[1] Her father, Semyon Andreyevich Diriy, left the family when she was 11 months old, and she was raised by her illiterate mother, who worked as a cleaner during the day, and as a watchman during the night.

[4] In 1950 young Diriy-Latynina received her first sports degree (rozriad) and became a member of the Ukrainian students team at the All-Union gymnastics' competitions in Kazan.

She attended the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (KPI), and continued her training at the Burevestnik VSS under coaching of Oleksandr Mishakov.

[4] Her first notable success came at the 4th World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharest where she won gold medals.

[4] At the age of 19, she debuted internationally at the 1954 Rome World Championships, winning the gold medal in the team competition.

[4] After a very successful World Championships in 1958 (winning five out of six titles despite competing whilst four months pregnant and medaling in every event), Latynina was the favorite for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.

[6] In the all-around event, she led the Soviet Union to take the first four places, thereby also securing a win in the team competition by a margin of nine points.

Latynina defended her floor title, took silver medals in the balance beam and uneven bars events, and bronze in the vault competition.

Latynina won all-around titles at the 1962 World Championships, beating Věra Čáslavská of Czechoslovakia.

[8][9] She was born to Pelageya Anisimovna Barabamyuk (1902–1975) and Semyon Andreevich Diriy (1906–1943), who died in the Battle of Stalingrad.

[1][10][11] Latynina announced her retirement after the 1966 World Championships and became a coach for the Soviet national gymnastics team, a position she held until 1977.