Mariya Gorokhovskaya

Mariya Gorokhovskaya’s Olympic fame rests on one Olympics, the 1952 Helsinki Games. As a member of the Soviet gymnastics team, she won seven medals, which remains the record for the most medals at one Olympic Games by a woman. That mark has been equaled by seven men, and bettered by two men – Aleksandr Dityatin and Michael Phelps, both with eight. In 1952, Gorokhovskaya won gold medals in the individual and team all-around, silver medals on all four apparatuses, and a silver medal in the team portable apparatus event. She never won an individual championship at the World Championships and her competitive career pre-dated the European Championships. Although it had never been public, Gorokhovskaya was Jewish, and she emigrated to Israel in 1990.