Legend of Soviet gymnastics, four-time Olympic champion Olga Korbut in the studio of the TV program "Let Them Talk" admitted that before the 1972 Games in Munich, she was raped by a coach at the age of 16 Renald Knysh... Should I believe this statement?

Revelations Korbut caused a controversial reaction among the guests of the studio. Respected people accused the former gymnast of lying, self-promotion and slander of the coach. There were almost no sympathizers for the athlete.

This is the specifics of the work of a male coach with a female athlete, - said, for example, a commentator Vladimir Gomelsky... - Sooner or later it happens.

Or maybe it was not rape, but, as they say now, by mutual consent? - followed by the presenter Korbut asked Dmitry Borisov.

Strange, to put it mildly, remark. It's like having a 16-year-old athlete with a 40-year-old mentor sexually, even if not violent, is the norm.

"I WAS LITTLE AND ENDURED EVERYTHING"

In a personal conversation ( Knysh, who has been living in Belarusian Grodno for many years, went on video communication with the studio), Korbut charged the coach with more than just sexual harassment. She also talked about constant beatings and humiliations.

Do you want to assess whether it was real at that time? Let's remember the biography of the gymnast: Korbut is from a poor family with many children; sometimes she had nowhere to return after training, and she spent the night right in the gym, on the mats; the parents were so busy at work that for a long time they did not even know that their daughter was doing gymnastics. A perfect portrait of a potential victim of a rapist comes out.

By the way, shortly after the 1980 Olympics, that is, several years after Korbut finished her career Knysha suddenly asked to leave the national team. He was forced to leave Moscow and soon returned to Grodno, where he still lives. The coach wrote a number of teaching aids that are used even in modern gymnastics, but never returned to work at the top level. The answer to the question "why" was given on the air by Korbut.

You know why you were forbidden to train, ”she told Knysh. - Because I told the truth! You did this not only to me. And with me it went on for more than one year. I was just small and put up with everything.

CAN AGE BECOME AN INDULGENCE?

History Korbut is most easily imagined as the ludicrous accusations of a middle-aged woman against an 86-year-old man. Like, what's the difference what was there between them forty years ago? Even criminal offenses have a statute of limitations, here it has long passed. And Korbut is simply promoting himself, unable to accept that his former popularity has long passed.

But let's remember the trials against Nazi criminals. They were tried both at 80 and at 90 years old, sentenced to real prison terms. One could, of course, feel sorry for some deep old man in the dock, who is clearly no longer physically capable of causing harm. But this same old man half a century ago could have contributed to the death of dozens of innocent people. Should I feel sorry for him? Can age become an indulgence for a crime of such gravity?

There is, of course, no question of applying now to Knysh real criminal punishment. But why Korbut has no right to make him pay for the crime even morally? A coach who calls his former pupil "filthy", but does not explain anything in fact, clearly does not feel any remorse.

IT'S TIME TO BREAK CIRCULAR

In gymnastic circles about Knysha, of course, everyone has known everything for a long time. It is impossible to hide anything in this little world, and in the veracity of history Korbut here almost no one doubts. But for the general public, the mentor remains a respected specialist, a "poet of gymnastics," as he is called on one of the resources. Why Korbut, at least as a moral compensation, should not have dispelled this myth?

By the way, to the question of her love for PR. For the first time, Korbut announced the rape not at all within the framework of the now popular #MeToo movement, when, for example, American gymnasts told about similar cases. Her first mention of this dates back to the late 1990s. That is, the gymnast waited with her revelations not 40 years, but 20. Also, of course, a considerable period. But it really took courage to go out publicly with such statements at that time.

Do you not understand that if I had kept silent, he would have continued to rape other girls ?! - in the end, fell into emotions on the air Korbut.

And this is, in fact, the key point. Unfortunately, right now, in different parts of the world, other girls are suffering who have experienced something similar in sports. The story of Korbut should give them the idea: there is no need to be silent. If the coach has committed violence against you, no matter - domestic or sexual - you must declare this immediately, without waiting for years. Argue, swear, present evidence in hot pursuit. Then you will save not only yourself, but also other athletes who will come to work for this coach after you.

Otherwise, this mutual guarantee cannot be broken. Dozens of years later, the world will again want to trust the respected master, and not the absurd gymnast. Be she right a thousand times.

May 16, 1955 60 years ago Olga Korbut was born, Soviet gymnast, Olympic champion, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR

Olga Korbut perhaps the most controversial personality in the history of world artistic gymnastics. It all started with a diminutive, slightly overweight Soviet second-grader who dreamed of becoming an Olympic champion. It all ended in a divorce from the Pesnyarov soloist, a counterfeiting son, accusations of theft and a favorite coach, who, according to her, turned out to be a despot and a rapist.

The tragedy, for which not every talented writer has enough imagination, was in fact the future life of an ordinary schoolgirl from Grodno, who enrolled in the gymnastics section in the second grade. Then there was a selection for a children's and youth sports school, to which they did not want to take Olga for a long time due to the fact that she is a little "plump".

Korbut - the beginning

The sports school was followed by the first successes and competitions, in which a little girl with pigtails dangling on both sides of her head was noticed by Renald Knysh, a famous coach.

He helped her become the star of the All-Union Spartakiad, win the USSR championship and go to the first Olympic Games in 1972 - in Munich. It was there that the miniature "chicken" from the Soviet Union made the whole world fall in love with him. Millions of people rejoiced at her victories and cried in front of the TVs, swaying in unison with the girl crying on the screen - after a failure on her favorite shell - on the uneven bars.

The all-around was lost, but the very next day Olga took gold on the same uneven bars, where she showed a unique element - a back somersault, which from that moment began to bear her name - "Korbut loop". So Olya forever entered the history of world artistic gymnastics.

Then there were two more victories and a triumphant homecoming with three Olympic gold medals and one such offensive silver on the uneven bars.

Only a quarter of a century later it will become known from the words of the gymnast in the American media that on the night after the victory, a drunk coach burst into the room of an 18-year-old girl, Renald Knysh, who beat and raped the audience's favorite for several hours.

For another year and a half, Olga worked with her coach, with her evil genius. With him in 1973, she went on a 20-day tour of the United States. The performances of the Soviet gymnast made such a splash in the States that they gave impetus to the creation of the colossus that is now artistic gymnastics in the United States, with thousands of schools across the country, huge advertising budgets, and several TV shows about gymnasts.

A significant contribution to this was made by a film based on the life of a Soviet girl - "The Miracle with Pigtails" - one of the few films of that time that became popular in America.

On the plane that was taking the girl to America, she met the Pesnyars, who were beginning to tour the United States. She especially remembered the soloist of the group Leonid Bortkevich... The gymnast chatted with him for eight hours. A year later, when the singer began to forget his young fellow traveler, when his first wife cheated on him, a phone call suddenly rang. And after a while Olya Korbut was already at the door.

They immediately began to live together. And after a while a wedding was unexpectedly organized for them.

Olga Korbut at the 1975 World Cup in London. Photo:

Sunset

By that time, Olya had already left behind her coach and was working with a woman - Olga Alekseeva. Numerous injuries (23 fractures and 4 concussions), constant nervous experiences, insomnia that tormented the girl from that ill-fated evening in Munich, inhuman workloads crippled the gymnast's health, and after the 1976 Olympics, where Korbut took only one gold, in team performances and silver on a beam, Olya decided to end her career.

Olga Korbut at the 1972 Munich Games. Azerbaijan postage stamp 1996. Photo: / Post of Azerbaijan

She toured the country with her husband and his group for a long time, graduated from the university and received a life allowance, which was more than enough for her needs. But she was constantly drawn somewhere. Irrepressible energy beat over the edge. She wanted to be in gymnastics. But she was not allowed to work as a coach of the national team. She lost her party membership card and was expelled from the party for a year as punishment. And if you are not a party member, you could forget about working in the national team. The year became a long time, and the gymnast in the USSR was gradually forgotten.

But she was remembered abroad, where she went during perestroika. At the same time, she took with her both her husband and their first son, Richard, named after a relative of her husband, a Polish prince. The girl wanted to leave the Soviet Union also because of bad memories. It all started with a coach, and ended with an unsuccessful examination on the eve of pregnancy. The incompetence of the doctor resulted in a stillborn child.

Trying to forget herself, Olga began to actively master new activities, such as horseback riding. But during one of the lessons, the horse threw the gymnast to the ground and punched the chest with his hoof. Already turning blue from blood loss due to three internal bleeding, the girl was saved by a blood transfusion made at the last moment.

Tragedy in the States

In 1991, Korbut went to conquer the United States. There she worked for a long time as a teacher at the school, gave interviews, participated in the show, and was involved as an expert. But in a new place, misfortunes pursued the ex-gymnast. First, the husband, who was selling photographic equipment, returned to his homeland for one concert and realized that he wanted to resume his career. "Pesnyar" divorced his wife and left for Belarus.

Wax figure of Olga Korbut in Madame Tussauds in London. Photo: / Nevit Dilmen (talk)

Some time later, Korbut herself was arrested in one of the US supermarkets. She was charged with the theft of goods worth 19 dollars and agreed to release only on bail of 600 dollars. The news spread throughout the US media. According to Olga, she simply forgot her wallet in the car and went out to get it, absentmindedly taking a basket with purchases.

Simultaneously with this came the last message about late payments for the house, provided to her by the US government upon her arrival in America. She should have been evicted. The bailiffs who came to the house opened the house and found devastation. It turned out that Olga had not lived there for a long time. Only her 22-year-old son Richard lived in the house. The guy was not in the house at that moment, but a bag with four thousand dollars was found. Fake dollars.

Richard was deported to Belarus, and Korbut was left alone in the United States. Not so long ago, she came to Moscow and tried to convince Vitaly Mutko to involve her in the training of Russian gymnasts. But since 2010, she has not received an answer. And for the sake of working in our country, she was even ready to leave her "profitable activity in the United States."

According to her official website, she is passionate about tourism, fitness and cooking. She is also involved in “daily activities” related to gymnastics. Which one is not specified. But on the personal portal of the "mother of gymnastics", as immodestly written on the main page, you can buy photos of the gymnast with her autographs - for only 15 dollars. In 2012, she took part in the American show "Dancing on Ice".

Sources -,

Her smile and braids conquered the whole world. When the “Soviet sparrow” jumped on the uneven bars, overcoming the earth's gravity, the hearts of the audience sank ... But it so happened that Olga Korbut was more appreciated abroad - after perestroika, the champion in artistic gymnastics emigrated to America. And now he lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

On the eve of her 55th birthday, Olga Korbut confessed 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 if I can land on my feet here.

Olympics in Munich, 72nd year ... Olga Korbut, flashing her famous smile, was preparing to make her signature number - jump on the upper bars, in a matter of seconds make a loop back in the air and land back on the upper bars. She still does not remember what she was wrong about when she fell on the mats ... The stands fell silent, the girl cried, hiding her face in her palms, her little braids trembled ... Viewers on TV screens around the world were crying along with the athlete.

- For that failure, the audience was imbued with sincere sympathy for you even more ... Do you think that you have 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 “transatlantic” accent. - Because I fought not for medals, but for the result. And although journalists always remember my first failure, I believe that they fell in love with and recognized me all over the world for my cheerful smile.

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

“Personally, I was given a car right to the plane's ladder, and when Nixon approached me at the conference, I did not recognize him:“ You are so little! ” - With a smile he looked down at me. "You're not a big boy either!" - I didn’t crawl into my pocket for a word. And then it turned out that in front of me was the President of the United States.

- You already knew English well then?

- I realized that I needed the language after I came to the demonstration performances 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 the big sport shortly after the 1976 Olympics - then you had to remove your famous "loop" from the program ...

- In big-time 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 openly limp. And I realized that it was time to tie ... I was offered to be the coach of the Soviet national artistic gymnastics team, for this I had to be a member of the party, and I lost my membership card. For this there was a “punishment” in the Union - they were expelled for a year, and I could not stand idle for so much. And from Atlanta I received an offer to sign a coaching contract. And I accepted it.

- How many years have you been doing the loop after that?

- The first time I made a 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 no longer do the “loop” - for this I have 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, and eating hamburgers?

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

Ups and downs

Today Olga Korbut is not married. After 22 years of marriage, in 2000 she divorced her husband, the lead singer of “Pesnyars” Leonid Bortkevich. He did not take root in America and returned to Belarus, and although the ocean separates him with his ex-wife, they still consider each other close people ...

“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 United States ...

- This is fate ... In 73, the Pesnyars and I flew to America for the first time. And they got on the same plane with the gymnasts. We began to get acquainted. I was not in the mood for a noisy company, and Olga also huddled in a secluded corner of the salon - they began to get bored together. And they chatted with her for seven hours in a row. “I will never marry an artist or an athlete,” she confessed to me with a laugh. Then we parted ways, 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 had a falling out with her fiancé, an athlete, and literally ran away from under the aisle. When she appeared at my doorstep, I was stunned by her beauty. "May I come in?" - defused the situation my future wife. And she 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. About five hundred people gathered, even Kobzon was invited ...

- Did you also provide the bride with a dress?

- Does Olga still have a psychological trauma from the fact that coach Knysh was trying too hard to achieve it?

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

- Was the son Richard long-awaited?

- Olga just left the sport, in the Union she was assigned life support in the amount of 300 rubles, and for three years she traveled with “Pesnyars” throughout the Union, it was the happiest time in my life. And my 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 in honor of 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 really followed us at one time. It was especially difficult for Olga. They had already invented a name for the second child, they wanted to call him Vanechka. But the day before the birth, the Belarusian doctor examined Olga unsuccessfully ... We never found out what really happened. We all called with congratulations the next day, and we cried into the phone, reporting the 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 off the saddle and pierced the chest with a hoof. Olga had three internal bleeding, in front of my eyes in the hospital she almost died - she had already started to turn blue when she received a blood transfusion ...

Arizona dream

“We decided to leave for America not only because of career considerations, but also after the Chernobyl disaster, which hit Minsk hard,” says Olga Korbut. - We were worried about the health of our son.

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

“I transferred my responsibilities 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 was generally idle, studying with Richard, whom we put in a local school. Then I sent out my 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 what I loved. And I realized that my profession is the meaning of life when I was invited to a festival in Belarus. I went out into the hay again, sang "Birch sap", the audience got up ... And I went backstage and began to cry. When I returned to America, I told Olga that I couldn't live like this anymore. To be honest, there was also a woman in Belarus, Svetlana, with whom I fell in love for a long time, 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 myself even sent her a groom from Belarus. Our mutual friend Alex has long been in love with her, we went with him to the consul, honestly told why we want to send Alex to America. He understood everything. And for a while Olga lived with him, but then they fled - they did not agree in character.

- 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 special services 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 was left 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 steal from shops. And during a search in her house, they found fake bills - Richard printed them out of self-indulgence. I had to pay a deposit for Olga - $ 600.

Korbut confessed to a reporter for “MK” that American men have always been interested in her and she recently preferred 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. Could you 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 activity in America for this. He promised to think about the proposal, but so far it hung in the air. Strange, but I travel a lot around the world, all countries invited me to the Olympics. But whether they will be invited to Sochi, I'm not sure ...

Anyone who has ever been interested in gymnastics and the people who have left a mark in its history must have heard of Olga Korbut. This woman has become a four-time Olympic champion as well as a three-time world champion.

One of the main achievements of Olga Korbut, the honored gymnast of the USSR, is that she was the first among women who was able to perform a difficult dangerous somersault, later named "Korbut Loop". But these are not all Olga's achievements that deserve the attention of a large audience.

Olga Korbut spent her childhood in the city of Grodno. She was born there on May 16, 1955. Since the girl's parents were ordinary people, their family could not boast of high income. His mother worked as a cook, while his father was an engineer. On their small salary, Korbut's parents were forced to support not only themselves and Olga, but also three gymnast sisters.

The whole large family was crowded into a small room, 20 square meters. However, Olga never suffered from a lack of love and attention. She was the youngest child in the family, and, as often happens, all the love of her parents and sisters went to her.

Fact! This is not to say that Olga's childhood was perfect. Due to the lack of finances in the family, the girl became addicted to theft. For this they even wanted to expel her from the sports school, but the coach defended Olga.

School

It's time to go to school. Olga did not like this at all, since, to put it mildly, she was not drawn to new knowledge. She much more liked to spend time playing in the yard with the guys. The fact that the future gymnast spent almost all her childhood in the company of boys developed a strong fighting character in her.

Every year Olga's grades became more and more sad: if in elementary school Korbut studied without triples, then triples became an excellent result for her. Due to poor academic performance, the question of transferring Olga to a school for mentally retarded children was raised, but, fortunately, this never happened.

Sports endeavors

Being in the 2nd grade, Olga began to have her first sporting inclinations. They were noticed by the school physical education teacher Ya. I. Korol. Thanks to him, the girl began to go to the gymnastics section and, perhaps, if not for his intervention, the country would not have received such a great athlete.

Later, Olga Korbut and herself woke up a passion for gymnastics, and she tried several times to enter the sports school. The first attempt was unsuccessful, and the girl was not accepted, considering it fat. But the novice gymnast did not give up and, when she was 10 years old, she again went to the CYSS. One of the decisive meetings in Olga's life took place there - a meeting with Elena Volchetskaya, who is an Olympic champion. The athlete noticed the potential in the little girl and decided to work out with her herself.

In 1965, Olga joined the group of Renald Knysh, the honored trainer of the USSR. Renald was a real fan of his work and completely devoted himself to it. He worried about Olga's successes and failures as if he were his own. He came up with new combinations and taught them to the young athlete. Not everything worked out right away, many movements had to be taught through pain and tears. But it was worth it, because without these intensive training there would not have been a wonderful career for Olga Korbut.

First achievements

Olga took part in serious competitions for the first time when she was 14 years old. At the "Olympic Hopes" competition, the young gymnast surprised everyone with a new unusual trick "Salto on a balance beam". This is a very difficult trick, which even the most experienced gymnast could not perform before. This movement became her crown and was named in her honor "Korbut Loop". The personality of Olga Korbut began to be loudly discussed. At each subsequent competition, Olga showed all the new unique elements. She seemed to have opened the world of new gymnastics with unusual, previously unknown tricks.

At that time, Korbut was often compared to Lyudmila Turishcheva. Both of them were very flexible and performed difficult tricks, but Olga was considered the representative of the "new" gymnastics because of her unique tricks, but her rival performed fairly standard tricks. At the Olympics in Munich, Olga still lost to Turischeva, having made a serious mistake in one of her tricks. But the young athlete quickly corrected herself and in the following performances at the Olympic Games she received 3 gold medals.

Shocking incident

In 1999, a shocking article was published in an American publishing house, which said that Olga's coach, Renald Knysh, was cruelly treating her subordinate. The publication claimed that after Olga's victory in Munich in 1971, a drunken coach burst into Korbut's room and mocked her, beating and raping her for several hours. According to journalists, this article was written on the basis of information provided by Olga herself.

Important! In 2011, Knysh denied this statement, expressing his desire to spit in the face of an athlete for such a blatant lie.

Anyway, after 4 years Olga got a new mentor and part-time coach - gymnast Olga Alekseeva.

Completion of a gymnast's career

Olga Alekseeva became not only a coach for Korbut, but also a real friend. At all the difficult moments in the life of the gymnast Olga Alekseeva was there and helped to cope with the problems. Although by nature Alekseeva was much more pleasant than the previous coach of Olga Renald Knysh, her professional qualities did not suffer from this. In 1976, Olga Korbut received 1 gold medal in the team competition, after which she decided to end artistic gymnastics and retire from big sport.

Marriage with Leonid Bortkevich

The young gymnast met her first husband in 1976. Her chosen one was Leonid Bortkevich, the lead singer of the Pesnyary group. The couple met on the plane when Leonid and his team flew on a tour to the United States. At that time, Bortkevich was already married, but this did not stop the lovers from chatting for 8 hours without a break.

Then, for a year, the couple did not even see each other and maybe their acquaintance would be interrupted if Leonid, having learned about his wife's betrayal, did not get drunk and called Olga. At the first request, Korbut came to her lover, fed him, cleaned up, and then left back.

The next morning Leonid called his mother with the words: "Mom, I'm getting married!" Soon, the couple really got married. While married to Leonidas, Olga bore him a son, Richard. Another child was expected in the family, whom the parents wanted to name Vanya, but the baby was born still.

The pensions paid to athletes in the USSR were quite small, so Olga and her husband were constantly eager to go to the United States, from where they often received invitations. But for a long time, the couple could not obtain permission to leave. In 1989, the gymnast finally managed to cross the border, and she and her family settled in the United States. There she wrote memoirs and taught gymnastics to little girls.

Subsequent personal life

In 2000, Leonid was forced to return to Belarus. Soon the couple broke up, unable to withstand the test of distance, due to Olga's betrayal. Despite this, the former spouses are now on friendly terms. However, with his young lover Alex, who was 25 years younger than Olga, the relationship between Korbut did not work out.

Recently, information appeared about Olga's third husband, David, who is the heir to his father, a patron of the arts. The couple lives happily and comfortably in the American state of Arizona, where the newlyweds moved because of Korbut's high blood pressure.

Life now

After leaving the sport, Olga Korbut's life did not deteriorate at all. Now among the friends of the athlete there are very influential people, including Donald Trump himself. In 2017, Olga sold her personal belongings at an auction, including medals. Because of this, there were rumors that Olga's financial situation at the moment is very poor, but this is absolutely not the case.

It is interesting! Olga earned $ 225,000 at the auction.

The gymnast's son Richard lives in St. Petersburg, develops his business, brings up his son Valentine, named after the father of the star grandmother.

The four-time Olympic champion and two-time silver medalist of the Games is known for her unique tricks and outstanding achievements in sports. Korbut she was the first to perform a unique gymnastic element on a balance beam - a jump from two legs backward. This element was performed for the first time and was named "Korbut loop" in her honor.

Dossier

Olga Korbut was born on May 6, 1955 in the city of Grodno, BSSR. My mother worked in one of the local canteens as a cook, and my father was an engineer all his life. The family of six lived in a small apartment of 20 square meters. As a child, Olga was caught stealing more than once.

Education

Korbut did not have any aspirations to study well. At school, she did not differ in bright abilities, until the 4th grade she studied without triples, but then her academic performance deteriorated. They even wanted to transfer the girl to an educational institution for mentally retarded children.

Korbut began to study gymnastics from the second grade. Her abilities were noticed by a school teacher Yaroslav Korol and enrolled her in the gymnastics section. Later she tried to enter the Youth Sports School, but she was not accepted, considering it a “fat woman”. At the age of 10 at a sports school, she met the Olympic champion Elena Volchetskaya, who began to train her, and a year later Olga got into the group of the honored trainer of the USSR Renald Knysh.

In 1977 she graduated from the Grodno Pedagogical Institute, Faculty of History.

Olga Korbut and coach Renald Knysh, 1975 Photo: RIA Novosti / Mezhevich

Sports career

In 1970, Korbut managed to win the title of USSR champion in the vault.

In 1972, at the Munich Olympics, Olga won three gold and one silver. Korbut showed off new gymnastic elements and became an audience favorite. The Olympic champion was called “the chicken of the Soviet team”, “the favorite of the Olympics”, “child prodigy”.

In 1974 she became the world champion in the vault and in the team championship.

In 1975 she became the winner of the Soviet Spartakiad and champion of the USSR.

In 1976 Olga became a member of the USSR national team at the Games in Montreal and won gold and silver on the balance beam as part of the team.

After the Olympics in Montreal, Korbut ended her sports career. She wanted to stay in gymnastics and work as a coach in the national team, but her plans were not destined to come true due to the fact that she lost her party card and was expelled from the party for a year, which deprived her of the chance to engage in serious coaching work.

Since 1991, Korbut has been living in the United States and has American citizenship.

In February 2017, Korbut put up for auction five medals she won at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, earning $ 183,000 from their sale.

Olga Korbut at the Munich Olympics, 1972 Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Family status

In 1978, Korbut married the lead singer of the Pesnyary group Leonid Bortkevich... She lived with him for 22 years, gave birth to a son, Richard. They broke up in 2000.

After Bortkevich, Korbut married a journalist Alexey Voynich.

Now Korbut lives with an American Jay Schoenfilt... They have known each other for 9 years, but they have not yet formalized the relationship.

Scandalous stories

After moving to the USA, Korbut became interested in equestrian sports. During one of the exercises, the horse threw it off and pierced the chest with a hoof. Korbut developed three internal bleeding. The athlete's life almost ended tragically, the doctors had to give her a blood transfusion.

In 1999, Korbut's confession appeared in the American tabloid National Enquirer, in which she accused her coach Renald Knysh of rape before the 1972 Munich Olympics.

In January 2002, Korbut was detained in a supermarket on charges of stealing $ 19 worth of food. According to the gymnast, she simply forgot her wallet in the car and went to get it to pay for cheese, chocolate syrup, figs and a box of spices. Judicial authorities of the County of Guinnette (Georgia), taking into account that Korbut had no previous convictions, did not insist on imprisonment, but ordered a special course of psychological rehabilitation.

A month after being accused of theft, Korbut came to evict from the house, for which the mortgage was overdue. The arriving police found counterfeit money in the amount of $ 30 thousand in one of the rooms. Olga's son, 23-year-old Richard, turned out to be guilty. He received three and a half years in prison, and after serving his sentence he was deported from the United States to Belarus.