Gymnastics all-around champions by age

Prior to 1981, the minimum required age to compete in senior events sanctioned by the FIG was 14.cite journal | year = 1980 | month = September | title = Within the International Federations | journal = Olympic Review | issue = 155 | pages = p. 520 | url = http://www.aafla.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/1980/ore155/ORE155p.pdf | accessdate = 2006-04-11 ] The earliest champions in women's gymnastics tended to be in their 20s; most had studied ballet for years before entering the sport. Hungarian gymnast Ágnes Keleti won individual gold medals at the age of 35 at the 1956 Olympics. Larissa Latynina, the first great Soviet gymnast, won her first Olympic all-around medal at the age of 21, her second at 25 and her third at 29; she became the 1958 World Champion while pregnant with her daughter. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20061027054302/http://www.intlgymnast.com/legends/latynina.html "Legends: Larissa Latynina"] "International Gymnast," 2001] Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská, who followed Latynina to become a two-time Olympic all-around champion, was 22 before she started winning gold medals at the highest level of the sport, and won her final Olympic all-around title at the age of 26.cite web|url=http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/profiles/bio_uk.asp?PAR_I_ID=16525|title=Vera Čáslavská: The heroine of Mexico|publisher=International Olympic Committee|accessdate=2008-07-01]

In the 1970s, the average age of Olympic gymnastics competitors began to gradually decrease. While it was not unheard of for teenagers to compete in the 1960s — Ludmilla Tourischeva was sixteen at her first Olympics in 1968 — they slowly became the norm, as difficulty in gymnastics increased.cite book | last = Ryan | first = Joan | title = Little Girls in Pretty Boxes | publisher = Doubleday | location = Garden City | year = 1995 | isbn = 9780385477901 ]

List of Olympic all-around champions by age

;Olympic all-around champions 1952-2008:

NB: "The "age at Olympics" is calculated from the first day of Olympics gymnastics competition, if available; or the date of the Olympics opening ceremonies."

References