1. Larisa Latynina Medals: 9 Gold; 5 Silver; 4 Bronze = 88 points
The Soviet gymnast, Larisa Latynina, has the distinction of having earned the most medals of any athlete (male or female) in Olympic history. Between 1956 and 1964 she won medals in 18 gymnastics competitions, as follows: Gold (9) – 1956 all-around, 1956 floor exercises, 1956 vault, 1956 team, 1960 all-around, 1960 floor exercises, 1960 team, 1964 floor exercises, and 1964 team; Silver (5) – 1956 uneven parallel bars, 1960 balance beam, 1960 uneven parallel bars, 1964 all-around, and 1964 horse vault; and Bronze (4) – 1956 team portable apparatus, 1960 horse vault, 1964 balance beam, and 1964 uneven parallel bars.
She missed to medal just in the 1956 balance beam in which she ended in a tie for fourth. She also won six championships in the 1958 and 1962 World Championships in individual competitions. At the 1957 European Championships, Latynina won all five individual events – all-around and the four apparatus finals. After her retirement from competition she became the national gymnastics team coach.
2. Birgit Schmidt-Fischer Medals: 8 Gold; 4 Silver = 52 points
Birgit Schmidt-Fischer of Germany (previously East Germany) is regarded the finest female canoeist of all time. Her total of 37 medals (1979-2005) and 27 gold medals (1979-1998) in the World Championships has never been approached and her 12 Olympic medals and eight gold medals are all records. Representing East Germany (GDR) she won the Olympic K1 title in 1980 (as Miss Fischer) and the K2 and K4 in 1988. After a three-year sabbatical from competition, during which she gave birth to her second child, she won the K1 in 1992 as a member of the united German team.
In 1996 at Atlanta, she paddled with the German K4 team to earn her fifth gold medal, and in Sydney in 2000, she added two gold in both K2 and K4. Her spouse, Jörg Schmidt, was a World Champion and Olympic silver medallist (in the C1-1,000 in 1988). Birgit Fischer originally retired after the 2000 Olympic Games, but returned in 2003 and participated in the 2004 Olympic Games, earning a gold and silver medal. She has now won gold medals at six separate Olympic Games spanning 24 years. Schmidt-Fischer also won two medals in the 2005 World Championships.
3. Jenny Thompson
Medals: 8 Gold; 3 Silver; 1 Bronze = 51 points
With 12 medals and eight gold medals, Jenny Thompson has earned more swimming medals and gold medals than any woman in Olympic history. But all eight of her gold medals came in relays and this immensely talented swimmer was frustrated in her attempt to win an individual Olympic gold medal. Her sole individual medals were a silver in the 1992 100-meter freestyle and a bronze in the same event in 2000.
While pursuing medical school, Thompson came out of retirement and joined the 2004 Olympic squad and won two silver for relays in Athens. Twenty-three times a national champion, she was more successful individually in the World Championships, winning the 100-meter free and 100-meter fly at the 1998 championships. At another major international event, the Pan-Pacifics,
Thompson also won the 50-meter freestyle four times (1989, 1991, 1993, 1999), the 100-meter freestyle four times (1993-99), and the 100-meter fly three times (1993, 1997-1999). Among all female Olympians, Thompson’s eight gold medals are topped only by Larisa Latynina’s nine in gymnastics, and matched by Birgit Schmidt-Fischer in canoeing. Thompson has subsequently become a physician.