Life somersaults of the "miracle with pigtails" - the anniversary of Olga Korbut. Korbut Olga. Sports biography

Olga Valentinovna Korbut. She was born on May 16, 1955 in Grodno (Belarusian SSR). Soviet artistic gymnast, four-time Olympic champion. Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1972).

Father is an engineer. Mother is a cook.

Has three older sisters: Zinaida Valentinovna Korbut, Irina Valentinovna Korbut, Lyudmila Valentinovna Korbut.

She began to practice gymnastics in the second grade - the physical teacher of the school drew attention to her inclinations. He took Olga to the gymnastics section, where she began to study with Yaroslav Ivanovich Korol.

Two years later - in 1965 - the famous coach Renald Ivanovich Knysh began to train Olga (Olga called him "Ren"). He noted the character of the girl: she was brave, assertive, hardworking, ready to work to the point of exhaustion for the sake of the result.

The first big success came in 1970 - she became the champion of the USSR in the vault and entered the USSR national team. The first gymnast who was able to perform somersaults on the balance beam.

A triumph for Korbut was the 1972 Olympics in Munich. She won three gold medals and one silver.

The history of gymnastics included her confrontation with Lyudmila Turishcheva. Turishcheva personified the old academic gymnastic school, while Korbut embodied new trends in sports: risky elements, athleticism and youth. Miracle with pigtails - that was the name of the gymnast at the 1972 Olympics. At the time of the performance, her height was 152 cm, and her weight was 39 kg.

At the 1972 Munich Olympics, Korbut demonstrated innovative gymnastic elements and became a crowd favorite. However, in a tough fight for absolute superiority, she lost to Turishcheva. Speaking during the absolute championship on her signature uneven bars, she made a serious mistake, and in the end did not even get into the prize-winners.

After the 1972 Olympics, Olga Korbut became a star on the air and was invited to tour the United States in 1973. The tour was a triumph, and they are associated with the beginning of the gymnastics boom in America. Abroad idolized - vying with each other invited to dinner parties and talk shows. So, US President Richard Nixon called Korbut to the White House in 1973. She did not know then what the President of the United States looked like. There is a funny story associated with this. Nixon came in and immediately smiled at Olga: “Oh, how small you are!” To which she, thinking that this was another correspondent, retorted: “And you are so big.”

In 1974, based on her biography, the feature film Miracle with Pigtails was shot, in which she herself performed sports exercises (in the title role).

Olga Korbut was the first to perform a unique element named after her "Korbut loop". The gymnast stands on the high part of uneven bars and makes a flask, clinging to the top bar of the bars with her hands. The element was performed during her routines on uneven bars at the Munich Olympics.

Olga herself admitted that every time she performed her famous “Korbut loop”, she was very afraid.

Subsequently, the element was improved by Elena Mukhina - she added a screw to it. Currently, the Korbut Loop is not performed at official competitions, as it is prohibited by the rules: gymnasts cannot stand with their feet on the top of the bars.

Loop Korbut

The famous gymnast Larisa Latynina described Korbut as follows: “Insolence, courage, resourcefulness. This is an alloy of reckless courage and grandiose boldness, youthful enthusiasm and charm..

In 1976, Olga joined the USSR national team at the Games in Montreal, winning gold as part of the team and winning silver on beam.

She ended her sports career after the Olympics in Montreal.

In 1977 she received a diploma from the Faculty of History of Grodno University.

Since 1991 he lives in the USA, has American citizenship.

Journalist Maria Shriver, ex-wife, filmed a story about Olga and even lived at her house for three days. Since then they have been friends. She also met with Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, in addition - with, and other celebrities.

In 2002, Korbut was accused of stealing: allegedly, in an Atlanta supermarket, she tried to steal $20 worth of groceries. As the gymnast herself explained, she actually just forgot her wallet in the car. She reported this to the seller, then the guards escorted her to the car, and the media eventually inflated the sensation out of nothing.

Wrote the book "My Story: The Autobiography of Olga Korbut" (1992).

Lives in the USA, receives royalties from gymnastic elements, gives master classes for children.

Olga Korbut's height: 152 centimeters.

Personal life of Olga Korbut:

She was married to a musician, singer, soloist of the Pesnyary group. They got married on January 7, 1979. Although the doctors claimed that Olga's 12 years of sports had forever deprived her of the opportunity to have children, her son Richard was born in the marriage.

Divorced in 2000. As Bortkevich said, they divorced because of Olga’s betrayal: “I constantly toured, left my wife alone. I couldn’t even imagine that she would cheat on me - I completely trusted her. A friend opened his eyes to the true state of things, explained that Olya had another ". Despite this, they remained friends, constantly communicate.

In 2002, Richard's son was caught making counterfeit dollars. The Atlanta federal court sentenced the then 22-year-old boy to three and a half years in prison. And when the guy, who did not have American citizenship, served his sentence, he was deported to Belarus. Later he returned to the USA, lives in Atlanta, is engaged in business.

In 2013, Richard had a son, Valentin, the grandson of Olga Korbut.

After a divorce from Bortkiewicz, she remarried an American named Jay, he is a businessman, much younger than her. About Jay, the ex-husband of Olga Bortkevich said: "He received an inheritance from dad. They own a house and an apartment in Phoenix."

Sale of Olga Korbut medals:

In February 2017, it became known that . She auctioned off five awards from the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games, a gymnastic leotard she wore in London in 1973, USSR Master of Sports badges, and her first American passport issued in 2000 at the Platinum Night auction. The initial price of the medals ranged from 15 to 26 thousand dollars.

There were rumors that she decided to sell the medals because of her difficult financial situation. Olga herself on Twitter commented on this story as follows: “My God! There was an article in Russia that I sold my medals because I am broke and need money. Not true! I am happy in Arizona and healthy. I have a wonderful life!” .

At the same time, her ex-husband Leonid Bortkevich reported that her new husband offered to sell the medals: "Jay suggested:" Let's put them up for an online auction and find out the cost. "The trophies were instantly registered as lots. When the price became known, Korbut tried to return the medals, but she was stopped, they say, that’s enough - there were buyers. Olya wanted to leave at least one as a keepsake ... But she didn’t get upset. Over the years of her life in America, she changed her attitude to awards, here they are just things, the main thing is that you went down in history forever. Korbut first received an offer to sell medals many years ago when she opened the gymnastics Hall of Fame in Atlanta. One of the sponsors whispered to Olga that she would buy medals - a million dollars for each, but she refused. "

Korbut regularly goes with her husband to nature and fishing, loves shopping.

In April 2018, the gymnast became the heroine of the “Let them talk” program, in which she said that on the eve of the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

"It was harassment. In the end, before the Olympic Games in Munich, he just raped me. It's true. I live with it. It's very hard. Of course, I hid it all. It was very embarrassing. I was even ashamed to say. It happened in Minsk at the Yubileinaya Hotel. Right before the Olympic Games, when I was 17 years old," the athlete said.

Knysh himself denied the accusations.

Sports achievements of Olga Korbut:

Olympic Games:

Gold - Munich 1972 - team
Gold - Munich 1972 - freestyle
Gold - Munich 1972 - beam
Silver - Munich 1972 - uneven bars
Gold - Montreal 1976 - team
Silver - Montreal 1976 - beam

World Championships:

Gold - Varna 1974 - team
Gold - Varna 1974 - vault
Silver - Varna 1974 - all-around
Silver - Varna 1974 - bars
Silver - Varna 1974 - beam
Silver - Varna 1974 - freestyle

Filmography of Olga Korbut:

1987 - You will go to the ball (Soviet Sport No. 2) (documentary)
2009 - City Lights - Episode
2009 - Aerobatics - episode

“I told Vitaly Mutko that I would like to share my experience with Russian gymnasts. He promised to think about it, but so far everything is up in the air.”

On the eve of her 55th birthday, Olga Korbut admitted to “MK” that she was ready for a new “loop” of fate. She really wants to jump over the ocean and return to Russia.

But I'm not sure he can land on his feet here.

Olympics in Munich, 1972… Olga Korbut, sparkling with her famous smile, was getting ready to do her signature number - jump on the upper bars, loop back in the air in a matter of seconds and land back on the upper bars. She still doesn’t remember what she did wrong when she fell on the mats ... The stands were quiet, the girl was crying, hiding her face in her hands, her little pigtails were trembling ... Spectators at TV screens around the world sobbed along with the athlete.

- For that failure, the audience was imbued with sincere sympathy for you even more ... Do you think that you lost or won something more than a gold medal?

“I didn’t lose even then, although I was very offended,” Olga Korbut answers the phone with a slight “overseas” accent. - Because I fought not for medals, but for the result. And although journalists always remember my first failure, I believe that they loved and recognized me all over the world for my cheerful smile.

- When you arrived in America, Nixon himself met you ...

- Personally, they gave me a car right to the gangway of the plane, and when Nixon approached me at the conference, I didn’t recognize him: “What a little you are!” He looked down at me with a smile. "You're not a big boy either!" I didn’t reach into my pocket for a word. And then it turned out that in front of me was the President of the United States.

Did you already know English well then?

- I realized that I needed the language after I came to a demonstration performance in Japan, and in the evening I went out for a walk and lost my way to my hotel. Passers-by did not understand me. Then I found the key to my room and showed the name of the hotel to the policeman, who accompanied me - it turned out that it was only two blocks away, but I remembered the lesson for a long time.

- Probably, it was not easy for you to leave big-time sports shortly after the 1976 Olympics - then you had to remove your famous “loop” from the program ...

- In professional sports, I suffered 23 fractures and 4 concussions, and it was during the Olympics in Montreal that old wounds made themselves felt - after the first competition, I began to frankly limp. And I realized that it was time to tie ... I was offered to be the coach of the Soviet gymnastics team, for this I had to be a member of the party, and I lost my party card. There was a “punishment” for this in the Union - they were expelled for a year, and I could not stand idle for so long. And from Atlanta I received an offer to conclude a coaching contract. And I accepted it.

- And how many years did you still do the “loop” after that?

I first made the loop by accident and have been perfecting this number for 20 years. Even after moving to America in 1988, she honed her skills at demonstration performances. Now, of course, I don’t do the “loop” any more - for this I need to constantly train. Although I am in good shape, I have developed and teach a special shaping program that is suitable for any age - from 5 to 90, you can eat anything with it and look great.

What, do you eat hamburgers?

- I still promote healthy eating, and fast food is garbage! I myself adhere to a vegetable, fruit diet ... Although I love pizza, I don’t order in restaurants - I always cook myself.

Ups and downs

“We call each other almost every day,” says Leonid Bortkevich. - Olga has a very difficult time there.

- It is symbolic that you met on a plane that flew to the USA ...

- This is fate ... In 1973, the Pesnyars and I flew to America for the first time. And they got on the same plane with the gymnasts. They began to get acquainted. I was not in the mood for a noisy company, and Olga also huddled in a secluded corner of the cabin - they began to get bored together. And chatted with her for seven hours in a row. “I will never marry an artist or an athlete,” she admitted to me with a laugh. Then our paths diverged, and a year later Olga called me exactly a few days after my first wife cheated on me. She herself was also supposed to get married, but she quarreled with her fiancé-athlete and literally ran away from the crown. When she appeared on my doorstep, I was stunned by her beauty. "Can I come in?" — defuse the situation my future wife. And entered my life for 22 years.

Did you immediately decide to get married?

We immediately began to live together. And the Central Committee married us, they called us from the party and arranged a surprise: “Tomorrow you have a wedding, a banquet is ordered!”. I had to invite friends at great speed. Five hundred people gathered, even Kobzon was invited ...

- And the dress was also provided to the bride?

- Did Olga have a psychological trauma from the fact that coach Knysh was pushing her too hard?

— Yes, we had to overcome this problem together. Although she spoke of him with great respect. And when Knysh's addictions to youngsters came out, we went together to the prosecutor and begged to close the criminal case. Still, she loved him on some level.

Was son Richard welcome?

- Olga just left the sport, in the Union she was assigned a life allowance in the amount of 300 rubles, and for three years she traveled with the Pesnyars throughout the Union, it was the happiest time in my life. And the wife was spoiled by foreign trips, but she did not know her homeland at all. We were afraid that after so many injuries she would not be able to give birth, we did not succeed for a long time ... We named Richard after my grandfather, a Polish prince.

- You also had to go through a difficult time: the second child was born dead, and then Olga herself almost died due to an accident ... How did you cope with this?

“Misfortune indeed haunted us at one time. It was especially difficult for Olga. They already came up with a name for the second child, they wanted to name Vanechka. But the day before the birth, the Belarusian doctor unsuccessfully examined Olga ... We never found out what really happened. Everyone called us with congratulations the next day, and we cried into the phone, reporting grief. Olga was in a terrible depression, she tried to forget herself in new achievements - she took up sports dressage of horses, but before one meeting with journalists in the stable, the horse threw her off the saddle and pierced her chest with a hoof. Olga had three internal bleedings, in front of my eyes in the hospital she almost died - she had already begun to turn blue when she received a blood transfusion ...

Arizona Dream

But Leonid Bortkevich had to leave his favorite business for this ...

“I handed over my duties to the rest of the group for a month,” he says. - In Atlanta, we were given a house, Olga was surrounded by fans, she trained gymnasts and went with demonstration performances, and for two years I generally sat idle, studied with Richard, whom we arranged for a local school. Then I sent out a resume, and one company invited me to sell photographic equipment, which I did for five years.

- What made you return to Belarus?

- We had a good relationship with Olga, but I really missed my homeland and my favorite business. And I realized that the profession for me is the meaning of life when I was invited to a festival in Belarus. I again went out into the hay, sang “Birch sap”, the audience stood up ... And I went backstage and cried. When he returned to America, he told Olga that I could no longer live like this. To be honest, there was also a woman in Belarus, Svetlana, with whom I fell in love a long time ago, but Olga did not cheat ... She waited for me ten years later.

- Olga calmly let you go?

- She understood everything, we are close people ... So that she would not be left alone, I even sent her a fiancé from Belarus myself. Our mutual friend Alex had been in love with her for a long time, we went with him to the consul, honestly told why we wanted to send Alex to America. He understood everything. And for some time Olga lived with him, but then they fled - they did not agree on the characters.

Why did your son Richard also return to Belarus?

- He studied in America to be a programmer and showed such talent in this matter that the American intelligence agencies caught him hacking. They offered either cooperation with them or deportation. And Richard chose the latter - now he has his own company in Belarus. And Olga remained in America all alone.

- And what a dark story, when in 2002 Olga was detained for theft in a supermarket?

- Yes, she just forgot her wallet in the car, there were only 19 dollars worth of food. Olga was arrested because Russians often shoplift. And during a search in her house, they found counterfeit bills - Richard printed them out of pampering. I had to pay a deposit for Olga - 600 dollars.

Korbut admitted to the MK reporter that she was always interested in American men and she recently gave preference to one of them.

- But no details, so as not to jinx it.

- Olga, in 2008, for the first time in 20 years, you came to Moscow. Would you be able to live in the capital of Russia?

- During that visit, I told Vitaly Mutko that I would like to share my experience with Russian gymnasts, I have something to teach them, I have tremendous experience. And I would leave my profitable business in America for this. He promised to think over the proposal, but so far it has hung in the air. Strange, but I travel a lot around the world, all countries invited me to the Olympics. But whether they will call in Sochi, I'm not sure ...

Olga Valentinovna Korbut(May 16, Grodno, Byelorussian SSR, USSR) - Soviet gymnast, four-time Olympic champion, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1972). Played for the Armed Forces. Trained with Renald Knysh. She graduated (1977) with a degree in coach-teacher.

Sports biography

Olga Korbut came to gymnastics in the second grade at school in the gymnastics circle of Yaroslav Ivanovich Korol in 1963. At the age of 10, in 1965, she got into a group with Knysh. The first big success came in 1970 - she became the champion of the USSR in the vault and entered the USSR national team. The first gymnast who was able to perform somersaults on the balance beam.

The history of artistic gymnastics included the confrontation between Lyudmila Turishcheva and Olga Korbut. Turishcheva personified the old academic gymnastic school, while Korbut embodied new trends in sports: risky elements, athleticism and youth. At the 1972 Munich Olympics, Korbut demonstrated innovative gymnastic elements and became a crowd favorite. However, in a tough fight for absolute superiority, she lost to Turishcheva. Speaking during the absolute championship on her signature uneven bars, she made a serious mistake, and in the end did not even get into the prizes.

In 1976, Olga joined the USSR national team at the Games in Montreal, winning gold as part of the team and winning silver on beam.

Personal life

After the 1972 Olympics, Olga Korbut became a star on the air and was invited on tour in the USA in 1973. The tour was a triumph, and they are associated with the beginning of the gymnastics boom in America.

In 1974, “based on” her biography, the feature film “The Miracle with Pigtails” was shot, in which she herself performed sports exercises (starring Irina Mazurkevich).

Olga finished her sports career after the Olympics in Montreal. In 1977 she received a diploma from the Faculty of History of Grodno University. In 1978, she married a famous singer, soloist of the Pesnyary group Leonid Bortkevich and lived with him for 22 years, has a son, Richard. In 2000 they broke up.

"Korbut loop"

Olga Korbut was the first to perform the unique element " Loop Korbut". The gymnast stands on the high part of uneven bars and makes a flask, clinging to the top bar of the bars with her hands. The element was performed during her routines on uneven bars at the Munich Olympics.

Subsequently, the element was improved by Elena Mukhina - she added a screw to it. Currently, the "Korbut loop" is not performed at official competitions, as it is prohibited by the rules (gymnasts are not allowed to stand on the top of the bars with their feet).

Achievements

• 4-time Olympic champion:
  • 1972 - team championship, balance beam and floor exercises,
  • 1976 - team championship
• Two-time Olympic champion (1972 - uneven bars, 1976 - beam),
• 1974 World Champion vault
• World Champion 1970 and 1974 in the team championship,
• Winner of the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR and absolute champion of the USSR in 1975, multiple champion of the USSR,
• Winner of the silver medal of the 1973 European Championship in the absolute championship.

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An excerpt characterizing Korbut, Olga Valentinovna

Count Ilya Andreich resigned from the leaders because this post was too expensive. But things didn't get better for him. Often Natasha and Nikolai saw the secret, restless negotiations of their parents and heard rumors about the sale of a rich, ancestral Rostov house and a suburban one. Without leadership, it was not necessary to have such a large reception, and the life of congratulations was conducted more quietly than in previous years; but the huge house and outbuilding were still full of people, more people were still sitting at the table. All of these were people who had settled down in the house, almost members of the family, or those who, it seemed, had to live in the count's house. These were Dimmler - a musician with his wife, Yogel - a dance teacher with his family, the old lady Belova, who lived in the house, and many others: Petya's teachers, the former governess of young ladies and just people who were better or more profitable to live with the count than at home. There was no such big visit as before, but the course of life was the same, without which the count and countess could not imagine life. There was the same, still increased by Nikolai, hunting, the same 50 horses and 15 coachmen at the stable, the same expensive gifts on name days, and solemn dinners for the whole county; the same count whists and bostons, behind which he, dissolving cards for everyone to see, allowed himself to be beaten every day by hundreds of neighbors who looked at the right to play the game of Count Ilya Andreich as the most profitable lease.
The count, as if in huge snares, went about his affairs, trying not to believe that he was entangled, and with each step he became more and more entangled and feeling himself unable either to break the nets that entangled him, or carefully, patiently begin to unravel them. The Countess, with a loving heart, felt that her children were going bankrupt, that the count was not to blame, that he could not be different from what he was, that he himself was suffering (although he hides it) from the consciousness of his and his children's ruin, and was looking for means to help the cause. From her feminine point of view, there was only one way - the marriage of Nicholas to a rich bride. She felt that this was the last hope, and that if Nikolai refused the party that she had found for him, she would have to say goodbye forever to the opportunity to improve things. This party was Julie Karagina, the daughter of a beautiful, virtuous mother and father, known from childhood to Rostov, and now a rich bride on the occasion of the death of the last of her brothers.
The Countess wrote directly to Karagina in Moscow, offering her the marriage of her daughter to her son, and received a favorable response from her. Karagina replied that she, for her part, agreed that everything would depend on the inclination of her daughter. Karagina invited Nikolai to come to Moscow.
Several times, with tears in her eyes, the Countess told her son that now that both her daughters were added, her only wish was to see him married. She said that she would lie down in the coffin calm, if that were the case. Then she said that she had a beautiful girl in mind and elicited his opinion about marriage.
In other conversations, she praised Julie and advised Nikolai to go to Moscow for the holidays to have fun. Nikolai guessed what his mother's conversations were leading to, and in one of these conversations he called her to complete frankness. She told him that all the hope of getting things right was now based on his marriage to Karagina.
- Well, if I loved a girl without a fortune, would you really demand, maman, that I sacrifice feeling and honor for a fortune? he asked his mother, not understanding the cruelty of his question and wishing only to show his nobility.
“No, you didn’t understand me,” said the mother, not knowing how to justify herself. “You didn’t understand me, Nikolinka. I wish you happiness,” she added, and felt that she was telling a lie, that she was confused. She started crying.
“Mamma, don’t cry, but just tell me that you want it, and you know that I will give my whole life, I will give everything so that you are calm,” said Nikolai. I will sacrifice everything for you, even my feelings.
But the countess did not want to put the question that way: she did not want a sacrifice from her son, she herself would like to sacrifice to him.
“No, you didn’t understand me, let’s not talk,” she said, wiping her tears.
“Yes, maybe I love the poor girl,” Nikolai said to himself, well, should I sacrifice feeling and honor for the state? I wonder how my mother could tell me this. Because Sonya is poor, I can’t love her, he thought, I can’t respond to her faithful, devoted love. And I'll probably be happier with her than with some kind of Julie doll. I can always sacrifice my feelings for the good of my relatives, he said to himself, but I cannot command my feelings. If I love Sonya, then my feeling is stronger and higher than anything for me.
Nikolai did not go to Moscow, the countess did not resume the conversation with him about marriage, and with sadness, and sometimes with anger, she saw signs of an ever greater rapprochement between her son and the dowry Sonya. She reproached herself for that, but she could not help but grumble, find fault with Sonya, often stopping her for no reason, calling her "you" and "my dear." Most of all, the kind countess was angry with Sonya because this poor, black-eyed niece was so meek, so kind, so devotedly grateful to her benefactors, and so faithfully, unfailingly, selflessly in love with Nikolai, that it was impossible to reproach her for anything. .
Nikolai spent his vacation with his relatives. The 4th letter was received from the fiancé Prince Andrei, from Rome, in which he wrote that he would have been on his way to Russia long ago if his wound had not suddenly opened in a warm climate, which makes him postpone his departure until the beginning of next year . Natasha was just as in love with her fiancé, just as reassured by this love, and just as receptive to all the joys of life; but at the end of the fourth month of separation from him, moments of sadness began to come over her, against which she could not fight. She felt sorry for herself, it was a pity that she had been lost for nothing, for no one, all this time, during which she felt herself so capable of loving and being loved.
It was sad in the Rostovs' house.

Olga Valentinovna Korbut(May 16, 1955, Grodno, Byelorussian SSR, USSR) - Soviet gymnast, four-time Olympic champion, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1972). Played for the Armed Forces. Trained with Renald Knysh. Olga Korbut Graduated from the Grodno State Pedagogical Institute (1977) as a trainer-teacher.
Olga Korbut came to gymnastics in the second grade at school in the gymnastics circle of Yaroslav Ivanovich Korol in 1963.
At 10 years old in 1965 Olga Korbut got into the group to Knysh. The first big success came in 1970 - she became the champion of the USSR in the vault and entered the USSR national team.

Full name: Olga Valentinovna Korbut
Citizenship: USSR → USA
Date of birth: May 16, 1955
Place of birth: Grodno, Byelorussian SSR, USSR
Coach(s): Renald Knysh
Height: 1.52 m
Weight: 39 kg

Achievements of Olga Korbut

4-time Olympic champion:
1972 - team championship, balance beam and floor exercises,
1976 - team championship
Two-time vice-champion of the Olympic Games (1972 - uneven bars, 1976 - beam),
Olga Korbut- World Champion 1974 in the vault,
World Champion 1970 and 1974 in the team championship,
Olga Korbut- Winner of the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR and the absolute champion of the USSR in 1975, multiple champion of the USSR,
Winner of the silver medal of the 1973 European Championship in the absolute championship.

The first gymnast who was able to perform somersaults on the balance beam.

The history of artistic gymnastics included the confrontation between Lyudmila Turishcheva and Olga Korbut. Turishcheva personified the old academic gymnastic school, while Korbut embodied new trends in sports: risky elements, athleticism and youth. At the 1972 Munich Olympics Olga Korbut demonstrated innovative gymnastic elements and became a favorite of the audience. However, in a tough fight for absolute superiority, she lost to Turishcheva.
Since 1991 Olga Korbut lives in the USA, has American citizenship.

"Korbut loop"

Olga Korbut she was the first to perform the unique element "Korbut's Loop". The gymnast stands on the high part of uneven bars and does a back somersault, clinging to the top bar of the bars with her hands. The element was performed during her routines on uneven bars at the Munich Olympics.
Subsequently, the element was improved by Elena Mukhina - she added a screw to it. Currently, the "Korbut loop" is not performed at official competitions, as it is prohibited by the rules (gymnasts are not allowed to stand on the top of the bars with their feet).

Family, personal life of Olga Korbut

After the 1972 Olympics Olga Korbut became a star on the air and was in 1973 invited to tour the United States. The tour was a triumph and is associated with the beginning of the artistic gymnastics boom in America.
In 1974, “based on” her biography, the feature film “The Miracle with Pigtails” was shot, in which she herself performed sports exercises (starring Irina Mazurkevich).
Olga Korbut ended her sports career after the Olympics in Montreal. In 1977 she received a diploma from the Faculty of History of Grodno University. In 1978, she married a famous singer, soloist of the Pesnyary group Leonid Bortkevich and lived with him for 22 years, has a son. In 2000 they broke up.

Gymnastics is considered by many to be the most harmonious, spectacular and aesthetically beautiful sport. But at the same time quite risky and dangerous. Do you know what Olga Korbut's loop is? How is this element performed? How was the fate of the famous Soviet athlete? And finally, why is the Korbut loop banned? In the article we will try to answer these and other interesting questions.

Who is Olga Korbut?

Korbut Olga Valentinovna, who was born on May 16, 1955 in Grodno (modern Belarus), is an Honored Master of Sports of the Soviet Union, a national gymnast, and a 4-time Olympic champion. During her sports career, with a height of 152 cm, she weighed 39 kg!

Olga's coach was the famous Renald Knysh. It was she who first performed the element "Korbut Loop" (why the trick was banned, we will analyze further). In general, it looks like this: standing on the high part of the bars, the gymnast makes a fly, clinging to their upper part. For the first time the trick was demonstrated by Olga at the Olympics in Munich.

Sportswoman awards

Along with the question of why the Korbut loop is prohibited, many are also interested in Olga's titles. The brave gymnast has many of them:

• Multiple champion of the USSR. Absolute champion of the Soviet Union in 1975
• Winner of the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR in 1975.
• World champion in team championship in 1970.
• World champion in vault and team championship in 1974.
• Three-time Olympic champion in 1972 - balance beam, team championship, floor exercises.
• Olympic champion in 1976 (team championship).

Athlete biography: steps to success

Before we analyze why the Korbut loop is prohibited, let's get acquainted with a brief biography of the gymnast. Olga's sports career began in 1963 - in the second grade she got into the circle of Ya. I. Korol. At the age of 10, Renald Knysh became her coach. Five years later, Olga Korbut was waiting for her first success - she became the champion of the Soviet Union in vaulting. At the same time, she became the first who managed to do somersaults on a log.

And then the history of Soviet gymnastics was illuminated by the wrestling of two wonderful girls, Lyudmila Turishcheva, following the precepts of the old academic school, and O. Korbut, demonstrating new trends - athleticism, youth, dangerous elements. Of course, it was Olga who was the favorite of the audience in 1972 at the Olympics in Munich. But, alas, she lost to Lyudmila in the absolute championship - Korbut made a serious mistake while performing the crown number on the uneven bars.

However, this did not prevent young Olga from becoming a star on the air. In 1973, she was invited to tour the United States. And in 1974, the film "The Miracle with Pigtails" was shot (the main role was played by I. Mazurkevich). The basis of his script was the biography of Olga Korbut. And she herself performed sports elements on the set.

After the triumph

1976 brought Olga new successes - silver and gold at the Olympics in Montreal. However, it was this year that she said goodbye to her sports career, and in 1977 she graduated from Grodno University. Olga got married the following year. Her chosen one was the soloist and hitherto famous group "Pesnyary", musician Leonid Bortkevich. Celebrities lived together for 22 years, they had a son, Richard. In 2000, Leonid and Olga decided to leave.

This year, O. Korbut shocked journalists - she put up for auction five of her Olympic medals, as well as personal items associated with her high-profile victories. All this went under the hammer for 183 thousand dollars. According to news publications, the reason for this act is the financial difficulties and problems in his personal life that overtook the former athlete. Olga Valentinovna herself denies the sale of her awards.

Loop Korbut

We can figure out why the Korbut loop is prohibited if we imagine what this unique element looks like in performance. The loop is shown only on a pair of uneven bars:

1. Execution begins with the top crossbar. At the end of the previous element, the athlete stands on it and pushes off with her feet, while doing a back flip (in other words, a jump over herself with her back).
2. Having completed this coup in the air, the girl needs to grab the same crossbar again, from which she broke away a couple of moments ago.
3. As a result of the resulting acceleration and under the weight of her own body, the athlete rotates clockwise along the crossbar.
4. Further, the body of the girl meets on its way with the second, low crossbar.
5. Faced with it just below the waist, in the area of ​​the hips, the athlete begins to rotate her legs and arms already around this low axis, while gracefully releasing the upper crossbar with her hands.
6. Having made a full turn, the girl needs to spring with her body, her back, from the axis beginning to bend.
7. As a result of this movement, it takes off in the air - you need to quickly grab your hands on the upper crossbar.
8. A graceful dismount to the mats completes such a complex figure.

If you look at how the described looks on the video recording of the athlete’s performances, you will understand why Olga Korbut’s loop is prohibited. The implementation of the element requires a risk to both the health and the life of the gymnast. One wrong move, miscalculation leads to very serious injuries.

Is the Korbut loop repeatable?

This spectacular element was invented by the gymnast herself and the coaching staff in order to shock the public. And indeed, when watching Olga's performances in the recording, the heart involuntarily stops. The second goal of the Korbut loop is to surpass the opponent with his riskiness, courage, and enthusiasm.

However, this traumatic (if not deadly) element was banned in big-time sports not immediately after Olga's debut. The essence of gymnastics is to supplement unusually complex exercises with new elements, making them even more difficult to perform. This law did not bypass the "miracle with pigtails" trick either. The dead loop Korbut was subsequently successfully repeated by another gymnast - E. Mukhina.

Why was the Korbut dead loop banned?

However, Elena did not stop at a brilliant repetition. She supplemented the most difficult trick with another element - a screw. But during training, performing an exercise with rotation and landing not on her feet, like Olga, but in a somersault, the athlete was seriously injured. As a result, Elena Mukhina ended up in the hospital with a broken spine. Korbut's noose with a screw chained her to bed for many years. Rehabilitation led to some success, but the athlete could not move without a wheelchair. At 46, she died of heart failure.

Now it is clear to us why the dead loop of Olga Korbut is prohibited. Performing this trick threatens with serious dangers to life and health, especially because of the tendency in gymnastics to complicate already risky elements.

Four reasons for the success of Olga Korbut

So we figured out why the "Korbut loop" element is prohibited. But many still have a question - how did the "miracle with pigtails" manage to achieve such bright well-deserved victories? There are several reasons for this:

1. An excellent motor stereotype is the ability to gracefully, deftly move in space, and plasticity, and gait. Those who are unlucky with this have poor posture, general clumsiness, and make unnecessary erratic movements. All of the above is not a sentence, the situation can be easily corrected by letting sports and exercise therapy into your life. The experienced eye of R. Knysh saw the amazing ability of O. Korbut - to remember and exactly repeat many complex body movements.
2. Character. By the way, the program of Olga's triumph was called "Mischievous Girl". Adventurism, fearlessness, a large share of sports enthusiasm were noted in the character of the sportswoman. Moreover, she got a dead loop quite by accident - the girl just dabbled on the uneven bars during training.
3. Trainer. Renald Knysh helped athletes become champions by conducting systematic training, and not aimed at a specific result. So, in the case of Korbut, her training began with the fact that for hundreds of lead-up exercises, the coach taught her not to be afraid to fly away with her back into the unknown.
4. Victory over weakness. Although Olga is a brave girl, in an interview she recalls that she always overcame her fear of performing this trick.

So we figured out why the dead loop of Olga Korbut is a prohibited element. The reason is not only the huge injury risk of the trick, but also the sad fate of Elena Mukhina, who repeated the loop, improving it.