Great Gymnast Olga Korbut sold Olympic medals

Suresh Kumar Lau

Olga Valentinovna Korbut is one of the most famed and notable gymnast of all time, credited with changing the outlook of her sport when she won the heart of millions at the Munich, 1972 Olympics Games. Olga has apparently fallen on hard up, has sold of her Olympic Games medals, other medals and trophies through a USA auction house recently. The medals and trophies fetched $ 33,500 (approximately Rs 21, 91900) sale for the former Athlete of the year in America and former Soviet gymnast.

Olga astonished experts and sport fans alike with her agility, flexibility and daring moves, becoming one of the first and foremost gymnast ever to do a backward dismount from the Balance Beam, a move which has now become known as the Korbut Flip.

Young Olga during her heyday

A total of six Olympics medals, four of them gold and two silver has made her true legend of her sport. She won gold in the Floor competition, Balance Beam, Team competition and silver on the Uneven Bars at the Munich, 1972 Olympic Games. She also won a gold in the Team competition and a silver on the Balance Beam at Montreal, 1976 Olympic Games, despite of going into the competition with injury problems. She was the World Student Games champion in 1973 and second overall at the 1973 Europeans and 1974 World, winning vault at the latter. She retired from competition in 1977, and then married rock singer Leonid Bortkevich. Olga taught gymnastics in USSR and moved with her family in 1991 to USA and lives in Atlanta.

She remains an ionic personality, her courage and creativity changed the sport and some world claim, even helped to ease the Cold war between East and west, she met US president Richard Milhous Nixon (1969- 74) at the official residence of President of USA, White House.