score in the preliminaries as well as again in the All-Around final, truly dominating the competition. That dominance stretched over into event finals as well where he snared 3 out of the 6 individual event titles. 1987 saw Korolyov even better-poised to go into the succeeding year's Olympics than at the same point in time in the previous quadrennium. Despite the very successful return of Bilozerchev and the rise of younger Soviet stars such as Valeri Liukin and Valentin Mogilny, Korolyov still managed to win his 3rd European All-Around Silver Medal, behind Liukin, at that year's competition in Moscow, adding to that 1 gold and 1 silver in event finals. Even more impressive was his performance at the 1987 World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam. Although Korolyov only qualified 4th among his Soviet teammates, compatriate Liukin had to withdraw from the Individual All-Around because of an unfortunate knee injury, freeing Korolyov to compete in the All-Around final where he placed 2nd behind Bilozerchev and, buttressed by a perfect score of 10.00 on vault, even logged a higher 6-event composite score in the all-around final than Bilozerchev (or anybody else). (Under the New Life rules instituted two years later, he would have been World All-Around Champion.) With the previous year's successes established, it looked like Korolyov would have another chance to finally prove himself on the world's biggest stage, the Olympics, but fate adversely intervened again when he injured his Achilles tendon, making his bid for the 1988 Seoul Olympics impossible. After 1988 In 1989, incredibly, Korolyov kept competing. He almost made that year's World Championship team for the Soviets, but with yet more up-and comers in the Soviet system like Vitaly Marinich and Valery Belenky, he placed 7th at that year's USSR Championships and then retired. The most decorated non-Olympian in gymnastics? Korolyov is, quite arguably, the most decorated non-Olympian (male or female) gymnast of all time. With a total of 34 individual medals at World Championships, World Cups, and European Championships competitions, Korolyov has more such medals than any other non-Olympian with Valentin Mogilny (17) being the next highest in this sort of medal count. Even stretching this medal count to include individual Olympic (Official or ‘Alternate’) medals, Korolyov's medal haul is tied with Alexander Dityatin for 3rd all-time for men behind Vitaly Scherbo (51) and Nikolai Andrianov (48). The non-Olympian woman gymnasts with the highest such medal hauls are