11 Countries Where Gymnastics Is Most Popular (Ranked)

Gymnastics is most popular in the United States, Japan, China and Russia. All 11 countries ranked by Olympic golds, members and star gymnasts.

The United States, Japan and China are the three biggest gymnastics countries of the modern era, and together they have won more than 100 Olympic gold medals in artistic gymnastics. Russia, Romania and Germany built their reputations on decades of elite training, mass club systems and household names such as Nadia Comaneci.

Below you will find the full ranking, a table with the key numbers, a profile of every country and a separate list of the nations that have won the most Olympic medals. The ranking looks mainly at artistic gymnastics, the discipline with the Olympic medals, the world championships and the biggest audiences.

Countries where gymnastics is most popular:

1. United States
2. Japan
3. China
4. Russia
5. Romania
6. Germany
7. Ukraine
8. Italy
9. France
10. Great Britain
11. Brazil

Gymnastics Popularity by Country at a Glance

How We Ranked the Countries

We weighed four things: how many people take part (registered members of the national federations where a figure is published), how strong the club and school culture is, how much gymnastics matters in the country’s sporting life, and how successful its gymnasts have been at the Olympics and world championships. Artistic gymnastics carries the most weight because it is the discipline with the longest Olympic record.

The medal numbers in the glance table are Olympic gold medals in artistic gymnastics from 1896 to 2024, as listed on Wikipedia using Olympedia data. They count the Soviet Union and the Unified Team of 1992 separately from Russia, so Russia’s own total looks small next to its real weight in the sport. Membership figures are the latest we could find for each federation and are not always from the same year.

#1 United States

• 🥇 Olympic golds: 42 in artistic gymnastics, second only to the Soviet Union
• 🤸 Members: about 195,000 USA Gymnastics members in 2023
• 🏆 Women’s team golds: 1996, 2012, 2016 and 2024
• ⭐ Stars: Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey
• 📅 Big events: US Championships, NCAA Championships, Olympic Trials

Gymnastics reached the United States in the 1820s with German immigrants and teachers such as Charles Beck and Charles Follen, and the first American gymnasium opened at the Round Hill School in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1825. Today USA Gymnastics counts about 195,000 members, according to figures the national governing bodies report to the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Simone Biles is the most decorated gymnast in history, with 11 Olympic medals, seven of them gold, and 30 world championship medals. At Paris 2024 she led the American women to team gold, then won the all-around and the vault, with Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera beside her in the team. The American men added a team bronze behind Japan and China.

#2 Japan

• 🥇 Olympic golds: 36 in artistic gymnastics, third in history
• 🏆 Men’s team golds: 8, including five in a row from 1960 to 1976
• ⭐ Stars: Kohei Uchimura, Daiki Hashimoto, Shinnosuke Oka
• 🌍 World titles: Uchimura won six world all-around titles in a row, 2009 to 2015
• 📅 Big event: All-Japan Championships

Japan took over men’s gymnastics from the Soviet Union in the 1960s and won five straight Olympic team titles from Rome 1960 to Montreal 1976. The tradition came back in the 2000s: Japan won team gold again in 2004, 2016 and 2024.

Kohei Uchimura is the face of the modern era. He won seven Olympic medals (three gold) and six world all-around titles in a row from 2009 to 2015. His successors keep the pipeline full: Daiki Hashimoto won the all-around and horizontal bar in Tokyo, Shinnosuke Oka won team, all-around and horizontal bar gold in Paris, and Hashimoto took the all-around title at the 2025 World Championships in Jakarta.

#3 China

• 🥇 Olympic golds: 31 in artistic gymnastics, fourth in history
• 🏆 Men’s team golds: 2000, 2008 and 2012
• ⭐ Stars: Li Ning, Zou Jingyuan, Zhang Boheng
• 📅 Big moment: Beijing 2008, team gold for both men and women

China returned to the Olympics in 1984, and Li Ning made the debut unforgettable with six medals in Los Angeles: gold on floor, pommel horse and rings, two silvers and a bronze. The country has been a gymnastics power ever since.

The peak came at home in Beijing 2008, when China won both the men’s and the women’s team events. Zou Jingyuan won parallel bars gold in Tokyo and again in Paris, and the Chinese men took silver behind Japan in the Paris team final.

#4 Russia

• 🥇 Olympic golds: 10 as Russia, 72 as the Soviet Union and 9 as the Unified Team
• 🏆 Tokyo 2020: Team gold for both the men and the women (as ROC)
• ⭐ Stars: Larisa Latynina, Svetlana Khorkina, Aliya Mustafina, Nikita Nagornyy
• 🌍 Status: Restricted since 2022, restrictions lifted by World Gymnastics in May 2026

Russian gymnastics rests on the Soviet system. Larisa Latynina won nine Olympic golds and 18 medals between 1956 and 1964, a record that stood for 48 years, and the Soviet Union won 72 Olympic golds in artistic gymnastics from 1952 to 1988. Since 1996 Russia has competed on its own and has produced stars such as Svetlana Khorkina, who won uneven bars gold in 1996 and 2000, and Aliya Mustafina, who won the same event in 2012 and 2016.

At Tokyo 2020, competing as the Russian Olympic Committee, both the men’s and the women’s teams won gold. Russian gymnasts have been restricted since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and Angelina Melnikova won the 2025 world all-around title as an individual neutral athlete. In May 2026 World Gymnastics announced that it was lifting all of its restrictions on Russian and Belarusian athletes, a decision Ukraine’s federation has criticised.

#5 Romania

• 🥇 Olympic golds: 25 in artistic gymnastics, fifth in history
• 🏆 Women’s team golds: 1984, 2000 and 2004
• ⭐ Stars: Nadia Comaneci, Daniela Silivas, Lavinia Milosovici, Catalina Ponor
• 📅 Big moment: Comaneci’s perfect 10 in Montreal, 1976

Romania built a women’s gymnastics machine around the town of Onesti, where Bela and Martha Karolyi began coaching in the 1960s and found Nadia Comaneci as a young girl. A national training centre in Deva gathered the best juniors under one roof. At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Comaneci scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics on the uneven bars, and she left with three golds.

Romanian women won the Olympic team title in 1984, 2000 and 2004 and reached the team podium at every Olympics from 1976 to 2012. Daniela Silivas, Lavinia Milosovici, Simona Amanar and Catalina Ponor all became Olympic champions.

#6 Germany

• 🥇 Olympic golds: 14 in artistic gymnastics (the united German team of 1956 to 1964 is counted)
• 🤸 Members: about 5 million in the German Gymnastics Federation, per the federation
• ⭐ Stars: Fabian Hambüchen, Kim Bui, Elisabeth Seitz
• 📅 Big event: Deutsches Turnfest

Modern gymnastics grew out of Germany. Friedrich Ludwig Jahn started the German gymnastics movement in Berlin in 1811, and his followers developed the parallel bars, rings, horizontal bar, pommel horse and vault horse. The German Gymnastics Federation (Deutscher Turner-Bund) still describes itself as the second-largest sports federation in the country, with about five million members, many of them in recreational and children’s gymnastics.

Elite success has been more modest than the mass base suggests. Germany won the men’s team title in 1936, and Fabian Hambüchen won horizontal bar gold at Rio 2016 after silver in 2012 and bronze in 2008.

#7 Ukraine

• 🥇 Olympic golds: 5 in artistic gymnastics
• 🏆 Olympic team medals: Men’s silver in 2000, bronze in 1996
• ⭐ Stars: Lilia Podkopayeva, Oleg Verniaiev, Illia Kovtun
• 📅 Recent: Kovtun won parallel bars silver at Paris 2024

Ukraine has competed as an independent nation since 1996, and the first star was Lilia Podkopayeva, who won the all-around and the floor exercise in Atlanta that year. The men’s team followed with bronze in 1996 and silver in 2000, and Ukrainian gymnasts have produced a steady stream of world and European medals.

Oleg Verniaiev won parallel bars gold at Rio 2016 and silver in the all-around, and Illia Kovtun took parallel bars silver in Paris. Ukraine’s federation criticised the decision of World Gymnastics to lift its restrictions on Russian and Belarusian athletes in May 2026.

#8 Italy

• 🥇 Olympic golds: 15 in artistic gymnastics
• 🏆 Men’s team golds: Including 1924 and 1932
• ⭐ Stars: Vanessa Ferrari, Alice D’Amato, Manila Esposito
• 📅 Recent: Women’s team silver at Paris 2024

Italy was one of the first great gymnastics nations. The men won Olympic team gold in 1924 and 1932, and the country has won 15 gold medals in artistic gymnastics. In Paris in 2024 the Italian women took team silver.

Alice D’Amato won the balance beam in Paris, with Manila Esposito taking bronze on the same event, and the team silver went to D’Amato, Esposito, Angela Andreoli, Elisa Iorio and Giorgia Villa. Vanessa Ferrari, the 2006 world all-around champion, earned floor silver in Tokyo 2020.

#9 France

• 🥇 Olympic golds: 3 in artistic gymnastics, plus 10 silver and 9 bronze
• 🤸 Licence holders: 342,253 in the 2023/24 season
• 🏫 Clubs: 1,405 clubs, about 85 percent of members women
• 📅 Big event: Paris 2024 Olympic Games

France has one of the largest gymnastics federations in the world by membership. The Fédération française de gymnastique reported 342,253 licence holders in 2023/24, up 5.6 percent on the year before, spread across 1,405 clubs. About 85 percent of them are women and girls.

The tradition goes back to the Spanish colonel Francisco Amorós, who is credited as the first to bring educational gymnastics to France. Success at the Olympics has been steadier than spectacular, with 22 medals in artistic gymnastics, only three of them gold.

#10 Great Britain

• 🥇 Olympic golds: 3, all won by Max Whitlock
• 🏆 Team medals: Men’s bronze in 2012, women’s bronze in 2020
• ⭐ Stars: Max Whitlock, Louis Smith, Jessica Gadirova, Becky Downie
• 📅 Big event: British Championships

British gymnastics took a leap in the 2010s. After the home Games of 2012, where the men won team bronze, Max Whitlock won floor and pommel horse gold at Rio 2016 and defended the pommel horse title in Tokyo. His six Olympic medals make him the most successful gymnast in British history.

The women reached the Olympic team podium in Tokyo with bronze in 2020, and a deep squad that includes Jessica Gadirova and Becky Downie keeps the program strong.

#11 Brazil

• 🥇 Olympic golds: 3 in artistic gymnastics, plus 5 silver and 2 bronze
• 🏆 Paris 2024: Women’s team bronze, floor gold for Rebeca Andrade
• ⭐ Stars: Rebeca Andrade, Arthur Zanetti, Flavia Saraiva
• 📅 Recent: Andrade, 2 golds, 3 silvers and 1 bronze at the Olympics

Brazil has become South America’s leading gymnastics nation. Arthur Zanetti won the rings at London 2012 and the silver in Rio, and Rebeca Andrade has turned herself into one of the sport’s biggest stars with six Olympic medals.

Andrade won vault gold in Tokyo and the floor exercise gold in Paris, plus all-around silver at both Games. In Paris the Brazilian women also took team bronze, with Andrade, Jade Barbosa, Lorrane Oliveira, Flavia Saraiva and Julia Soares.

Which Countries Are Best at Gymnastics?

This table counts Olympic medals in artistic gymnastics from 1896 to 2024, as listed on Wikipedia using Olympedia data. The Soviet Union is shown on its own row because it won more than any other nation, and Germany includes the medals of the united German team of 1956 to 1964.

Other Countries Where Gymnastics Is Growing

These countries just missed the ranking but have a strong gymnastics tradition.

More About Gymnastics

• History of Gymnastics
• Gymnastics lingo and slang
• Gymnastics equipment list

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