Yury Titov

Yury Titov took up gymnastics at the age of 14 and was on the Soviet national team from 1955-66. During that time he won nine Olympic medals, 10 World Championships medals and 14 European Championships medals. His first international tournament was the 1956 Olympics, where he won four medals, including his only Olympic gold, won in the team event. At the 1960 Olympics he added three more medals and at the 1964 Olympics two more. During his career, Titov competed at two World Championships, winning two titles at each, the vault and team event title at the 1958 World Championships and the individual all-around and rings title at the 1962 World Championships. To his four World Championships golds, he added four bronzes at the 1958 Worlds and one silver at the 1962 Worlds. At the European Championships, Titov won eight titles, one in 1957 (vault), five in 1959 (individual all-around, vault, parallel bars, rings, pommelled horse) and two in 1961 (rings, horizontal bar). He also won four silvers and two bronzes at Europeans. Titov won seven Soviet titles (1958, 1961 in individual all-around, 1959 in floor exercise, in 1961 in rings and in horizontal bar and in 1958 and 1960 in vault). After finishing his sporting career, he worked as a gymnastics official and referee. From 1976-96, Titov was the president of the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG). In 1991 he received the Olympic Order in Silver and from 1995-96 was a member of IOC in his role as president of FIG. From 2004-06, Titov was the president of the Russian Gymnastics Federation and since 2006, has been vice-president of the Russian Gymnastics Federation.