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LATYNINA BOWS OUT AT THE TOPAfter winning 12 Olympic medals – including seven golds – at the 1956 and 1960 Games, Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina arrived in Tokyo eager to add more to her impressive collection. She did so admirably, winning gold medals – for the third Games in a row – in both the floor exercise and team competition, while also claiming silver in the vault and individual all-round event and bronze medals in the uneven bars and balance beam. Latynina’s feats took her career total to 18 Olympic medals – nine gold, five silver and four bronze – a total that stood as an Olympic record for 48 years until swimmer Michael Phelps raised his tally to 22 in London in 2012.OLYMPIC FLASHBACKPOLYÁK MAKES IT FOURTH TIME LUCKYHungarian Greco-Roman wrestler Imre Polyák epitomised the adage “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” when he finally won gold in the featherweight event after three successive Olympic silver medals. Polyák had been world champion in 1955, 1958 and 1962, but the Olympic title eluded him until Tokyo 1964 when, at the age of 32, he defeated the Soviet Union’s Roman Rurua in the final to become only the second wrestler, after Finland’s Eino Leino, to win a medal at four successive Games.70 OLYMPIC REVIEW