1972 Summer Olympics medal table American swimmer Mark Spitz won seven events, breaking the record for most gold medals by a single athlete in a single Olympic Games. Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut delivered another memorable performance. She entered the Olympics as an alternate on the Soviet gymnastics team, and replaced an injured teammate before the start of the competition. Korbut performed well during the team competition and captured the global television audience with her personality. She helped the Soviet team win its sixth straight Olympic title and went on to win two more individual gold medals and one silver. Japanese gymnast Sawao Kato won three
Ernestine Russell floor exercise, 45th in the vault, 56th in the all-around, and 61st in the balance beam and uneven bars. After she graduated from Kennedy Collegiate Institute in 1956, she continued to pursue her focus in gymnastics. At the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago, Russell won gold medals for all-around, vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise, and a silver in balance beam, which made her the first Canadian medal winner in an international gymnastics competition. The Canadian team finished second behind the U.S. team. At age 21, she qualified to participate in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. While receiving