Best Gymnasts in the World: All-Time and Modern Era Rankings
On this page12
- 01Simone Biles (USA)
- 02Kohei Uchimura (Japan)
- 03Larisa Latynina (Soviet Union)
- 04Nadia Comaneci (Romania)
- 05Vitaly Scherbo (Unified Team/Belarus)
- 06Rebeca Andrade (Brazil)
- 07Daiki Hashimoto (Japan)
- 08How we ranked the best gymnasts
- 09How gymnastics is scored
- 10Why cross-era comparison is hard
- 11Top gymnasts at a glance
- 12The current era: 2024 and beyond
Ranked by sustained all-around dominance across multiple Olympic cycles first, then by records that reset the sport (perfect 10s, career medal counts, original skills) and results delivered under the highest pressure. A single Games haul counts, but it is weighed below gymnasts who stayed on top while rivals studied and chased them.
- Most decorated ever
Simone Biles (USA)
Biles owns the two numbers the rest of this list is measured against: 30 World Championship medals (23 gold) and 11 Olympic medals (7 gold), the most of any gymnast, man or woman. Multiple original elements across vault, beam and floor carry her name in the Code of Points, meaning she competed skills no one had landed before.
She ranks above the male greats below her not on medal math alone but on difficulty distance: at her peak the gap between Biles and the field was the widest any gymnast has held in the scoring era. After withdrawing from most of Tokyo 2020 with the "twisties," she returned at Paris 2024 to win team, all-around and vault gold — a comeback that settled the greatest-ever debate rather than reopening it.
Country: USA · Discipline: women's all-around · Career hardware: 30 World + 11 Olympic medals · Defining edge: skills named after her on three apparatus
- Greatest male gymnast
Kohei Uchimura (Japan)
Uchimura won every Olympic and World all-around title available from 2009 to 2016 — six straight World all-around golds from 2009 to 2015, a record no gymnast of either sex has approached, plus back-to-back Olympic all-around crowns in 2012 and 2016. He was the first man in 44 years to repeat as Olympic all-around champion.
He sits above Latynina and Comaneci here because his dominance ran through the modern six-apparatus format and the harder open-ended Code of Points, where hiding a weak event is impossible. Rivals and coaches treated his execution, not just his medal count, as the benchmark. He retired in 2022 with 21 World Championship medals.
Country: Japan · Discipline: men's all-around · Streak: 6 consecutive World all-around titles · Olympics: all-around gold 2012 & 2016
- Career medal record
Larisa Latynina (Soviet Union)
Latynina won 18 Olympic medals across the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Games — the most by any gymnast, and a total that stood as the all-time record across every Olympic sport for 48 years until swimmer Michael Phelps passed it in 2012. Nine of the 18 were gold.
She ranks just below Uchimura because she competed before the open-ended scoring era raised the technical ceiling, but her longevity is the harder feat to dismiss: medaling at three separate Olympics in a sport built on split-second landings, while also winning the individual all-around at two straight Games.
Country: Soviet Union · Discipline: women's all-around · Record: 18 Olympic medals (9 gold) · Span: three Olympic Games, 1956–1964
- Changed the scoring
Nadia Comaneci (Romania)
Comaneci scored the first perfect 10.0 in Olympic history at the 1976 Montreal Games, on the uneven bars. The scoreboards were not built to display a 10, so hers read 1.00. She earned seven perfect 10s at those Games and left with three golds, including the individual all-around at age 14.
She places behind Latynina on career volume — five Olympic golds across 1976 and 1980 — but her impact on the sport is arguably larger than anyone's below Biles: the 10.0 barrier she broke reset what judges and coaches demanded from a routine for a generation.
Country: Romania · Discipline: women's all-around · Milestone: first Olympic perfect 10.0 (1976) · Haul: 5 Olympic golds, 1976 & 1980
- Single-Games record
Vitaly Scherbo (Unified Team/Belarus)
Scherbo won six gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics — four of them on a single day — the largest one-Games gold haul in gymnastics history. He built it across individual apparatus and the all-around, not by leaning on a team result.
He ranks below the all-around dynasties above him because his peak was concentrated rather than sustained: injuries and a car accident cut into his prime, and he never repeated the Barcelona run. But no gymnast has matched that six-gold week, which is why he clears the modern-era names that follow.
Country: Unified Team / Belarus · Discipline: men's all-around · Record: 6 golds at one Olympics (1992) · Note: four golds in a single day
- Modern great
Rebeca Andrade (Brazil)
Andrade became the first gymnast to beat Simone Biles in a floor final at a major championship, scoring 14.166 to edge Biles by 0.033 at Paris 2024. She left Paris with four medals — floor gold plus all-around and vault silver and a team medal — making her Brazil's most decorated Olympian.
She ranks ahead of Hashimoto among the active names because she has pushed Biles directly in head-to-head finals rather than winning in her absence. Coming back from three ACL surgeries to reach that level is the detail that separates her career arc from almost everyone here.
Country: Brazil · Discipline: women's all-around · Paris 2024: floor gold, 3 more medals · Milestone: first to beat Biles in a floor final
- Current all-around champion
Daiki Hashimoto (Japan)
Hashimoto won the Olympic men's all-around gold at Tokyo 2020 at age 19, then anchored Japan's comeback for team gold at Paris 2024. He is the through-line of Japan's post-Uchimura era, carrying its all-around tradition into the current cycle.
He rounds out the ranking rather than climbing higher because his individual reign has been brief: at Paris 2024 a pommel horse fall cost him the all-around title, which passed to teammate Shinnosuke Oka. With a Los Angeles 2028 run ahead, his placement here is the one most likely to move.
Country: Japan · Discipline: men's all-around · Peak: Tokyo 2020 all-around gold · Paris 2024: team gold, lost all-around title to Shinnosuke Oka
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- Simone Biles (USA)
- Kohei Uchimura (Japan)
- Larisa Latynina (Soviet Union)
- Nadia Comaneci (Romania)
- Vitaly Scherbo (Unified Team/Belarus)
- Rebeca Andrade (Brazil)
- Daiki Hashimoto (Japan)
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How everyone ranked them
Built from reader rankings using position-based points.
A gymnast gets one shot at a routine, ninety seconds at most, and a single wobble on landing can undo four years of training. That is why the same handful of names dominate every all-time list. The cards above rank them; the sections below explain how we weighed them, how the sport is judged, and why cross-era comparison is so hard.
How we ranked the best gymnasts
Placement rewards sustained all-around dominance first. Winning once takes talent; staying on top across four or more years of World Championships and Olympic Games — while every rival studies your routines and chases your difficulty — is far rarer, and it is what separates the top of this list from a one-Games standout.
After dominance, we weighed three things: records that reset the sport (a first perfect 10, a career medal count no one has passed, original skills entered into the Code of Points), results delivered under maximum pressure, and margin over the field in each gymnast’s own era. Where two careers were close, head-to-head results and longevity across cycles broke the tie — which is why a concentrated six-gold Games ranks below a seven-year all-around reign.
How gymnastics is scored
Judges evaluate two components. A difficulty score (the D-score) adds up the value of the skills a gymnast attempts and is open-ended — there is no ceiling. An execution score (the E-score) starts at a perfect 10 and deducts for form, wobbles, steps on landing and technical errors. The two are combined for the total, which is why raising difficulty only pays off if execution stays clean.
Women compete four apparatus — vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise — while men compete six, adding pommel horse and rings to floor, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar. The all-around combines every apparatus and is treated as the ultimate individual honor because it rewards range, not a single specialty. Sustaining all-around dominance is hard precisely because each apparatus rewards a different physical profile.
Why cross-era comparison is hard
The scoring system Comaneci and Latynina competed under capped every routine at a perfect 10.0. That system was scrapped in the mid-2000s for the open-ended Code of Points used today, where difficulty can climb without limit. A floor routine that won Olympic gold in 1996 might not qualify for an event final now.
That break makes raw scores meaningless across eras, so the ranking above leans on relative dominance — how far ahead of their contemporaries each gymnast finished — rather than comparing numbers that were never measured the same way. For the women’s side in depth, see our fuller list of the greatest female gymnasts of all time.
Top gymnasts at a glance
| Gymnast | Country | Discipline | Signature credential |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simone Biles | USA | Women’s all-around | Most decorated ever: 30 World + 11 Olympic medals |
| Kohei Uchimura | Japan | Men’s all-around | Every all-around title on offer, 2009–2016 |
| Larisa Latynina | Soviet Union | Women’s all-around | 18 Olympic medals, most by any gymnast |
| Nadia Comaneci | Romania | Women’s all-around | First Olympic perfect 10.0 (1976) |
| Vitaly Scherbo | Unified Team/Belarus | Men’s all-around | Six golds at a single Olympics (1992) |
| Rebeca Andrade | Brazil | Women’s all-around | Paris 2024 floor gold; Brazil’s most decorated Olympian |
| Daiki Hashimoto | Japan | Men’s all-around | Tokyo 2020 all-around gold; Paris 2024 team gold |
The current era: 2024 and beyond
Difficulty scores keep climbing, and the modern era already has its own settled names. Biles and Andrade turned the Paris 2024 floor final into the closest marquee showdown the sport has produced in years, decided by 0.033 of a point. On the men’s side, Japan’s grip on the all-around passed from Hashimoto to Shinnosuke Oka within the same Games, keeping the country’s post-Uchimura dynasty intact.
Chinese, Japanese, American and Brazilian gymnasts continue to trade event-final titles at World Championships between Olympics, and the Los Angeles 2028 cycle will test whether any newcomer can build the multi-cycle dominance the top of this ranking demands. For the wider context of career medal hauls, see our look at the most decorated Olympian across all sports, and for lighter fare around the Games, the best Olympic theme songs.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Simone Biles ranked above the greatest male gymnasts?+
Placement here rewards the widest margin over a gymnast's field, and Biles held a larger scoring gap over her rivals than any man managed over his. She also has more combined World and Olympic medals than any gymnast of either sex — 41 in total — and multiple named skills. Uchimura's all-around sweep is close, but his winning margins were tighter, which is why he sits second.
How do you compare gymnasts from different eras fairly?+
You cannot do it cleanly, because the rules changed. The perfect-10 system Comaneci and Latynina competed under was replaced in the mid-2000s by an open-ended Code of Points that rewards ever-higher difficulty. A routine that won gold in 1976 would not reach an event final today. That is why this ranking weighs dominance relative to each gymnast's own era — how far ahead of contemporaries they were — rather than raw scores across time.
Who is the greatest male gymnast, Uchimura or Scherbo?+
Uchimura, by a clear margin on this list. Scherbo's six golds at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics are the best single-Games haul in history, but that peak was concentrated in one week. Uchimura sustained the top of the sport for roughly seven years, winning six straight World all-around titles and two Olympic all-around golds. Longevity across cycles outweighs one extraordinary Games in how we rank gymnasts.
What skills are named after Simone Biles?+
Biles has original elements named after her on floor, vault and balance beam, including a double-double dismount off beam and a Yurchenko double pike on vault so difficult that few other women attempt it. A skill earns your name by being successfully competed at a major international event before anyone else lands it. Having them across three apparatus, rather than one, is part of why she tops this ranking.
Why did Larisa Latynina's 18 Olympic medals matter beyond gymnastics?+
Her 18 medals were the most won by any athlete in any Olympic sport for 48 years, from her final Games in 1964 until swimmer Michael Phelps passed the mark in 2012. For nearly half a century, the all-time Olympic medal record belonged to a gymnast. That cross-sport longevity, spread over three Games, is why she ranks above gymnasts with more iconic single moments.
Which younger gymnasts could join this list after 2024?+
Japan's Shinnosuke Oka is the clearest candidate after taking the Paris 2024 men's all-around gold from teammate Hashimoto. On the women's side, the United States, China and Brazil keep producing all-around contenders, and Andrade's rivalry with Biles has raised the ceiling. Any newcomer needs what the names above share: dominance sustained across more than one Olympic cycle, not a single breakout Games.
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