Olga Korbut

Olga Valentinovna Korbut (born 16 May 1955) is a retired Belarusian gymnast who competed for the Soviet Union.

There, Korbut's first trainer was Elena Volchetskaya, an Olympic gold medalist (1964), but she was moved to Knysh's group a year later.

Initially he found her "lazy and capricious" but he also saw potential in her great talent, unusually supple spine, and charisma.

With him, she learned a difficult backward somersault on the balance beam.

She debuted this at a competition in the USSR in 1969.

The same year, Korbut completed a backflip-to-catch on the uneven bars; this was the first backward release move ever performed by a woman on bars.

She finished fifth at her first competition in the 1969 USSR championships, where she was allowed to compete as a 14-year-old.

The next year, she won a gold medal in the vault.

Nicknamed the "Sparrow from Minsk", she won four gold medals and two silver medals at the Summer Olympic Games, in which she competed in 1972 and 1976 for the Soviet team, and was the inaugural inductee to the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1988.

Korbut's 1972 Olympic performances are widely credited as redefining gymnastics, changing the sport from emphasising ballet and elegance to acrobatics, as well as changing gymnastics from a niche sport to one of the most popular sports in the world.

Due to illness and injury, she was unable to compete in many of the competitions before the 1972 Summer Olympics.

At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Korbut's acrobatics and open high-level gymnastics brought her much fame.

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.

At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Soviet coaches and officials had designated Korbut as the woman who could beat the Romanian prodigy, Nadia Comăneci, but Korbut was injured and her performances in the games were sub-par.

She was overshadowed not only by Comăneci, but also by her own teammate Nellie Kim.

She did collect a team gold medal, and an individual silver medal for the balance beam.

Korbut retired from gymnastics in 1977 at the age of 22, considered young for gymnasts of the period, but her influence and legacy in gymnastics were far-reaching.

Korbut graduated from the Grodno Pedagogical Institute in 1977, became a teacher, and retired from gymnastic competition thereafter.

She married Leonid Bortkevich, who was a member of Belarusian folk band Pesniary.

The couple had a son, Richard, born in 1979.

In 1988 Korbut became the first gymnast to be inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

She emigrated to the United States in 1991, where she lives and trains gymnasts, and became a citizen in 2000.

Korbut was born in Grodno to Valentin and Valentina Korbut.

After World War II, the family moved to Grodno from Dubniaki (small town near Kalinkavichy).

She started training at age 8, and entered a Belarusian sports school headed by coach Renald Knysh at age 9.

In 1991, she and her family immigrated to the United States, because they were worried about the effects of fallout from the Chernobyl disaster on Belarus.

They settled in New Jersey, where she taught gymnastics.

They moved to Georgia, USA two years later where she continued to coach.

Korbut and Bortkevich divorced in 2000; she became a naturalized U.S. citizen the same year.

In 2002 Korbut moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, to become head coach at Scottsdale Gymnastics and Cheerleading.

Korbut faced Darva Conger on an episode of Celebrity Boxing which aired on 22 May 2002.

To this day, the back tuck and Korbut flip are still very popular (2003 world beam champion Fan Ye performed both in her routine).

During the Olympics, Korbut was one of the favorites 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 teammate Ludmilla Tourischeva.

That said, Korbut won three gold medals for the balance beam, floor exercise, and team competitions.

In one of the most controversial finishes of all time, she took 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 and shout vulgar remarks at the judges in disapproval, believing her score to be too low.

This carried on for several minutes but the judges refused to change their score.

Korbut is most famous for her uneven bars and balance beam routines, as well as her charismatic performances that captivated audiences.