Very strong on all apparatus, it is no surprise that Paul Hamm is a three-time US National all-around champion (2002-2004). In the 2003 World championships held in Anaheim, he became the very first American male gymnast to capture the world all-around title. At the 2004 Athens Olympics, he also became the first and only American male gymnast to win the Olympic all-around gold by the closest margin (0.012) in Olympic history. His Olympic all-around gold would subsequently be called into question on account of a scoring issue. The South Korean bronze medallist Yang Tae Young was erroneously given a start value of 9.9 instead of 10.0 in the parallel bars; and the resulting difference was the difference between the bronze and the gold medal. After much deliberation that even reached the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the final verdict issued was that the results would remain as it was. Hamm also won the 2003 World title on floor, three team silvers (2002 and 2003 Worlds, 2004 Olympics), a silver on high bar (2004 Olympics) and a bronze on floor (2002 Worlds), making him the most bemedalled American male gymnast. He qualified for a spot on the 2008 US Olympic gymnastics team in the hope to securing a less controversial gold but had to withdraw two weeks prior to the Games due to aggravated hand and shoulder injury.

Kurt Thomas

Kurt Thomas was a member of the US Olympic team at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. In 1978 World championship, he became the first American male gymnast to gain the floor exercise gold medal in a major international competition. He would go on to win six medals at the 1979 World championship: gold medals on floor and horizontal bar; silvers in the all-around, pommel horse and parallel bars; and a team bronze. His dream of winning a few gold medals at the 1980 Moscow Olympics was dashed as the US government boycotted the Games. He created a skill known as the "Thomas flare," which is still a very popular skill among modern gymnasts performed on pommel horse and sometimes on floor exercise.

Peter Vidmar

At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, which the Soviet bloc nations boycotted except for Romania, Peter Vidmar proved himself not only as one of the world's great gymnasts but also an exceptional leader as well. He captained the US men's gymnastics team to its first ever Olympic gold medal in a dramatic upset over the defending world champions, the People's Republic of China. He went on to capture the all-around silver becoming the first American male gymnast to win an individual all-around Olympic medal; and the pommel horse gold medal.

Bart Conner

A member of the gold medal-winning team at the 1984 Games, Bart Conner placed sixth in the individual all-around and won the gold on the parallel bars event finals with a perfect 10 score. He was also the world champion on parallel bars and the bronze medallist on vault at the 1979 World championships. Having been the 1978 NCAA all-around champion and the 1979 US National champion, he is the only American male gymnast to earn gold medals in all levels of competition--collegiate, national and international.

Mitch Gaylord

Mitch Gaylord first delighted the world as part of the gold-winning US Olympic gymnastics team at the 1984 Games, by becoming the first American gymnast to score a perfect 10. In addition, he went on to earn a silver on vault and two bronzes on rings and parallel bars. He invented two high bar techniques that are still being performed by many gymnasts today, the Gaylord Flip and the Gaylord II. They are still considered to be among the most difficult and spectacular skills in gymnastics.

Peter Kormann

Clinching a bronze on floor event finals at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, he became the first American gymnast to medal in a major international competition in forty-four years. Since retiring from competition, he has served as Head Gymnastics Coach at Ohio State University from 1989 to1996, as well as Head Coach of the U.S. Men's Olympic team (1996, 2000) and World Championship team (1995, 1997, 1999).

Trent Dimas

At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Trent Dimas was considered a dark horse to win the gold as it was widely believed that his compulsory performance on high bar was underscored. So he displayed his absolute best in his optional routine and qualified for his best event when both his compulsory and optional score were added. His winning routine was truly spectacular with a triple-somersault dismount perfectly landed. His gold medal was the lone gold medal awarded to an American gymnast at the Games; it was also the first ever gold medal received by a US Olympic gymnast, male or female, in a non-boycotted Olympics in sixty years.

Blaine Wilson

Though Blaine Wilson did not win any individual World or Olympic medals, he has impressive credentials. He was a thirteen-time US National team member, five-time US National champion, five-time American Cup champion, a three-time Olympian, three-time World team member, 1998 Goodwill Games All-Around Bronze Medallist, and 2004 Athens Olympic Silver Medallist in team competition. He did come close to winning a World all-around medal when he placed fourth at the 1999 World championship, missing the bronze medal by only one-thousandth of a point (0.001). His total score was essentially the same as the score of the bronze medallist, with the difference attributable only to rounding-off discrepancy. (I guess that the International Gymnastics Federation does not know their arithmetic, as the same thing happened at the 2005 World championship when another American gymnast, Nastia Liukin, missed the all-around gold by the same margin.)

Shannon Miller

Grace, consistency, impeccable form, flawless technique and perfect landings are what characterized Miller's gymnastics. She began stamping her mark as a gymnast to reckon with at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, where she won silver in the all-around competition, narrowly missing the gold by the tiniest margin (0.012) in Olympic history; she went on to capture three more individual medals: a silver on balance beam and bronzes on uneven bars and floor exercise. Her haul of five Olympic medals (including a team bronze) set the record for the most gymnastics medals won by an American in a single non-boycotted Olympics. Following the 1992 Games, she became the only American to win two consecutive World all-around titles (1993, 1994); and has won titles on every apparatus except vault (1993 Worlds - bars and floor, 1994 Worlds - beam and 1996 Atlanta Olympics - beam), a total of six individual golds. She was also part of the Magnificent 7 that won the team gold at the 1996 Olympics. With nine World Championships and seven Olympic medals, an impressive combined total of sixteen, Miller is definitely America's most decorated gymnast, male or female.

Nastia Liukin

Liukin, the 2005 and 2006 US Senior National champion, certainly has inherited the best gymnastics genes there is, being the daughter of two ex-Soviet gymnasts, Valeri Liukin, an Olympic gold medallist and Anna Kotchneva, a World rhythmic gymnastics champion. In the 2005 World championship, she placed a controversial second in the all-around, losing the gold by a mere one one-thousandth of a point (0.001) due to rounding discrepancy. She also won World titles on uneven bars (2005) and balance beam (2005 and 2007). At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she won five medals (a gold in the all-around; silvers on team, bars and balance beam; and a bronze on floor), matching Miller's record for most medals won by an American gymnast in a single Olympic Games. Furthermore, she also tied with Miller as the American gymnast with the most World championship medals at nine. She just might overtake Miller's career medal count if she stays in gymnastics a bit longer.

Shawn Johnson

This tiny bundle of energy with a very charming personality is the 2007 and 2008 US all-around champion. In the 2007 World championships, Johnson became the fourth American to gain the World all-around title; she also won the floor event finals despite having tumbled out of bounds in her first tumbling pass. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she placed second behind teammate Nastia Liukin in the all-around, and went on to take the silver on floor and the gold on beam. Her routines are packed-full of difficulties: vault - 2 ½ twisting laid out Yurchenko; Bars - double twisting double layout dismount; beam - standing tucked with a full twist; and floor - double twisting double tuck for a first tumbling pass and whip to immediate triple full. Wow, what else can be said! Only sixteen years of age, she undoubtedly has more medals to win if she does not retire from the sport.

Kim Zmeskal

Zmeskal was the US Senior National champion for three consecutive years (1990-1992). In the 1991 World championships in Indianapolis Indiana, she became the first American to earn the all-around title. Svetlana Boginskaya who finished second behind her controversially commented that she would have won had the championship been held in Europe. However, Zmeskal proved that her 1991 win was no accident, by winning gold medals on beam and floor at the 1992 Individual Apparatus Championships in Paris France. She entered the 1992 Barcelona Olympics as one of the medal favorites, but would return home from the Games empty-handed, having fallen off the beam during the compulsories and stepping out of bounds on floor exercise in the all-around competition. A powerful tumbler, she was noted for her trademark middle tumbling pass of floor: round-off, three consecutive whip-backs (sometimes four), back-handspring into a tucked double back.

Carly Patterson

Patterson is the 2003 World silver all-around medallist and the 2004 all-around co-champion with Courtney Kupets at the US Gymnastics Championships. At the 2004 Athens Olympics, she won the all-around gold medal, becoming the first American female gymnast to win the all-around title in a non-boycotted Olympics; and also earned a silver in the balance beam event finals. She retired shortly thereafter due to the discovery of a few bulging disks in her lower back, and embarked on a singing career.

Chellsie Memmel

By winning the 2005 World all-around title, Memmel became the third American woman to become a World all-around champion after Zmeskal and Miller. She is also the 2003 World champion on bars; and the 2005 silver medallist on both bars and beam. Though she is a member of the US Olympic women's gymnastics team that won silver at the 2008 Games, she was limited to just one event, the uneven bars, having injured her ankle during a training session.

Mary Lou Retton

Retton was inspired to take up gymnastics after watching Nadia Comaneci on television, and moved to Houston, Texas from her hometown of Fairmont, West Virginia to be trained by Bela and Marta Karolyi, who also coached Comaneci. She soon made remarkable progress, placing second in the US Nationals in 1983. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, which Soviet bloc nations boycotted except for Romania, she had a close battle with Ecaterina Szabo of Romania for the all-around title. She scored perfect 10s on vault and floor to secure the gold by mere five-hundredths of a point (0.05), becoming the very first female gymnast outside of Eastern Europe to clinch the Olympic all-around title. At the same Olympics, she gained four more medals: silvers in the team competition and vault; and bronzes on floor and bars.

Dominique Dawes

Dawes, the 1994 US senior National champion best known for her difficult back-to-back middle tumbling pass on floor, is the first African American female along with teammate Betty Okino to win an Olympic gymnastics medal at the 1992 Atlanta Games (team bronze). She may not have won any world/Olympic all-around titles; but she did come close to winning three times. At the 1993 Worlds, she was leading after the third rotation, however, in her last event, she made the first vault but fell on the second attempting to do the trickier 1 ½ twisting layout Yurchenko instead of a full-twisting one; after both scores were averaged, she dropped to fourth place overall. The same thing happened at the 1994 Worlds and she dropped to fifth. She lost another chance to win the all-around at the 1996 Games, where she was leading after two rotations but sat down on her middle tumbling pass and finished seventeenth. In spite of these disappointments, she earned a few World and Olympic individual medals: silvers on bars and beam (1993 Worlds), bronzes on beam (1996 Worlds) and floor exercise (1996 Olympics). This three-time Olympian was also part of the Magnificent 7 that captured the team gold at the 1996 Games.

Vitaly Scherbo (USSR/Unified Team/Belarus)

The greatest gymnast of all time, having won World/Olympic gold medals in the all-around and on every apparatus. In fact, he won six gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics (Team, all-around, pommel horse, rings, vault and parallel bars) and the 1993 World all-around, floor exercise and parallel bars title. His brash personality and strange capability to come up with exceptional performances when it most mattered gained him instant popularity with worldwide audiences.

Alexei Nemov (Russia)

The 2000 Athens Olympic all-around and high bar champion. Having won a total of twenty five World championship and Olympic medals (nine golds, six silvers and 10 bronzes), he is surely one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. His showmanship and his well-rounded gymnastic routines which were characterized by complicated acrobatic skills, elegance and flawless technique had gained him a lot of fans.

Nikolai Andrianov (USSR/Russia)

A three-time Olympian (1972, 1976 and 1980). He won a total of fifteen Olympic medals, including gold in the all-around, floor exercise, rings and vault in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Described as a natural gymnast, he won every major competition there was, including the World Cup, European Championships, and the World Championships (1978).

Boris Shakhlin (USSR/Russia)

One of the most successful Olympians, having won thirteen medals in three successive Olympics (1956, 1960 and 1964), seven of which are gold including the 1960 all-around, pommel horse, vault, parallel bars and high bar titles. He was also the 1958 World all-around champion. He got the nickname "Man of Iron" for his strong determination and consistent performance.

Vladimir Artemov (USSR/Russia)

His impressive career spanning a period of six years from 1983 to 1989 includes a combined total of eighteen World and Olympic medals, ten of which are gold medals that include the all-around, parallel bars and high bar titles at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He is well remembered for his impeccable technique on parallel bars, an event in which he won three world titles (1983, 1987, and 1989). He also finished second in the all-around at the 1985 World Championships and 3rd in the all-around at the 1987 World Championships.

Dmitry Bilozerchev (USSR/Russia)

The boy wonder of gymnastics. By winning the 1983 world all-around, vault, rings, and pommel horse title at a tender age of sixteen, he became the youngest ever male world champion in the history of gymnastics. He also made a miraculous comeback by winning the 1987 world all-around, high bars and rings title after two years recuperating from a serious auto accident that crashed his leg, proving his determination and love for the sport. In the 1988 Seoul Olympics, he earned bronze in the all-around and gold medals on both pommel horse and rings.

Yuri Korolev (USSR/Russia)

One of the most gifted gymnast that the former Soviet Union ever produced. He won the 1981 and 1985 World all-around championship including titles on floor exercise, rings and vault. With his individual World Championship and World Cup medals tally of twenty one, he is without question the most decorated non-Olympian (male or female) gymnast of all time. He could have been the greatest gymnast in history had not the USSR boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and an Achilles tendon injury prevented him from competing at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Alexander Dityatin (USSR/Russia)

At the 1980 Moscow Olympics, he medalled in every gymnastics events, eight in all (including gold medals in the all-around and rings), setting the Olympic record for the most medals won in one Olympic games, a record that still stands today, tied only with Michael Phelps, who achieved the feat at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He was also the 1979 World all-around, vault, and rings champion.

Yuri Titov (USSR/Russia)

The 1962 World all-around and rings champion and the 1958 World champion on vault. During the course of his competitive career that span three Olympics (1956, 1960 and 1964), he won a total of nine Olympic medals, ten World championship medals and an astonishing fourteen European medals.

Sawao Kato (Japan)

The 1968 and 1972 Olympic all-around champion. Participating also in three Olympics, he earned a total of twelve medals, eight of which are gold medals that include titles on floor exercise and parallel bars, making him one of the most successful gymnasts in Olympic history and the best Japanese Olympian.

As follows are my top 10 greatest female gymnasts in history:

1. Svetlana Khorkina (Russia)

Having won seven Olympic medals and twenty World championship medals, this unusually tall gymnast is considered to be one of the most popular and most successful gymnasts of her generation. She is the very first gymnast to win three World all-around titles (1997, 2001 and 2003). She earned the nickname "Queen of the Bars" for her unrivaled domination on uneven bars, where she won five consecutive World titles (1995-1997, 1999, 2001) and two consecutive Olympic titles (1996, 2000). She is best known for her expressive and elegant dance, as well as for her extremely difficult and innovative routines, with unprecedented eight skills named after her in the Code of Points.

2. Larissa Latynina (USSR / Russia)

Two-time Olympic (1956, 1960) and two-time World (1958, 1962) all-around champion. She still holds the record for having won the most number of Olympic medals at eighteen (nine gold medals, five silver and four bronze). Trained in ballet, she was known for her graceful movements on floor exercise, where she won three consecutive Olympic titles (1956, 1960 and 1964).

3. Svetlana Boginskaya (USSR / Belarus)

The 1989 World all-around champion and three-time Olympic medallist, who was nicknamed the "Goddess of Gymnastics" and "Belarusian Swan" because of her stature, balletic grace, and long elegant lines that was most eminently exhibited in most of her routines, especially on floor exercise. In 1990, she swept the European Gymnastics Championships by winning the gold in every individual event.

4. Ludmilla Tourischeva (USSR / Ukraine)

The 1970 and 1974 World all-around champion. She was regarded as the epitome of the Soviet style gymnastics: grace, classiness, perfect form and flawless technique. Although she won the all-around title in the 1972 Munich Olympics, she was largely overshadowed by the unexpected fame of her compatriot Olga Korbut, whose exceptional acrobatic skills and open display of emotion, in contrast to the typical stoic expression of eastern bloc athletes, enraptured world audiences.

5. Věra Čáslavská (Czechoslovakia)

One of only two female gymnasts, along with Larissa Latynina of the USSR, to win two consecutive all-around Olympic titles (1964, 1968). She holds the record of most Olympic individual event titles than any other gymnasts, a record that still stands today. She was well known for her cheerful demeanor and extraordinary stage presence; and at the same time, she was also revered for her courage in openly voicing her opposition to communism and the Soviet invasion of her country during the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

6. Yelena Shushunova (USSR / Russia)

1985 World and 1988 Olympic all-around champion. She is best known for her powerful vaulting and difficult tumbling as well as her matchless consistency, having won medals on every apparatus including world titles on vault (1985, 1987) and floor exercise (1985).

7. Nadia Comăneci (Romania)

The media darling of the 1976 Montreal Olympics, where she became the very first gymnast at any Olympics to be awarded a perfect score of 10 and would eventually earn six more 10s, on the way to capturing the all-around, uneven bars and balance beam title. At only age 14, she was the youngest ever Olympics gymnastics all-around champion. She is credited, along with Olga Korbut, for popularizing the sport all over the world.

8. Shannon Miller (USA)

The 1993 and 1994 all-around World Champion and the 1996 Olympics balance beam gold medallist. With a total of sixteen World championship and Olympic medals, she is certainly the most decorated gymnast in American history. She is best remembered for her performance in the Individual All-around at the 1992 Olympic Games, where she missed the gold by the tiniest margin (0.012) in Olympic history.

9. Nellie Kim (USSR / Tajikistan)

The 1979 World all-around champion. She was the first woman in Olympic history to receive a perfect score of 10 on vault and floor exercise, winning the gold medal on both. She was admired not only for her feminine beauty but also for her flamboyance, gracefulness and intensity that marked her every routine.

10. Lilia Podkopayeva (Ukraine)

The first female gymnast since Ludmilla Tourischeva to simultaneously hold the European (1996), World (1995), and Olympic (1996) all-around titles. She was frequently described as the "complete package" gymnast, possessing impressive excellence in both technical skill and artistic expression with no apparent weakness in any of the four apparatus. Her routines were characterized as a combination of stylish choreography, clean execution, perfect form and exceptionally difficult skills.