Honest question - and I am trying to take in everybody's opinion - if Biles lands her first vault, do you think she quits?
On a side note, Larisa Latynina is obviously the goat. As a Cs fan, if you believe Russell is the best ever, then it would be hypocritical to say that Latynina isn't.
It is not at all obvious. These olympians don't just come out of storage every 4 years. They compete on a world stage year after year, whether you pay attention or not. To label someone best ever based only on olympic results is like claiming Eli Manning is better than Aaron Rogers because of their superbowl records. It's asinine. Good luck finding anyone in the gymnastics community outside of Russia that would argue against Bile's case.
Latynina didn't only compete in the Olympics though. She also has 9 gold medals at the World Championships to go along with her 9 gold medals in the Olympics. She has 4 more silver and 1 bronze in the World championships to go along with her 5 silver and 4 bronze in the Olympics. She has 7, 6, and 1 in the European championships as well. And when Larisa competed the World Championships and European Championships were every 4 years, just like the Olympics. Simone had the benefit of having them every non-Olympic year (so 3 times as many).
There is no question at all Larisa Latynina is the greatest female gymnast of all time. It isn't close.
Also, as an aside, Larisa competed at the 1958 World Championships while she was pregnant. Her daughter was born 5 months after the competition. At those World Championships, she led the Soviet team to the Gold Medal, won the All Around Gold, won the gold medal on 3 apparatus (Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam), and took silver on the floor exercise. She was 3-4 months pregnant and dominated the world competition. She told no one she was pregnant so they wouldn't stop her from competing.
Do your homework. Biles has 19 world championship golds, 25 total. This on top of her 5 Olympic golds. If we are going by medal counts, Biles has everyone beat by a country mile. We haven’t even touched on the fact that she has been able to perform physical feats that no other human has. Again, ask anyone involved with gymnastics where she stands all time and get back to us.
Did you read Mo’s post? You don’t think it’s relevant that Biles has 3x more opportunities at World Championships?
LL won 25 golds in major world events and 46 medals overall.
She’s the GOAT. Resumes matter.
And Biles is the most individually skilled.
It’s as relevant as the fact that LL was competing at a time where a gymnast could even be competetive at age 34. Sport is way more physically demanding now. If someone tried to compete 5 months pregnant in this age and there would be a miscarriage. Just think, if Simone was born a year earlier, she could have easily brought home multiple Olympic medals in London. She also lost a year to COVID. Are we even having this conversation if the games occurred last year?
Also, it’s funny that you hold the frequency of world championships against Biles, yet you include the European championships for LL.
Even with the European championships included, LL competed in 1/3 fewer events.
What are you talking about? Biles has competed in 33 Olympic/world championship events total. Your telling me LL earned 46 medals in 22 events?
Larisa won 18 Olympic Medals in 3 Olympic games (56, 60, 64) - she competed in 19 total events, so she medaled in 18 of 19 winning gold in 9, that is just amazing
Larisa won 14 World Championship Medals in 4 World Championships (54, 58, 62, 66) and in 54 and 66 she only won the Team medals (gold in 54 and silver in 66) so she won 12 medals between just 2, the 58 and 62 World Championships (8 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze)
Larisa won 14 European Championship Medals in 3 European Championships (57, 61, 65)
From 1956 through 1962 she won the gold medal in the all around at every major competition she entered. In 64 and 65 she took the silver in the All Around and was still winning gold on some individual apparatus. Had World Championships existed in 55, 57, 59, 61, and 63, she would have probably picked up around 20 more gold medals and probably also around 10 more silver/bronze medals (see the 6 she won at each of 58 and 62 WC, also 6 at all 3 Olympics in 56, 60, 64).
Larisa is BY FAR the best gymnast of all time. The overall breadth of her accomplishments are unmatched.