Power Ranking the 25 Best Women's Gymnasts in Olympic History  | Bleacher Report
Power Ranking the 25 Best Women's Gymnasts in Olympic History
Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse the slideshow
Julian Finney/Getty Images
16
Comments
Take a moment and think about the history of gymnastics, the evolution of the sport. What do you see?
I see moments of greatness where gymnasts stood up and tried new impressive skills, where they shocked the crowd with stunning performances, powerful acrobatics and graceful dance moves. 
Women's gymnastics is one of the most-viewed sports in the Olympics , and it's because of the gymnasts who make the show worthwhile.
Here's a look at the 25 female gymnasts who I consider to be the greatest in Olympic history.
There was no set criteria for the rankings; but focus was on not only Olympic medals, but also the gymnast's performance at the Olympics and her impact on the sport as a whole.
Note: It can be argued impossible to compare gymnasts from different eras and to compare specialists with all-arounders, but I looked at what the athletes accomplished as a whole and based the rankings on what they did in relation to their time of competition.
The information regarding medals won was found from the medal databases at Olympic.org .
23. Dominique Dawes, United States
Mike Powell/Getty Images
Nearly everyone remembers Kerri Strug's heroic one-footed vault in the 1996 Olympics which led Team USA to its first team gold medal.
This injury opened the door for her teammate,  Dominique Dawes , to compete in the floor finals, where Dawes took bronze and became the first female African-American to win an individual event medal in gymnastics.
She made history as an African American athlete with that medal: She is the first African-American woman to win an individual Olympic medal in artistic gymnastics, and the first black person of any nationality or gender to win an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics.
Dawes won team medals in all three Olympic Games she participated in—Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000.
Her team finished fourth in the 2000 games, but 10 years later  the International Olympic Committee stripped China of its bronze medal because one of their members was underage. On August 11th, 2010 the IOC awarded Dawes and her teammates from the 2000 Olympics with a team Bronze medal.
22. Aliya Mustafina, Russia
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
It was a long journey for Aliya Mustafina, but the Russian gymnast completed an extraordinary comeback that ended with four medals in the 2012 Olympics—more than any gymnast in the extremely deep field.
She helped Russia to the team silver medal and then tied with Team USA’s Aly Raisman for third place in the all-around, but won the bronze due to a tiebreak rule.
Mustafina finally won her gold medal in the uneven bars finals and finished off with another bronze on the floor exercise.
Mustafina was the gymnast to beat at the 2010 World Championships, where she claimed the all-around gold and a medal in every event but one. She blew out her left ACL at the  2011 European Championships , and it seemed like she wouldn’t be able to compete in London.
Lavinia Milosovici was the last gymnast—along with China's Lu Li—to receive the perfect 10 score in an Olympic competition, on the floor during the 1992 individual event finals.
She can be considered one of Romania's top gymnasts of the 1990's. 
She medaled in every World Championships meet, Olympic Games and European Championships between 1991 and 1996 and is the third female gymnast to win at least one World Championship or Olympic title in all four events.
During the 1992 Olympics, she won the gold medal on floor and vault, silver in the team all-around and bronze in the individual all-around. She took bronzes in the team and individual all-around in the 1996 games.
13. Shannon Miller, United States
Tony Duffy/Getty Images
Shannon Mille r is arguably the most decorated gymnast in U.S. history.
She dominated the gymnastics scene in the early '90s, with seven Olympic medals and nine World Championship medals. 
She earned five medals in the 1992 Olympics, the most of any American athlete at the 1992 Games, and hit all 16 of her routines. Only three American gymnasts have won five medals in a single Olympics (Miller, Mary Lou Retton and Nastia Liukin).
Miller led Team USA to a bronze medal and then earned a silver in the individual all-around, falling short by only .012 to Tatiana Gutsu. The medal result  is still debated today .
She was a member of "The Magnificent Seven," which won the first-ever American team gold medal in 1996.
10. Gabby Douglas, United States
Michael Regan/Getty Images
Gabby Douglas made history as first American woman to win the individual and team all-around gold medal in the London 2012 Olympics, and she became the first African-American to win the all-around.
She may have fallen short during the individual event finals, but her two golds are what will be remembered.
Her legacy is fresh, but Douglas’ success will inspire millions of young girls around the world, African-American and others. People are going to look at her every morning while eating their Kellogg’s cereal and they will be inspired by her strength, success and focus.
5. Olga Korbut, Soviet Union
Getty Images/Getty Images
Olga Korbut makes the top five for popularizing and redefining artistic gymnastics.
She was not considered the top gymnast on the USSR team in 1972, but she stole the show with a move on the uneven bars where she did a standing back flip to catch the bars.
Korbut won the silver medal on bars and gold on beam and floor.
The uneven bars move that made her famous is no longer a recognized skill on the apparatus.
Her Olympic debut was so memorable that it caused many young girls to take up gymnastics. Her focus on acrobatics rather than elegance revolutionized how athletes performed their routines. 
Tweet
Larissa Latynina , a two-time Olympic (1956, 1960) all-around champion, ranks second among Olympians of all sports with 18 career medals. Latynina—who held the record for several decades until Michael Phelps broke it during the 2012 Games—owns nine gold medals, five silver and four bronze.
She was known for graceful movements on floor exercise, where she won three consecutive Olympic gold medals (1956, 1960 and 1964).
As written in the New York Times:
As a gymnast, Latynina performed with a dancer’s erect posture and classic lines. Her personality was commanding. She was beautiful and unwavering in the consistency of her routines. The Soviets were dominant, and no one was more accomplished than Latynina. It was a different sport, less demanding but more elegant. Women’s gymnastics was actually performed by women instead of girls.
Looking at her gymnastics skills, Vera Čáslavská is deserving of the No. 2 slot. Her attitude could be reason enough to lower her, but she will stay in second.
Čáslavská won a total of seven golds and four silvers between 1960 and 1968.
In 1960, she won silver in the team event, and in 1964 she broke free and won gold in in the all-around, vault and balance beam; and silver in the team event.
In 1968, she won gold in the all-around, vault, uneven bars and floor exercise, and took silver in the balance beam and team competition.
She is one of only two female gymnasts to win back-to-back all-around titles.
Čáslavská was very  outspoken  in her views about Soviet-style communism during the 1968 Olympics.
It looked like she won the gold on the floor exercise, but the judges changed Soviet Larisa Petrk's score and there was a tie for gold. Čáslavská also lost the gold on the beam to Natalia Kuchinskaya.
She protested both medal ceremonies by turning her head down and away during the playing of the Soviet national anthem.
Getty Images/Getty Images
Simply put, Nadia Comaneci eternally captured the Olympic gymnastics world.
The history of the sport could be split into B.N. and A.N. for Before Nadia and after Nadia.
She is best known for scoring the first ever perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics when she was only 14 years old. It was on the uneven bars during the team competition of the 1976 Olympics.
At those Games, she won gold in the all-around, uneven bars and balance beam, silver in the team competition and bronze on the floor exercise.
In 1980, she won gold on the balance beam and floor exercise, while winning silver in the team competition and all-around.
Comaneci was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame and received the Olympic Order, the highest award given by the International Olympic Committee.