Retired yes Name Alexander Dityatin | Role Gymnast | |
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Discipline Men's artistic gymnastics Similar People Nikolai Andrianov, Stoyan Deltchev, Zoltan Magyar, Danut Grecu, Jiri Tabak | ||
Alexander Dityatin - Class of 2004 Induction Speech
1975USSRSpartakiade
Aleksandr Nikolaevich Dityatin (Russian: Александр Николаевич Дитятин, born August 7, 1957 in Leningrad) is a retired Soviet/Russian gymnast, three-time Olympic champion, and Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR. Winning eight medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics, he set the record for achieving the most medals of any type at a single Olympic Games. The American swimmer Michael Phelps has now twice equalled this record, at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. Dityatin also holds the all-time Olympic record for most individual medals at a single Games, at seven. Dityatin competed for the Leningrad Dinamo sports society.
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Biography
Dityatin was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) on August 7, 1957. At the age of 15 he was given special dispensation to take part in the senior USSR championships. Two years later he won the Spartakiades in USSR, an event which was followed by a growth crisis in which he grew 12 cm in one year. At the age of 18, as part of the national team, he came third in the European championships, which were won outright by compatriot Nikolai Andrianov.
Dityatin's first Olympic success was at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, where he won two silver medals - on the rings and in the team competition. At the 1980 Summer Olympics, after years of being second to teammate Andrianov, 22-year-old Dityatin won a record eight medals in the Moscow Games where he won the all-around title and seven more medals, including two golds to add to his historic achievement of the perfect 10, a feat which had only been recorded by Romania's Nadia Comaneci and the Soviet Union's Nellie Kim in the Olympic Games by then. Shortly after the 1980 Olympics, Dityatin was seriously injured while training, which ended his career. He was the most successful athlete at the 1980 Summer Olympics. As of August 2008 he is the only athlete who won a medal in each of the eight gymnastics events at one Olympics.
Dityatin is the first athlete in Olympic history to win eight medals in one Olympic Games. He was also the first male gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of ten in an Olympic competition, a feat he accomplished in the long horse vault.
Dityatin graduated from Leningrad Lesgaft Institute of Physical Education. He was awarded Order of the Badge of Honor (1976), and Order of Lenin (1980, for guarding the State Border of the USSR). Between 1980 and 1995 Dityatin was the head coach of a sports team from Leningrad (Leningrad OKPP). Since 1995 he works as the chief inspector of the Pulkovo Airport checkpoint (Pulkovo-2 OKPP). He is a Lieutenant Colonel of the Russian Border Service.
In 2004, Dityatin was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
The annual Alexander Dityatin Cup competition is held in his honor in Russia.