Olga Korbut

Olga Korbut on Azerbaijani postage stamp

Olga Korbut ( Russian Ольга Валентиновна Корбут , Belarusian Вольга Валянцінаўна Корбут / Wolha Waljanzinauna Korbut * 16th May 1955 in Grodno , Byelorussian SSR , Soviet Union ) is a former Soviet gymnast Belarussian origin. She lives in the USA .

biography

Korbut is the youngest daughter of an engineer and a cook. In 1965, when she was ten, she began training at a gymnastics school with Elena Volchetskaya. Already at the age of 15 she was a member of the Soviet national team and finished 5th in the all-around at the 1970 World Cup in Ljubljana behind the winner Ljudmila Turishcheva . Seventeen-year-old Olga Korbut was one of the most popular athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich , mainly because of her bad luck with a fall during the all-around competition, which ensured that she only finished 7th in this competition. At the following equipment competitions, however, she won gold for her floor freestyle and gold on the balance beam as well as silver on the uneven bars behind her German competitor Karin Janz together with Erika Zuchold . The gold medal with the Soviet team made her one of the most successful participants in the 1972 Games. Korbut, who weighed only 38 kg at the 1972 Olympic Games and was 1.55 m tall, was nicknamed “Der Grodno Sparrow ”. In the same year, Korbut was named Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press .

Olga Korbut, 1972, Munich

In 1972, during the Olympic Games, Olga was the first in the world to perform the unique gymnastic element called Korbut Flip on the uneven bars .

At the 1974 World Championships in Varna , she became world champion in horse jumping and in the team as well as vice world champion in all-around, on bars, on the floor and on uneven bars. At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal , she again won the gold medal and silver on the balance beam with the Soviet team.

She won four gold and two silver medals at the Olympic Games and two gold and three silver medals at world championships. In 1977 she ended her active sports career and became the Belarusian head coach for women's gymnastics. In 1988 she was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame as the first member . At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta , she acted as Olympic attaché for the Belarus team.

She was married to the singer Leonid Bortkewitsch until 2000, with whom she has a son. After their divorce, she married Alex Woinitsch. She moved to Scottsdale , or to Phoenix , Arizona, in the USA. In the USA she opened a gymnastics school. Due to personal financial difficulties, she sold some of her Olympic medals in February 2017 for a total of $ 333,500.

Korbut can also be seen on the balance beam at Madame Tussauds in London.

Olga Korbut from Madame Tussauds

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 - Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00741-5 , p. 314.
2. ↑ Volker Kluge: Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 - Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00741-5 , p. 413, note 457.
3. ^ Jon Henley: "Former Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut sells Olympic medals" , theguardian.com, February 28, 2017

Web links

Commons : Olga Korbut  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Olga Korbut in the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame (English)
• Olga Korbut in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Korbut Flip, 1972, Olympic Games