Shakhlin, Boris Anfiyanovich

Boris Anfiyanovich Shakhlin, (born January 27, 1932, Ishim, Russia, U.S.S.R.—died May 30, 2008, Kiev, Ukraine), Soviet gymnast who set a career record of 10 individual titles in the world championships and who also won gold medals at three successive Olympic Games. His tally of seven gold, four silver, and two bronze Olympic medals placed him among the most-decorated at the Games.

Shakhlin graduated first from the Sverdlovsk Physical Training Technical College and was specially trained by Alexander Mishakov in Kiev. He then graduated from the Kiev Institute of Physical Culture in 1955. Shakhlin first competed internationally at the 1954 world gymnastics championships, winning the silver medal on the horizontal bar. At the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, he won gold medals for the pommel horse and as a team member in the combined exercises. At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, he won a total of seven medals, including the gold medal for the pommel horse and also gold medals for the parallel bars, the vault, and individual combined exercises, as well as silver medals for the rings and for the team combined exercises. At the 1964 Games in Tokyo, he won the gold medal for the horizontal bar and silver medals for individual combined exercises and as a member of his team.

Upon his retirement in 1966 Shakhlin had won 10 individual and 3 team titles in the world championships in a 12-year career and had won more gold medals than any other male athlete in Olympic and world-championship competition. Shakhlin was an international official in gymnastics from 1968 until 1992 and was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2002.