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Olga Valentinovna Korbut (Belarusian: Вольга Валянцінаўна Корбут, Volha Valancinaŭna
Korbut; Russian: Ольга Валентиновна Корбут) (b. May 16,
1955 in Hrodna), also known as
the Sparrow from Minsk, is a Belarusian, Soviet-born gymnast who won four gold
medals and two silver medals at the Summer Olympics, in
which she competed in 1972 and 1976
for the USSR
team.
Early
life
Korbut, who started training at age 8, entered a Belarusian sports school headed by coach
Renald Knysh at age 11. There, Korbut's first trainer was Elena
Volchetskaya (an Olympian), but she was moved to
Knysh's group a year later. With him, she learned a difficult
backward somersault on the balance beam.
She ended fifth at her first competition in the 1969 USSR
championships. The next year, she won a gold medal in the vault.
Due to illness and injury, she was unable to compete in many of the
tournaments prior to the 1972 Olympics.
The
Olympics
At the 1972 Olympics, her acrobatics and open display of
emotion—notably, she wiped tears from her face after a disastrous
uneven bars routine—in contrast to the stereotypically cold eastern
bloc athlete, captivated the Munich audiences. There she became one of the
first persons ever to do a backward somersault on the balance beam
in competition. She was also the first to do standing backward
somersault on bars, and a back somersault to swingdown (Korbut Flip) on beam.
Her bars move is no longer seen in high level gymnastics, but the
tuck back and Korbut
Flip are still very popular (2003 world beam champion Fan Ye
performed both in her routine). This excellence in technical skills
overthrew the sport's traditional emphasis on artistry.
During the Olympics, Korbut was one of the favourites for the
all-around after her dynamic performance in the team competition;
however, she missed her mount on bars three times and the title
went to her teammate Ludmilla Tourischeva.
Notwithstanding, Korbut won three gold medals for the balance beam,
floor exercise and team. She also earned a silver medal in the
uneven bars. Korbut's first attempt at her uneven bars routine was
marred by several mistakes which all but ended her chances of
winning a gold medal in the all around. The next day Korbut
repeated the same routine in the event finals, although this time
successfully. After the boards displayed a score of 9.8, the
audience began to whistle, jeer, stamp their feet, and shout vulgar
remarks at the judges in disapproval, believing her score to be too
low. However, the judges refused to change her score. A similar
display of audience disapproval occurred thirty-two years later at
the 2004 Athens Olympics, this time involving
Russian gymnast Alexei
Nemov's score; however, after 15 minutes of audience protest
his score was slightly adjusted.
Korbut is most famous for her uneven bars and balance beam
routines. Her Olympic achievement earned her ABC's Wide World of
Sports title: Athlete of the Year. In 1973, she won the Russian
and World Student (i.e., University) Games, and a silver medal in
the all-around at the European Championships.
The Soviet coaches and officials had designated Olga as the
woman who could beat the Romanian prodigy, Nadia Comaneci, in the 1976
Summer Olympics at Montreal, but Olga was injured and her
performances in the games were under-par. She was overshadowed not
only by Comaneci, but also by her own teammate Nellie Kim. She did
collect a team gold medal, and an individual silver medal for the
balance beam.
Retirement and life
after the Olympics
She graduated from the Grodno Pedagogical Institute in 1977, and
retired from gymnastics competition thereafter. She married Leonid
Bortkevich, who was a member of a popular Belarusian folk band, Pesniary. The couple had a
son, Richard, in 1979. In 1991, she emigrated to the United States.
Korbut and Bortkevich divorced in 2000. Korbut now lives in
Scottsdale, AZ.
The
legacy
Korbut is a highly decorated athlete with four Olympic gold
medals to her credit, but it is not this feat for which she is most
remembered. The media whirl which surrounded her 1972 Olympic debut
caused a surge of young girls to join their local gymnastic clubs,
and a sport which had seldom been noticed previously now made
headlines. In addition to greatly publicizing gymnastics worldwide,
she also contributed to a marked change in the tenor of the sport
itself. Prior to 1972, the athletes were generally older and the
focus was on elegance rather than acrobatics. In the decade after
Korbut's Olympic debut, the emphasis was reversed.
In 1988 Korbut was inducted into the International
Gymnastics Hall of Fame.[1]
References
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