- 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 gymnastÁgnes 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 gymnastVěra 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
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