One of the greatest gymnasts ever, he won 15 Olympic medals
The popularity of gymnastics boomed throughout the 1970s, as the television public fell in love with the Olympic exploits of Russia's Olga Korbut in Munich in 1972, and then with Romania's Nadia Coma˘neci four years later in Montreal. Gaining less acclaim was the man who, throughout that decade, was the world's best gymnast. Nikolai Andrianov, who has died aged 58, was arguably the greatest gymnast of all time. He won a total of 15 Olympic medals for the Soviet Union, including seven golds, a men's record that stood until the swimmer Michael Phelps won his 16th medal at the Beijing games in 2008. A Russian female gymnast, Larissa Latynina, holds the overall record, with 18.
Andrianov was unusually consistent in all the sport's disciplines. He possessed immense upper-body strength, which made the rings and vault particular specialities, but even in the floor exercise, which calls for more flexibility, he was formidable. He was renowned for his daring and toughness, qualities which combined when he pioneered the triple back-flip to cut from the rings.
That toughness was developed on the streets of Vladimir, 120 miles east of Moscow, where he grew up in poverty, raised, along with three siblings, by his mother, after his father deserted the family. Andrianov was heading for a life of delinquency when he came under the wing of the gymnastics coach Nikolai Tolkachev, and responded positively to the challenge. By the age of 18 he was in the Soviet national team, and the following year he won two gold medals at the 1971 European championships.
In Munich, he won his first Olympic gold, in the floor exercise, as well as a bronze in the vault and a silver in the team combined. Immersed totally in the sport, but renowned for his ability to enjoy life as well, in 1973 he married a fellow gymnast, Lyubov Burda, who won team gold medals in Mexico City and Munich. Three years later, Andrianov dominated the Montreal games, winning seven medals, including four golds in the floor, rings, vault and all-round. He won the all-round again in the 1978 world championships, and in the Moscow Olympics of 1980 captured five more medals, though only one gold, again in the vault.
Andrianov retired after the Moscow games to coach the Soviet national junior team, where he was instrumental in the development of Vitaly Scherbo, whose six gold medals in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics remains the greatest gymnastic performance of any single games. Scherbo was another youth who had problems with authority, but once, when he was suspended from the national team, Andrianov interceded and got him reinstated, providing a wake-up call for his star pupil.
He later served as an international judge and, after the fall of the Soviet Union, coached in Japan from 1994 until 2002. He was originally brought there by Mitsuo Tsukahara, formerly one of his toughest opponents, who had become a close friend, to coach his son Naoya. Andrianov's work with the national team sparked a revival that ended up with Japan winning team gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics. By then, Andrianov had returned to Vladimir and become the head of coaching at the sports centre where he had been introduced to gymnastics.
In 2001, Andrianov was inducted into the International Gymnastics Federation's Hall of Fame. Five years later, the federation staged a special tribute to him at celebrations in Geneva marking its 125th anniversary. By then, he was already suffering from the effects of a degenerative neurological disorder, multiple system atrophy, which slowly took away his ability to move his arms and legs, or talk. He is survived by his wife and two sons.
• Nikolai Yefimovich Andrianov, gymnast, born 14 October 1952; died 21 March 2011