Olga Korbut facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Olga Korbut
Olga Korbut c. 1972
Personal information
Full name	Olga Valentinovna Korbut
Nickname(s)	Sparrow from Minsk
Country represented	Soviet Union
Born	(1955-05-16) 16 May 1955 (age 70) Hrodna, Belarusian SSR, Soviet Union (USSR)
Hometown	Scottsdale, Arizona since 2002
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Club	Soviet Army Grodno
Head coach(es)	Renald Knysh
Eponymous skills	Korbut flip
Retired	1977
Medal record Representing  Soviet Union Olympic Games Gold 1972 Munich Team Gold 1972 Munich Balance beam Gold 1972 Munich Floor exercise Gold 1976 Montreal Team Silver 1972 Munich Uneven bars Silver 1976 Montreal Balance beam World Championships Gold 1974 Varna Team Gold 1974 Varna Vault Silver 1974 Varna All-Around Silver 1974 Varna Uneven bars Silver 1974 Varna Balance beam Silver 1974 Varna Floor exercise European Championships Silver 1973 London All-Around

Olga Korbut (born May 16, 1955) is a famous retired gymnast from Belarus. She competed for the Soviet Union. People called her the "Sparrow from Minsk" because of her small size and quick movements.

Olga won four gold medals and two silver medals at the Summer Olympic Games. She competed in the Olympics in 1972 and 1976. In 1988, she was the first gymnast to be added to the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

Olga Korbut stopped competing in gymnastics in 1977 when she was 22. This was considered young for gymnasts back then. However, her amazing performances changed the sport forever. Many people say her 1972 Olympic routines made gymnastics more about exciting acrobatics than just ballet and grace. She also helped make gymnastics popular around the world. In 1991, she moved to the United States and became a citizen in 2000. She now lives there and helps train young gymnasts.

Early Life and Training

Olga Korbut was born in Grodno, a city in Belarus. She started gymnastics training when she was 8 years old. At age 9, she joined a special sports school. Her coach there was Renald Knysh.

Coach Knysh first thought Olga was "lazy." But he soon saw her amazing talent. She had a very flexible back and a charming personality. With his help, she learned a difficult backward somersault on the balance beam. She showed this move for the first time in 1969.

In the same year, Olga did a backflip-to-catch on the uneven bars. This was the first time a woman had ever done a backward release move on the bars. These new moves showed how she was changing gymnastics.

Olympic Games Success

Olga Korbut at the 1972 Olympics on an Azerbaijani stamp

At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Olga Korbut became very famous. Her daring acrobatics and high-level gymnastics amazed everyone. Even today, moves like the back tuck and the Korbut flip are still very popular.

During the 1972 Olympics, Olga was a favorite to win the all-around title. But she made some mistakes on the uneven bars. Her teammate, Ludmilla Tourischeva, won the all-around instead.

Despite this, Olga won three gold medals! She earned golds for the balance beam, floor exercise, and the team competitions. She also won a silver medal on the uneven bars. Her score on the uneven bars was very controversial. The audience thought her score was too low and protested loudly.

Olga was known for her exciting routines on the uneven bars and balance beam. Her performances truly captured the hearts of the audience. In 1973, she won gold medals at the Russian and World Student Games. She also earned a silver medal at the European Championships.

At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Olga was expected to do very well. However, she had an injury. She still helped her team win a gold medal. She also won an individual silver medal on the balance beam. In these games, another young gymnast, Nadia Comăneci, became the new star.

Life After Gymnastics

Olga Korbut stopped competing in gymnastics in 1977. She graduated from the Grodno Pedagogical Institute and became a teacher. She married Leonid Bortkevich, a musician. They had a son named Richard in 1979.

In 1988, Olga Korbut made history again. She was the very first gymnast to be inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. This shows how important she was to the sport.

In 1991, Olga and her family moved to the United States. They were concerned about the effects of the Chernobyl disaster in Belarus. She settled in New Jersey and began teaching gymnastics. Later, she moved to Georgia and continued coaching. In 2000, she became a citizen of the United States. Since 2002, Olga has lived in Scottsdale, Arizona. She coaches private gymnastics students and gives motivational speeches.

Olga attended the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. She watched the gymnastics events and shared her thoughts on social media. The Royal Opera House also had an exhibit about the Olympics. It featured the stories of 16 Olympic medalists, including Olga. She was very honored to be part of it.

Her Amazing Legacy

A wax figure of Korbut at Madame Tussauds in London

Olga Korbut is most famous for a move called the Korbut flip. This is a backflip performed on the uneven parallel bars. She would stand on the high bar, do a backflip, and then catch the same bar from below. She also did a similar flip on the balance beam. The move was named after her because she was the first to perform it in a major competition in 1972. Today, the Korbut flip is no longer allowed in Olympic competitions because of safety rules.

After the 1972 Olympics, Olga met the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, at the White House. President Nixon told her that her performance helped improve relations between their two countries.

Olga Korbut greatly increased the popularity of gymnastics around the world. Before 1972, gymnasts were usually older, and the sport focused more on elegance. After Olga's Olympic debut, the sport changed. It became more about exciting acrobatics and daring moves. Olga, who was small at 4 feet 11 inches tall, helped start the trend of smaller, more agile gymnasts in the sport.

Her success at the 1972 Olympics earned her the title of "Athlete of the Year" from ABC's Wide World of Sports. In a UK poll, her performance was voted one of the "100 Greatest Sporting Moments."

Famous Gymnastics Moves (Eponymous Skills)

Some gymnastics moves are named after Olga Korbut because she was the first to perform them:

• Vault: A handspring forward with a full twist onto the vault table, followed by a full twist off.
• Uneven Bars: An arched layout backflip from standing on top of the high bar, where she would regrasp the same bar. Also, a back layout dismount from standing on the high bar. (These are no longer in the Code of Points).
• Balance Beam: A back handspring that leads into a cross straddle sit. She was also the first to perform a back tuck salto and a front tuck salto dismount.
• Floor: A back layout that lands in a chest position.

In Popular Culture

Olga Korbut's fame even reached comic strips! In a Peanuts comic from 1973, Snoopy is shown doing perfect balance beam moves on his doghouse. In the last panel, he says, "Olga Korbut has been bugging me for lessons!"

Competitive History

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
Junior Competitions
1967	Junior USSR Championships
Senior Competitions
1969	Junior Friendship Tournament						4
	USSR Championships		5
1970	Chunichi Cup
	Junior Friendship Tournament				4
	Tokyo Cup
	USSR Championships		15
1971	Chunichi Cup
	GDR-USSR Dual Meet
	JPN-USSR Dual Meet
	USSR Championships		4
1972	Riga International
	USSR-FRG-CAN Tri-Meet
	USSR-TCH Dual Meet
	USSR Championships			7
	USSR Cup
	Olympic Games		7	5
1973
	European Championships
	Summer Universiade
1974	USSR Championships
	USSR Cup		4
	World Championships
1975	USSR Championships				6		6
	USSR Spartikade
1976	Cup of the White Russian Republic
	USSR Cup
	Olympic Games		5		5

See also

• List of people from Belarus
• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games
• List of top Olympic gymnastics medalists
• List of Olympic female gymnasts for the Soviet Union