E Once someone asked Larissa Latynina whether she actually enjoyed going to sports; often parents sign children up. The 1934-born artistic gymnast Latynina, the most successful woman of all time at the Olympics with 18 medals, had to smile a bit. “We started with sport much later. We simply chose the sport that we liked.” She began gymnastics at the age of 12—which at the time was enough to become the world’s best gymnast.
In her Ukrainian hometown of Kherson she observed how other girls performed a floor exercise to music. The floor would become Latynina’s favorite discipline. It reminded her of her dream to become a ballerina. She asked to be allowed to join. The rest is history.
The biography of the gymnastics legend Latynina, who will celebrate her 91st birthday in December, spans almost an entire century of Eastern European history. How complex it is is already shown by reports about her: some still call Latynina a Soviet star. Others call her a Russian.
Born and raised, however, she grew up in Ukraine. There she endured German occupation as a child. It was a harsh childhood: Latynina’s father fell at Stalingrad, and her mother had to toil in precarious jobs. The athlete remembered how, at seven years old, she witnessed the execution of partisans on the main street. How, from hunger, she dug up and ate snowdrop bulbs. She could pursue the sport of gymnastics only because it was free.
Bronze as a hurdler
Perhaps during this period the insane drive and the capacity to endure developed in Latynina. Once, when she was behind in a race against boys, she threw herself headlong across the finish line with her hands, even though there were shards of glass there, and she shouted through the pain: “My hands were the first ones there!” Later at the sports institute she also took up track and field, volleyball, basketball and swimming. One time Latynina had to substitute for an ill hurdler there, she tells the Russian agency Tass. She immediately won bronze – but the audience laughed a lot, because she jumped like a gymnast.
What is remarkable in sport is that Latynina no longer feels pain, and that probably says a lot. Although today her videos seem like a light warm-up routine for Simone Biles. It is Latynina who helped establish the dominance of Soviet gymnasts. She was quickly brought to Moscow, where she has lived ever since. Her favorite medals are the five World Championship gold medals from 1958 in Moscow. She won them while in the fourth month of pregnancy. She kept the pregnancy mostly hidden. Her young daughter later likes to say: “These medals Mom and I won together.”
After her career Latynina became the Soviet national coach from 1974 to 1982, again incredibly successful. And later she chose Russian citizenship. When Russian athletes recently had to compete under a neutral flag due to state doping, Latynina said: “An athlete is personally responsible. Vladimir Putin has stated it correctly: Why should the country have to bear the responsibility?” And when Russian athletes were allowed to compete only as neutrals because of the international-law violation caused by the attack on Ukraine, Latynina expressed outrage. She does not watch the Paris 2024 Games. “Olympics lose much without our gymnasts.” At least in that she is probably right.
There has been a shift in her language. For until the war began in 2014, Latynina regularly came to Kherson, according to Ukrainian media. She also watched all competitions of Ukrainian athletes: “This is my homeland.” But since the start of the war she no longer comes—and she remains stubbornly silent. Latynina’s life is probably indeed a very Soviet biography.
