Olga Korbut
USSR
Artistic Gymnastics
Overall Ranks
#11 among Gymnasts
#5 among Female Gymnasts
#5 among Soviet Olympians
#3 among Female Soviet Olympians
Olympic Results
1972
Team - Gold
Floor Exercise - Gold
Uneven Bars - Silver
Balance Beam - Gold
1976
Team - Gold
Balance Beam - Silver
Total
Events - 12
Gold - 4
Silver - 2
Olga Valentinovna Korbut was born on May 16, 1955 in Hrodna, USSR, which is now part of Belarus. She began training at age 8, and enrolled in a sports school the next year, and by age 14 was participating in national competitions. In 1969, she was the first gymnast ever to complete a backflip followed by a catch on the uneven bars, and she made her Olympic debut in 1972, when she was 17 years old.
The Soviet Union had won the team gold in each of the past 5 Olympics, and they were expected to do it again, with only East Germany considered a threat at all. Korbut was the #2 scorer on the Soviet team, behind Lyidmila Turishcheva, and they won their 6th straight team gold by 3.95 points over the East Germans.
She was the #3 qualifier headed into the individual all-around, and she had the top score on the balance beam during the final, along with the #2 score in floor exercise and vault, but she fell twice during her very difficult uneven bar routine, which dropped her down to 7th place overall, and leaving her without a medal.
She did qualify for all 4 of the individual event finals due to her high scores in the team event. In the floor exercise, she was the #2 qualifier behind Turishcheva, who had a great score of 9.8 in the final, but Korbut put on a great show in her performance, and her score of 9.9 pushed her ahead of her teammate and earned her the gold medal.
She went into the vault final tied for 4th, but was unable to move up, and scored lower than the other 4th place starter, so she ended up in 5th place. In the uneven bars, she started out tied for 2nd, and performed the same routine she tried in the individual all-around, and this time avoided any falls, earning a 9.8, but it wasn't enough to catch Karin Janz of East Germany, who scored a 9.9, and Korbut ended up with a silver.
In the balance beam, she was also the #2 qualifier, behind Tamara Lazakovich (#106), her Soviet teammate. Lazakovich scored a 9.8 in the final, but Korbut again amazed everybody, scoring a 9.9 and passing her teammate to take her second individual gold and third overall of the games.
In the 1974 World Championships, she won medals in all 6 events, with 2 golds and 4 silvers, and was again selected for the Soviet Olympic team in 1976. They won the team event again in Montreal, for the 7th time in a row, with Korbut as the 3rd-highest scorer on the team, as they overcame Nadia Comaneci and Romania by 3.2 points in the end.
She was the #5 qualifier in the individual all-around, and she looked like she might move up and possibly even earn a medal, but a score of 9.5 on the balance beam ended her chances, and she ended up finishing in 5th place, again short of the medals in the all-around. She did, however, qualify for two event finals, the balance beam and uneven bars.
In the uneven bars, she had qualified in second place, but she was competing hurt, and ended up scoring only a 9.4, which dropped her to 5th place at the end. She had also been the #2 qualifier in the balance beam, but a 9.9 in the final wasn't enough to overcome Comaneci's perfect score, and she ended up with a silver medal.
She retired from gymnastics the next year, even though she was only 22 years old, and became a teacher. In 1991, she and her family emigrated to the United States, first living in New Jersey, and finally moving to Atlanta, where she coached gymnastics. Her performances helped usher in the more modern acrobatic style of gymnastics, and her 6 medals helped make her one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
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