Aleksandr Nikolaevich Dityatin (Russian: Александр Николаевич Дитятин, born 7 August 1957) 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.^[1] Dityatin competed for the Leningrad Dinamo sports society.

Quick Facts Aleksandr Dityatin, Personal information ...

Aleksandr Dityatin
Personal information
Country represented	Soviet Union
Born	(1957-08-07) 7 August 1957 (age 66) Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Discipline	Men's artistic gymnastics
Retired	Yes
Medal record Olympic Games 1980 Moscow Team 1980 Moscow All-around 1980 Moscow Rings 1976 Montreal Team 1976 Montreal Rings 1980 Moscow Pommel horse 1980 Moscow Vault 1980 Moscow Parallel bars 1980 Moscow Horizontal bar 1980 Moscow Floor Exercise World Championships 1979 Ft. Worth Team competition 1979 Ft. Worth All-around 1979 Ft. Worth Vault 1979 Ft. Worth Still rings 1981 Moscow Team competition 1981 Moscow Parallel bars 1981 Moscow Still rings 1978 Strasbourg Team competition 1978 Strasbourg Still rings 1978 Strasbourg All-around 1978 Strasbourg Floor exercise 1979 Ft. Worth Horizontal bar European Championships 1979 Essen Pommel horse 1979 Essen Still rings 1975 Bern Parallel bars 1979 Essen Parallel bars 1975 Bern All-around 1975 Bern Still rings

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Dityatin was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) on 7 August 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 2017, he is the only athlete who won a medal in each of the eight gymnastics events at one Olympics.

To add more to the impressiveness of his performance at the 1980 Olympics, not only did he medal in every event, which, of course, suggests an excellent standard of performance throughout the entire competition, but throughout his 24 performances (the maximum # of performances a male gymnast can have throughout an Olympics), he scored no lower than a 9.800 out of 10 throughout those 24 performances, and on 18 of those performances, his score was at least a 9.900.

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).

In 2004, Dityatin was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.^[2]

The annual Alexander Dityatin Cup competition is held in his honor in Russia.

• List of multiple Summer Olympic medalists
• List of multiple Olympic medalists at a single Games
• Perfect 10 (gymnastics)