10 gymnastics coaches, from Aimee Boorman to Liang Chow and Mihai Brestyan, each with achievements, years active, athletes coached and nationality.
Every name below comes with the achievements that carry it, the years they were active, the teams or athletes they worked with and their nationality. The order is our own reading of their mark on gymnastics, not a trophy count, and a short FAQ closes the page.
If you are working through the subject more broadly, we keep the same kind of list for gymnastics books and gymnastics films and documentaries.
Best Gymnastics Coaches:
- Alexander Alexandrov
- Aimee Boorman
- Peter Kormann
- Yevgeny Marchenko
- Liang Chow
- Mihai Brestyan
- Laurent Landi
- Cecile Canqueteau-Landi
- Kelli Hill
- Muriel Grossfeld
#1 Alexander Alexandrov
- 🏆 Achievements: Coached Olympic gold medalists and World Champions
- 📅 Years Active: 1980s to Present
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Aliya Mustafina, Svetlana Khorkina, and others
- 🌐 Nationality: Russian
Alexander Alexandrov is known for his extensive contributions to Russian and international gymnastics. He has been instrumental in shaping the careers of numerous champions, such as Svetlana Khorkina and Aliya Mustafina.
His expertise has not only contributed to individual successes but also to the Russian national team’s strong performances on the world stage.
Under his guidance, athletes have displayed a combination of technical precision and artistic expression, hallmark traits of his coaching philosophy.
#2 Aimee Boorman
- 🏆 Achievements: Head coach of Simone Biles, winner of 4 gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics
- 📅 Years Active: 2003 to Present
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Simone Biles
- 🌐 Nationality: American
Aimee Boorman is celebrated as the coach of Simone Biles, considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. She guided Biles to numerous national and world titles and an Olympic triumph in 2016.
Her coaching style emphasizes the athlete’s mental well-being along with their physical training, which has been critical to the success of her gymnasts.
Boorman’s positive impact on Biles’s career and her ability to create champions while fostering a supportive environment has been recognized and respected in the gymnastics community.
#3 Peter Kormann
- 🏆 Achievements: Bronze medalist as an athlete in 1976, coached Olympic and World Championship medalists
- 📅 Years Active: 1983 to Present
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Has coached multiple successful U.S. gymnasts
- 🌐 Nationality: American
Peter Kormann achieved distinction both as an Olympic medal-winning gymnast and as a respected coach. As a competitor, he made history by winning a bronze medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, ending a long drought for U.S. men’s gymnastics.
Turning to coaching, Kormann continued his contribution to the sport by guiding athletes to success at both national and international levels, including Olympic and World Championship events.
His commitment to the development of gymnastics in the United States has been evident throughout his career, fostering a legacy of excellence and passion for the sport.
#4 Yevgeny Marchenko
- 🏆 Achievements: Co-coached Carly Patterson to an all-around gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics
- 📅 Years Active: Late 1990s to Present
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Carly Patterson and other elite gymnasts
- 🌐 Nationality: Kazakhstani-American
Yevgeny Marchenko established himself as a top gymnastics coach by co-coaching Carly Patterson, the 2004 Olympic all-around champion.
His coaching career is noted for his ability to develop gymnasts who are competitive at the highest levels, succeeding at both World Championships and the Olympics.
Marchenko’s role in the U.S. gymnastics scene has been significant, fostering talent that has kept the country at the forefront of international gymnastics competitions.
#5 Liang Chow
- 🏆 Achievements: Coached gold medalists Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas
- 📅 Years Active: 1998 to Present
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Shawn Johnson, Gabby Douglas
- 🌐 Nationality: Chinese-American
Liang Chow has made a significant impact as a gymnastics coach in the U.S. He led Shawn Johnson to four Olympic medals in 2008, including a gold on the balance beam.
Liang’s expertise was further highlighted when he coached Gabby Douglas to the Individual All-Around gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
His coaching style emphasizes technical precision and has contributed to the success of U.S. gymnastics on the international stage, shaping the careers of athletes who have become role models and inspirations for upcoming gymnasts around the world.
#6 Mihai Brestyan
- 🏆 Achievements: Coached Aly Raisman to her Olympic medals and Alicia Sacramone to a world title, worked at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games and entered the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2017.
- 📅 Years Active: 1990s to today
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Aly Raisman, Alicia Sacramone
- 🌐 Nationality: Romania
Brestyan ran a gym in Massachusetts, far from the national training centre, and produced two of the strongest American gymnasts of the era from there.
He later took charge of the Australian national programme. Aly Raisman captained two Olympic teams to gold while training with him.
#7 Laurent Landi
- 🏆 Achievements: Head coach of Simone Biles from 2017 to 2025 alongside his wife, through her Olympic titles in 2020 and 2024, and coach of the Olympic champion Madison Kocian.
- 📅 Years Active: 1999 to today
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Simone Biles, Madison Kocian, Alyssa Baumann
- 🌐 Nationality: French American
The Landis took over Biles at the point where the sport had to rebuild its coaching culture, and the partnership lasted through two Olympic cycles and her return from the withdrawal in Tokyo.
Before that they built the WOGA programme in Texas, where Madison Kocian became a world champion on bars.
#8 Cecile Canqueteau-Landi
- 🏆 Achievements: Personal coach to Simone Biles at the World Champions Centre alongside her husband, and earlier coach to Madison Kocian and Katelyn Ohashi at WOGA.
- 📅 Years Active: 2001 to today
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Simone Biles, Madison Kocian, Katelyn Ohashi, Alyssa Baumann
- 🌐 Nationality: France
Canqueteau-Landi competed for France at world championships before moving into coaching in the United States. She is the coach usually seen at the beam with Biles at major championships.
The pair split the work between them by apparatus, an arrangement common in European gyms and less so in American ones.
#9 Kelli Hill
- 🏆 Achievements: Had at least one gymnast on every United States Olympic team from 1992 to 2008 and coached Dominique Dawes to Olympic gold and bronze.
- 📅 Years Active: 1981 to today
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Dominique Dawes, Courtney Kupets, Elise Ray, Kayla DiCello
- 🌐 Nationality: United States
Sixteen years of unbroken Olympic representation from one gym in Maryland is a record no other American club coach holds.
Dominique Dawes was part of the 1996 team gold and took individual bronze on floor, and Courtney Kupets won world and NCAA titles a decade later.
#10 Muriel Grossfeld
- 🏆 Achievements: Head coach of the United States women’s Olympic team at the 1968 and 1972 Games and inducted into the US Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1981.
- 📅 Years Active: 1960s to 1970s
- 👕 Athletes Coached: The United States women’s Olympic teams of 1968 and 1972
- 🌐 Nationality: United States
Grossfeld was a three time Olympian herself and then became one of the first women to run an American national team, at a point when the sport had almost no professional coaching structure.
Her gym in Connecticut trained national team members through the 1970s, the decade before the American programme became centralised.
FAQ
Who is the greatest gymnastics coach of all time?
There is no single answer, but Aimee Boorman has the strongest modern case: she took Simone Biles from a recreational class to Olympic and world all around gold while keeping training loads lower than the sport thought possible.
What makes a good gymnastics coach?
Technical eye, patience with a body that is still growing, and a training culture the athlete can survive. The sport spent decades learning that the last of those is not optional.
