had only been introduced in its modern format in 1952.

Her fluid movements took the floor exercises discipline, in which she won three of her golds, to new heights of artistic agility.

Yet Latynina's success, and her extraordinary longevity in a discipline that has become a byword for teenage burnout, was principally due to a Stakhanovite dedication forged by her early experiences growing up in the Ukraine during the famine of the 1930s and World War II.

"I learned a very great truth in my difficult childhood," said Latynina, an obsessive perfectionist.

"Good never comes on a silver platter, while talent is primarily perseverance and hard work."

Latynina took up ballet at the age of 11, progressing to gymnastics during her teens, but she didn't make her international debut until the world championships in 1954, finishing a lackluster 14th.

Self-improvement Far from demoralized, she embarked on an austere program of self-improvement that would transform her, two years later, into the greatest gymnast in the world.

In Melbourne, she finished first in the all-round event, in the floor exercises and on the vault and also led the Soviet Union to gold in the team event. She also won on the uneven bars.

Four years later in Rome she retained her all-round and floor exercises titles and again picked up a team gold, collecting silver on the uneven bars and on the balance beam.

She claimed her third floor exercises gold in Tokyo in 1964, along with another team title, but lost her all-round title to rising Czech star Vera Caslavska, who was almost eight years her junior.

Latynina's career played out in parallel with her Ukrainian rival Polina Astakhova, a five-time gold medallist, with the pair driving each other to greater heights of achievement.

Latynina retired in 1966, but her influence on Soviet gymnastics continued in a coaching role until 1977.

Legends: Mark Spitz

In the Olympics of 1972 the swimming pool belonged to one man whose drive, ambition and sheer single-mindedness propelled him to a record medal haul.

At Munich, the 22-year-old American Mark Spitz set out in a quest to win seven gold medals. Eight days later he was celebrating a clean sweep.

He had won two golds, a silver and bronze four years earlier in Mexico but that proved to be just a taster of what this phenomenal swimmer could achieve.

For the record, Spitz took gold in the 100 and 200m freestyle, the 100 and 200m butterfly, the 4x100 and 4x200 freestyle relays and the 4x100 medley relay.

As a youngster, Spitz's father had prophetically told him that 'swimming isn't everything - winning is'.

In 1972, despite an exhausting programme of 13 races in a little over a week, Spitz kept on winning and winning.

Memorable Olympic Moment Nadia Comaneci

Romania's Nadia Comaneci was the star of the Montreal Olympics in 1976 when she became the first gymnast in Olympic history to be awarded the perfect score of 10.0. ABC Television set her performance to music, using a theme from a popular American soap opera, and the song was eventually renamed "Nadia's Theme".

Comaneci first achieved her perfect 10 on the uneven parallel bars in 1976 and the judges awarded her the maximum mark seven times during the Games. Comaneci first came to prominence at the 1975 European Championships, at which she won four gold medals. In the 1976 and 1980 Games she won a total of nine Olympic medals.

Following the 1980 Games, natural physical development began to inhibit her performance and after a victory at the 1981 World Student Games she retired. Strangely, Comaneci won only one individual World Championship title- on the balance beam in 1978. In 1989, she defected from Romania and settled in North America. She has since married American Olympic gymnastic medallist Bart Conner.

Together they perform in gymnastics exhibitions and give clinics. Comaneci was training with the Károlyis by the time she was 7 years old, in 1969. She was one of the first students at the gymnastics school established in Onesti by Béla and his wife, Marta, who would later defect to the United States and become coaches of many prominent American gymnasts. Unlike many of the other students at the Károlyi school, Comaneci was able to commute from home for many years because she lived in the area. Comaneci placed 13th in her first Romanian National Championships in 1969.

A year later, in 1970, she began competing as a member of her hometown team and 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 additional dual meets with nearby countries such as Hungary, Italy and Poland. 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 meet for junior gymnasts.

Comaneci's first major international success came at the age of 13, when she nearly swept the 1975 European Championships in Skien, Norway, winning the all-around and gold medals on every event but the floor exercise, in which she placed second. She continued to enjoy success in other meets in 1975, 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, Comaneci won the all-around and the balance beam golds, as well as silvers in the vault, floor, and bars behind accomplished Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim, who would prove to be one of her greatest rivals over the next five years. In March 1976, Comaneci competed in the inaugural edition of the American Cup at Madison Square Garden in New York.

She received unprecedented scores of 10.0, which signified a perfect routine without any deductions, on vault in both the preliminary and final rounds of competition and won the all-around. Comaneci also received 10s in other meets in 1976, including the prestigious Chunichi Cup competition in Japan, where she posted perfect marks on the vault and uneven bars. The international community took note of Comaneci: she was named the United Press International's "Female Athlete of the Year" for 1975