A forgotten miracle with pigtails. Another “Korbut loop” will shock America How old is athlete Olga Zagrebelny

Probably, many athletics fans have heard about Olga Korbut’s loop. And it’s no secret that this element in gymnastics is the Korbut loop? In the article you will find the answer to this question.

The first steps of a future star in artistic gymnastics

The world-famous Soviet athlete from Belarus Olga Korbut was born on May 16, 1955 in Grodno. She made the decision to engage in gymnastics on her own. Starting in 1963, Olga began to attend Yaroslav the King’s section. However, her first mentors considered her too plump for such a sport and took her reluctantly. Two years later, Olga found herself in the group of the legendary coach Renald Knysh, who was able to discern talent in the “fat girl.” The young student was very hardworking and only thought about doing gymnastics. Returning home in the evening after training, she imagined in her head how she would go to the gym again in the morning.

Olga Korbut’s first tangible achievement came in 1970 after winning the USSR championship. The athlete’s noticeable progress did not go unnoticed by the coaches, who enrolled her in the national team.

Loop Korbut

The world-famous element, which was named after the gymnast who first performed it, appeared during the training of Olga Korbut. She was having fun on the bars during a break between classes and randomly performed a unique trick. Renald Knysh drew attention to him and, together with Olga, made a loop. This is how this element was named - the Korbut loop. Why is it banned today? Now you will find out about it.

The implementation of a unique element begins with the top crossbar of uneven bars. Standing on it with her feet, the athlete flew into the air, performed a backflip and again returned to the top pole, clinging to it with her hands. She performed a unique trick so perfectly that it seemed as if the law of gravity did not apply. To thoroughly perform a dangerous and incredibly difficult element, the gymnast needed about five years of preparation. The first performance of the Korbut loop took place at the national championship in 1970. The fourteen-year-old athlete, who had not yet gained popularity, created a real sensation on the spectators present. So why is the Korbut loop banned in gymnastics?

Olympics-72 in Munich

Olga Korbut gained worldwide fame at the Olympic Games in Munich, which took place in 1972. Everyone was overjoyed after a young Soviet athlete with pigtails performed a unique element in artistic gymnastics. The international media on their pages did not skimp on flattering epithets addressed to Olga Korbut, who absolutely performed a phenomenal element and became an Olympic champion. She was so loved by everyone that the following year she was awarded the title of best athlete in the world. Olga Korbut’s noose left no one indifferent. Why was it banned? There were

Prohibition of performing the Korbut loop

Watching the execution of the unique Korbut loop, the audience received an unforgettable experience. However, performing dangerous stunts significantly increased the likelihood of serious injury. According to Olga Korbut, when performing the dangerous element named after her, she was very afraid. Her heart literally fell into the abyss of fear. So why is the Korbut loop banned?

The removal of this element from gymnastics was a matter of time until one of its performers received a serious injury. Another Soviet athlete, Elena Mukhina, improved the dangerous element by adding a screw to it.

Why is the beautiful Korbut loop prohibited? The reason is very serious... In July 1980, Elena Mukhina was preparing for the 1980 Olympic Games, which were to be held in the USSR, and landed unsuccessfully during training, hitting her head on the floor surface. The result of performing a difficult exercise is a broken spine. for 26 years she was forced to lie in bed, severely limited in her movements. Now it has become clear why the Korbut loop is prohibited. It is perhaps very difficult to disagree with this decision...

In an attempt to get more points, athletes come up with difficult elements to perform, increasing the risk of injury in dangerous gymnastics. In order to avoid further serious injuries to artistic gymnasts, the unique element “Korbut loop” was prohibited by the rules, as a result of which it can no longer be seen in official competitions. That's why the Korbut loop is banned...

Each Olympics has its own heroes. Sports fortune chooses them from among the winners. The Hero of the Olympics is a very special, almost legendary personality. Firstly, because at each Olympics there are no more than three or four such heroes, and secondly, because most often their appearance is unexpected: just recently, on the eve of the starts, one name was suggested, and suddenly someone, before almost unmentioned, became the object of universal sympathy and admiration. It is almost impossible to predict the appearance of a hero or heroine; no knowledge of sports will help here. And this is understandable: in addition to purely athletic phenomenality, the hero is also required to have such valuable human qualities as charm and bright personality. Can you guess who will meet all the requirements! But it is precisely this surprise that is one of the secrets of the attractiveness of big-time sports.

Who, for example, could have guessed that one of the most beloved heroines of the Munich Olympics would be determined in the very first days of the Games, in the midst of gymnastics competitions, and it would not be the world champion Lyudmila Turishcheva, not the athlete from the GDR Karin Janz, not the American Katie Rigby, already won the “Most Charming Participant” prize, and tiny, funny and spontaneous Olya Korbut! True, back in Moscow, when discussing who should represent the national team, our coaches said: “Olya will do her somersault and conquer everyone right away!” However, these were still more dreams than strict certainty. Although Olya Korbut had already performed successfully in international competitions, no one could determine the degree of effect of her Olympic debut.

Olga Valentinovna Korbut was born on May 16, 1955 in Grodno. Six of them lived in a room of twenty square meters without any amenities: dad was an engineer, mom was a cook and four sisters. Olya was the youngest and most beloved. Her character was tempered in courtyard battles. Then she went to school and studied without grades until the fourth grade. And in the second grade, the school physical teacher Yaroslav Ivanovich Korol took her to the school gymnastics section. However, when there was a selection process for the local youth sports school, she was not accepted at first: she was too plump!

But for some reason the “fat girl” attracted the attention of Olympic champion Elena Volchetskaya. A year later, Olya began training with the country's honored coach Ronald Ivanovich Knysh.

She came to our school in 1965,” recalled Renald Ivanovich. “We selected her among other fifty girls, and Elena Volchetskaya - she was already the national champion at that time - began working with her. About six months have passed. I looked closely at the newcomers: who should I now prepare to become champions? And the choice fell on Olya. She picked up new elements very easily! I soon realized that this girl could do the impossible...

The point was not only that the small weight and lightness allowed Olya to throw herself into the air so that sometimes it seemed as if she, having overcome gravity, was “hovering” in space, like a feather. And excellent coordination of movements helped to land accurately after the flight. After all, aren’t there a lot of girls and boys around who are short, puny and agile? And many of them do gymnastics, but the second Olga Korbut does not... This means that the secret is not only in natural abilities. The secret is also in character. To do something that no one has ever tried to do before requires special courage. And not just courage in the sense that “I’m not afraid to fall.”

Who knows - Korbut would have grown up if she had not ended up with Knysh as a good gymnast. They needed each other: Knysh is a calm, reasonable-looking, sedate person, but in reality he is nervous, active, rushing about in constant search, discarding hundreds of options, each of which would be a godsend for another; and Korbut is spontaneity itself, nakedness of the soul, a proud and easily wounded creature.

The easiest way in sports is to copy the champions and try to reach their level of skill. The most difficult thing is to look for your path, ahead of your time, today to see what no one else sees.

Best of the day

Knysh somehow came across a book about Goya and read a phrase there that immediately sparked an idea. The great artist, explaining the origins of creativity, said: “Imagination, devoid of reason, produces monsters; united with him, she is the mother of art and the source of its miracles.” Knysh fantasized.

He composed the elements. Olga cried with resentment when she didn’t succeed in what she had planned, and immediately began to repeat it hundreds and thousands of times, until every link, every element became an inseparable part of the whole. And when it was possible to calm down, Knysh rejected everything outright and gloomily paced the gym, and Olya, already accustomed to such unexpected turns, tried to keep up with the coach’s thoughts and learned to understand at a glance, as if their hearts were tuned to the same wavelength.

They don't like dreamers. Knysh got it hard, but he was not a timid person and would have easily endured the injustice of the reproaches if not for Olya. How often she baffled him with her stubbornness and changeable moods, immediately breaking what had been built by joint efforts. Olga did not hide this: “You know, I have an intolerable character. Either I want to cry to the point of tears exactly what I cannot do, or I simply cannot overcome my reluctance to complete some trivial task from Knysh. And I understand that Ronald Ivanovich is right, but I can’t help myself, even cry...”

Shortly after the Mexico City Olympics, a fourteen-year-old girl successfully competed in the Olympic Hopes youth competition, demonstrating her famous somersault on a balance beam.

True, four years ago Olya didn’t have to do this flip over and over again: she would either do it confidently, or it wouldn’t work... “It’s not worth it,” the skeptics shook their heads, “she’ll never master it so that you can let her out without fear.” to the international arena. Yes, this is impossible! But Renald Ivanovich persisted. Silent, withdrawn, he probably already believed then: if it worked once, it means it will work again, and again; if caught, all that remains is to secure it, hold it. A find not to be missed!

For a long time, all the talk about Korbut revolved around this unique somersault. As if there was nothing else interesting in her arsenal!

No, it was! The somersault simply caught the eye of everyone, even non-specialists. Meanwhile, at the same time as the somersault, Olya showed new elements on the uneven bars and performed the usual jump - “flexion-extension” - at an unusual pace, which gave it a completely new coloring.

It couldn’t be otherwise, which is why the thought of a tidal wave was associated with this gymnast - a somersault on a balance beam was the most striking expression of the innovation of the coach and athlete. In fact, such an element “on the blade of a log” cannot be performed just like that; it requires something special. Renald Ivanovich Knysh found this special thing in Korbut, but it took time to develop what he found. And patience.

In 1969, at the republican championship in the free program, Olya Korbut gave such a “fight” to Tamara Lazakovich that the latter was saved only by a more stable performance in the compulsory program. Here Korbut showed her original somersault on the uneven bars.

How did this nameless trick enter the girl’s arsenal?

Completely by accident, recalls Ronald Ivanovich. - Once Olya was “playing around” on the uneven bars and suddenly did something unimaginable. I had to strain my memory to reproduce everything again. After some time we returned to this element. Such a risky somersault, but Olya did a great job - she wasn’t scared.

Then Olya studied in the eighth grade of a specialized school in Grodno. Additionally I studied English...

In July 1971, the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR was held in Moscow. After the compulsory program, there are two bright gymnastics leaders ahead - Olga Karaseva and Tamara Lazakovich. Korbut is not far from them. In the free program she begins to pester the leaders. Everyone is waiting for her performance on the balance beam. Moscow has not yet seen her original backflip. And then the hall froze. And Olya? Her face turned marble white. Works carefully. She swayed a little... She froze. Now it will happen. And suddenly... Olya fell. Naturally, the chances of winning also dropped. But she still received gold. Together with my friends. For a team victory. She smiled with tears in her eyes. Joy and sorrow came together in her. And Olya also said:

I will win the Spartakiad...

It was the girl's passion for sports. Girls hungry for victory. She will keep her word. Four years later, in Leningrad, Olya will rise to receive the medal of the champion of the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR. Nellie Kim will be standing nearby. Both finished first.

Korbut was in the public eye, but only four years after her entry at the “Olympic Hopes” tournament, Olga managed to win the all-around and, on the eve of the Olympic Games, win the National Cup. And before that, one thing or another interfered with her and, of course, brought her a lot of grief. And the more significant is the triumph at the Olympics in Munich!

The effect exceeded all expectations. The day after Olya demonstrated her extraordinary uneven bars combination to the breathless Sporthalle, the Munich newspapers opened the competition with admiration for the Soviet athlete. As soon as they didn’t call Olya! And “the darling of the Olympics”, and “the chicken of the Soviet team, with his somersault jumping straight into the heart of the public”, and “the child prodigy”... Each of her new appearances on the platform was met with ovation. And then, when the gymnastics competitions had long since ended and new events seemed to have to supplant the impressions of the first Olympic days, Olya Korbut did not disappear from television screens for a long time.

Olga took the lead on the second day - after a free program on the carpet. The audience applauded her for a long time. She took to the bars together with Lazakovich and Zuchold. Her rivals did not scare her, because the uneven bars were her favorite apparatus, and it was here that she and Knysh “created something.”

Although Korbut wrote in her book “Once Upon a Time There Was a Girl”: I was always afraid of the “Loop.” Yes Yes Yes! Even having mastered it to the point of automaticity, to almost one hundred percent stability, I always, until the very last day in big sport, approached the uneven bars, and my heart fell into the abyss of fear. Wobbly legs, dizziness, nauseating weakness. The thought of escape, of a shameful escape to the hooting and whistling of the audience, each time took on very real shape. I don’t know how it turned out for others, I was ashamed to ask. Perhaps this was the natural, ordinary excitement that visits all athletes without asking for a way out. Including those - I’m sure - to whom journalists attach dubious labels like “a man without nerves”, “iron”. Another thing is that Ren taught me to keep my will in check.”

In Munich, something irreparable and terrible happened, as it seemed to many. Two points deducted by the judges for the uneven bars exercises, like a tsunami, smashed the plans of Knysh and Korbut to smithereens. This is what it seemed to those who had even the slightest connection to Korbut’s performance. Knysh sat down in his chair, and his face became even more inscrutable. Erica Zuchold, Olga, a friend from the GDR team, burst into tears. It was as if the national team coach Polina Astakhova had been petrified; she immediately remembered her own fall in the now distant Olympic Rome, and she shuddered at the thought of what a childish ordeal befell the soul of the young gymnast. The hall fell silent in confusion. And only the cameraman - a bearded giant in a black leather jacket - rolled the camera at Olga Korbut, trying to look into the girl’s face in order to mercilessly show the world in close-up every tear, wrinkle, grimace of pain and resentment, internal discord.

She needed to go to the log, and she pulled away from Erica Zuchold and, looking straight ahead, ran up the steps to the platform and froze at the projectile. In the all-around, Korbut became only fifth.

Why, with all the phenomenalness and reckless determination of Olga Korbut, was it not she who became the absolute champion of the XX Olympic Games, but Turishcheva?

Korbut was very excited about her successes: she bowed in all directions, raised her hands and smiled at the stands. Such a glorious feeling as joy, or rather stormy joy, jubilation, an explosion of emotions, requires a huge expenditure of nervous energy. Experienced athletes, such as Turishcheva, knew very well what it was, and took care of themselves, restrained themselves for the time being. But Olga, who first found herself in the tense atmosphere of the Games, could not stand it.

There are also four gold medals. “Don’t miss yours,” Knysh said sternly after failure in the all-around.

And on the last day of the competition, Korbut established herself in world gymnastics as a star of the first magnitude. Olga, on the same uneven bars that brought her so much grief yesterday, coped with her task superbly and lost only to Karin Janz. But she got the hang of it on the beam and floor exercises and was first. Everyone was especially amazed by her floor exercises. Olya surpassed both European champions here - Lazakovich, who was called the most graceful gymnast of the Games, and Turishcheva, whose floor is her favorite type of program.

Until recently, the choreographer and coach were racking their brains: what freedoms could this child come up with that wouldn’t be deliberately adult™, that would demonstrate her amazing acrobatics in all its splendor and that would reveal her character? The latter turned out to be the most difficult - the character was broken, could not be defined, and was not embodied in movement. And yet, through joint efforts, they managed to create a charming composition - “Flight of the Bumblebee,” which Olga performed. But on the eve of the Olympics, she decisively abandoned “Bumblebee”:

These are children's freestyles, I want others!

There were doubts. Is it too early to change? She may be seventeen years old, but her appearance is childish! However, Olga would not be herself if she gave in. She insisted. And she proved that she was right. All her “courage” in free dances to the perky “Kalinka” was revealed with exhaustive completeness.

It was also revealed that shortly before the Munich start, Knysh and Korbut came up with something new - a special, “with a puff” performance of such a traditional acrobatic element as the “flyak”, and decided to insert this spectacular novelty into the freestyle composition. This was very typical for Knysh - not to wait for the new product to “ripen” to full readiness, but to immediately bring it to court, striking both the judges and the audience with such a “suddenness effect.”

Of course, three Olympic gold medals - for the team championship and for victories on individual apparatus - is an unprecedented success for an Olympic debutante, needless to say, and Olga left the Olympics happy! If we take the general opinion of the audience, then the heroine in those days was a schoolgirl from Grodno, Olga Korbut. It was she who managed to completely capture the attention of the audience, make them fall silent, and then, after jumping off, explode the hall in a long and noisy ovation.

When the Kremlin awarded medals to the heroes of the Olympics, she childishly ran away from the top row, jumping over the step. And the Order of the Badge of Honor seemed so big on her small uniform jacket...

In 1973, the USSR gymnastics team went on a twenty-day tour of the United States. Americans went crazy over the miniature Russian prima Olga. Her popularity was wild. One after another, like mushrooms after rain, gymnastics clubs named after Korbut grew.

And a year later, Korbut and Knysh broke up. Ren, as she called him, handed over to Olga Alekseeva. “Perhaps Alekseeva did not break the gymnastics virgin soil, like Ren,” Korbut recalled. “But she knew her job thoroughly and performed it with love, which also does not happen very often. For my last three and most difficult years in gymnastics, she was nearby.

Perhaps Alekseeva was not a coach for me in the usual sense of the word. She didn’t “button up” or “keep her distance.” On the contrary, open, affectionate, sociable, she immediately became a senior comrade, a wise adviser, an attentive interlocutor. We didn’t need any time to get used to it; in our new combination, we quickly found our own maneuver, our own manner of behavior.

The result was amazing! Never - neither before nor later - have I felt so confident and prepared as in the autumn October Varna of 1974. It is not true that the peak of my athletic form occurred in Munich - is it possible to define high points by the number of gold medals won? No, Varna, exactly Varna! I say this not at all in order to throw a stone at Ren after him. I am only stating a fact, albeit based on my subjective feelings.

We have a fairly strong team in Varna - a classic fusion of experience and youth: Lyuda Turishcheva, Elvira Saadi, Rusudan Sikharulidze, Nina Dronova, Nelly Kim and me. Almost by tradition, we won the team championship, although there were sparks of rivalry with the even, solid German Democratic team. Republics were still flogged. Well, in the all-around, again almost according to tradition, Luda Turishcheva took the lead. “Maybe she really was created to win, and I was created to be surprised? - I thought, standing on the second step of the pedestal and swallowing invisible tears spilling inside. - Where did I lose the 0.8 points I lost, how could I lose them if I was perfectly prepared and didn’t make a single mistake? Why were the referees so unfair? Or is it now fashionable for Turishcheva’s “strict” gymnastics, but mine, explosive, liberated, courageous, has fallen in price and is no longer liked? Why then does the auditorium whistle and stomp condemningly every time, as soon as the scoreboard displays my scores? This means they understand, support... No, sorry for the impudence, in Varna I am stronger than everyone else! Unofficially, so to speak.”

This is how I once thought, and time has added or subtracted practically nothing to that old self-confident, almost boastful conviction. Accept it or not, but I always hated pretending to be happy that someone, somewhere, defeated me, even a friend from the national team. She never came up and fawned: “Lyudochka, well done, congratulations.” Rather, she could flash nearby, hiding her eyes and not saying hello, or even snap back and bite: “Listen, you are always lucky, like a drowned man...”

I still won, snatched a gold medal in jumping. In spite of all the injustices in the world. Renovsky’s “360 plus 360” refuted all real and imaginary ill-wishers! Thank you, Ronald Ivanovich!

Gratitude is by no means abstract. After all, Knysh himself was in Varna and directly had a hand in my golden jump.

They didn’t dare take risks in team competitions: there was no stability, they were afraid to let the team down. We were preparing to shoot in the final with shells. The day before, on the day of rest, Alekseeva and I ran into the gym and wanted to quickly assess our pros and cons.

And suddenly bad luck: we struggle, struggle over the jump - no sense, as if in the old days, when I, a beginner, missed the contour and clumsily, clumsily plopped into the foam pit. We continue to jump - as if our forehead is hitting a wall, hopelessly. By evening, something barely hatched. Terribly dubious. We fell asleep with divided feelings: don’t put it, don’t put it? It's probably better not to bet...

In such cases, tomorrow always comes faster than you want. "Korbut!" - the speaker clears his throat. I go out, pull my sock, raise my hand in greeting. “We will jump one regular pirouette,” Alekseeva and I decided in the morning. “We’ll try to do it cleanly and beautifully.” I look back at the podium and meet Ren's eyes. He sits in the front row, almost next to him, shouts and gesticulates. I hear fragments of his phrases: “...Don’t fuss!.. Harsh!” I run, jump, land, stare at the scoreboard. Alas, 9.7. And you need 9.8 for a clear victory. I don’t notice anything, I rush to the take-off point, I turn to Ren, dumbly, and ask with my eyes: what should I do? He, without hesitation, lowers his eyelids: “Go ahead, Korbutiha, “two by 360”!”

I take a running start, spin before touching, spin after touching and... landing on the board! 9.8! But it’s not the assessment that already occupies my attention. I look around and watch in embarrassment and confusion as the gymnasts themselves applaud while standing. Is it really for me?

Here it comes, a moment of sporting happiness “according to Ren”. “What fans are, they are people of emotions,” said Knysh, “it’s not difficult to deceive them with a strawberry, to play on external effects. If you ever manage to surprise your fellow athletes, if you are heartily applauded by someone who himself cooks in a gymnastics kitchen and knows what’s in it, consider that you have ceased to be a craftsman, you have become a Master.”

In 1976, Korbut went to Montreal as a star, from whom they expected new sparks, but she did not light them. This was done by Nellie Kim and Nadia Comaneci. Another excerpt from Korbut’s book:

“By the time a fragment from Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto sounded over the Olympic platform in Montreal, inviting the gymnasts to line up, everything could have been “100 percent.” All old programs have been updated, complicated and rehearsed. The Varna jump “360 plus 360” is perfected to perfection. On the balance beam there is a most interesting combination - a flake and then a blanche roll at the same pace. And the original dismount is a forward somersault with a 540 degree turn. On freestyle - the already mentioned double somersault. And so on and so forth. Yes, everything could be “100 percent”. It could have, but it didn’t.

A few days before the start, my long-injured ankle began to suffer once again. Injuries always happen at the wrong time, that’s their nature! And yet it would be so inopportune! I spared myself and practically did not perform dismounts at the last stage of preparation. The doctors worked their magic on my leg, it seems they patched it up. I’ll knock on the bench with a slightly sore spot and listen, but it doesn’t hurt. As if not... Alas, by the middle of the compulsory program I was no longer just limping, I was hobbling. Trouble has a chain reaction. The personal competition of the Olympics was over for me: I had to throw out the double somersault from the free program, remove the “Korbut somersault” from the uneven bars combination, and cut some things in the rest of the programs. You cannot perform such elements on one leg. They looked me in the eyes and asked: “Can you perform?” “I can,” she said.

It was about the team. For me, letting someone down is a tragedy... For myself, please, a hundred times. Although, if you look at it, when I let myself down at the Olympics, I let down not only myself. Ah, trauma, trauma...

I also have a little strong pride from Montreal. I hobbled to the finish line and endured the pain. Although not expectedly large, she nevertheless made a contribution to the team Olympic “gold”, won for the seventh time in a row by the USSR women’s gymnastics team. I didn’t let down Luda Turishcheva, Nelly Kim, Elya Saadi, Sveta Grozdova, Masha Filatova. “Be calm about this fight,” the “controller not controlled by me” tells me.

A small present, a souvenir at the end of a gymnastics career - a silver medal on the uneven bars. And one more parting consolation: no one still performs the “Korbut somersault” as sweepingly as I do; no one mastered the Varna jump in two years; no one does flakes and blanche rolls at tempo on the beam; none...

If journalists insist that Olga Korbut was an era in gymnastics, I will not object. It’s stupid to refuse something that will never be offered to you again.”

Soon Olga graduated from the history department of the Grodno Pedagogical Institute. In the spring of 1978, a ceremonial farewell to Olga Korbut took place at international competitions in Moscow. And then Korbut got married.

A few months before the wedding, Olga gave her last demonstration performances in Tehran. “Don’t go, Olga!” - the fans chanted to her. At the same time, Olga and Leonid Bortkevich met by chance on an airplane. The meeting of the sports star and the singer of the popular ensemble “Pesnyary” in the country seemed like fate. As Leonid later admitted, it was love at first sight. Olga is in her first marriage. Bortkevich already had a family. He divorced his wife...

At a wedding in one of the Minsk restaurants, about 150 people walked. They danced and sang to “Pesnyary”. The groom also sang.

After leaving sports, Olga took care of her husband. With the tenacity that the coaches put into her, she directed his every step - how to go on stage, how to hold the microphone, how to bow. Then she persuaded him to start a solo career, and Bortkevich left Pesnyary.

But Olga was frankly bored. At home, her merits were quickly forgotten. A coaching position and a salary of 200 rubles was all she had to be content with in the USSR. And America still dreamed of a girl gymnast... The family’s departure to the USA (along with their son Richard) seemed the only right thing to do.

In 2000, after twenty-two years of marriage, Olga and Leonid divorced. Korbut and Bortkevich made the decision to divorce calmly. They raised a wonderful son, Richard, who was twenty-one years old. And perhaps, in fact, as they say now, their marriage has exhausted itself.

In 2002, new trouble happened to Olga - she was arrested on charges of stealing food from a store in the suburbs of Atlanta. By decision of the local court, Olga Korbut was released on bail, the amount of which was set at $600. The cost of the goods the gymnast is accused of stealing was $19. According to manager Korbut, everything that happened was the result of a simple misunderstanding.

According to the gymnast herself, she simply forgot her wallet in the car and went to get it to pay. At the same time, she intended to leave the cart with groceries at the door of the store. “Olga was already at the exit when the security staff decided that she was trying to take the cart with her,” said the gymnast’s manager Kay Weatherford.

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 was the first to perform a unique gymnastic element on a balance beam - a backward two-legged jump. This element was performed for the first time and was called the “Korbut loop” in her honor.

Dossier

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

Education

Korbut had no desire to study well. At school she was not distinguished by her bright abilities; she studied without C grades until the 4th grade, but then her academic performance deteriorated. They even wanted to transfer the girl to an educational institution for mentally retarded children.

Korbut started doing gymnastics in second grade. Her school physical teacher noticed her abilities Yaroslav Korol and enrolled her in the gymnastics section. Later she tried to enter the Youth Sports School, but was not accepted, considering her “fat.” At the age of 10, at a sports school, she met an Olympic champion Elena Volchetskaya, who began to train her, and a year later Olga joined 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 vault.

In 1972, at the Munich Olympics, Olga won three golds and one silver. Korbut demonstrated new gymnastic elements and became the audience's favorite. The Olympic champion began to be called “the chicken of the Soviet team,” “the darling of the Olympics,” and “a 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 the champion of the USSR.

In 1976, Olga joined 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 Montreal Olympics, 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 lived in the United States and has American citizenship.

In February 2017, Korbut auctioned off five medals she won at the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games, raising $183,000 from their sale.

Olga Korbut at the Olympics in Munich, 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 and gave birth to a son, Richard. In 2000 they separated.

After Bortkevich, Korbut married a journalist Alexey Voynich.

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

Scandalous stories

After moving to the USA, Korbut became interested in equestrian sports. During one of the lessons, the horse threw her off and pierced her chest with her hoof. Korbut experienced three internal bleedings. The athlete’s life almost ended tragically; 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 Olympics in Munich.

In January 2002, Korbut was detained in a supermarket on charges of stealing $19 worth of groceries. 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. The judicial authorities of Gwinnett County (Georgia), taking into account that Korbut had no previous convictions, did not insist on imprisonment, but prescribed a special course of psychological rehabilitation.

A month after being accused of theft, Korbut came to evict her from a house on which the mortgage was overdue. The police arrived and found $30,000 worth of counterfeit money in one of the rooms. Olga’s son, 23-year-old Richard, turned out to be the culprit. He received three and a half years in prison, and after serving his sentence he was deported from the United States to Belarus.

Her smile and braids captivated the whole world. When the “Soviet little sparrow” jumped on the uneven bars, overcoming the earth’s gravity, the spectators’ hearts sank... But it turned out that Olga Korbut was more appreciated abroad - after perestroika, the artistic gymnastics champion emigrated to America. And now lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

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 I can land on my feet here.

Olympics in Munich, 1972... Olga Korbut, flashing her famous smile, was preparing to do her signature performance - jump on the upper bars, in a matter of seconds make a backward loop in the air and land back on the upper bars. She still doesn’t remember what she did wrong when she fell on the mats... The stands fell silent, the girl cried, hiding her face in her hands, her little pigtails trembled... Spectators on TV screens around the world sobbed along with the athlete.

— Because of that failure, the audience began to feel even more sincere sympathy for you... Do you think that you lost or won something more than a gold medal?

“I didn’t lose even then, although I was very upset,” Olga Korbut answers on the phone with a slight “overseas” accent. — Because I fought not for medals, but for results. 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...

“I personally was given a car right up to the plane’s steps, and when Nixon approached me at the conference, I didn’t recognize him: “You’re so small!” — 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 a 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. Passersby 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.

— It must have been difficult for you to leave big sport 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 openly limp. And I realized that it was time to quit... I was offered to be the coach of the Soviet artistic gymnastics team, for this I had to be a member of the party, but I lost my party card. There was a “punishment” for this in the Union - expulsion for a year, but I couldn’t stand idle that long. And from Atlanta I received an offer to sign a coaching contract. And I accepted it.

— How many years did you make the “loop” after that?

“The first time I made a loop was by accident and I perfected this trick for 20 years. Even after moving to America in 1988, she honed her skills at demonstration performances. Now I, of course, no longer do the “loop” - 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, with it you can eat anything and look great.

- What, do you eat hamburgers?

— I still promote healthy eating, and fast food is a garbage dump! I myself adhere to a vegetable and fruit diet... Although I love pizza, I don’t order from 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, lead singer of “Pesnyary” Leonid Bortkevich. He did not take root in America and returned to Belarus, and although he and his ex-wife are separated by an ocean, they still consider each other close people...

“We talk on the phone almost every day,” says Leonid Bortkevich. “It’s very difficult for Olga there.”

— It’s symbolic that you met on a plane flying to the USA...

- This is fate... In 1973, “Pesnyary” and I flew to America for the first time. And they got on the same plane with the gymnasts. We started getting acquainted. I was not in the mood for noisy company, and Olga also hid in a secluded corner of the salon - they began to get bored together. And we chatted with her for seven hours straight. “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 athlete fiance and literally ran away from the wedding. When she showed up on my doorstep, I was stunned by her beauty. “Can I come in?” — my future wife defused the situation. And she came into my life for 22 years.

— Did you decide to get married right away?

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

— Did they also provide the bride with a dress?

— Did Olga have psychological trauma from the fact that coach Knysh was too persistent in pursuing her?

- Yes, we had to overcome this problem together. Although she spoke of him with great respect. And when Knysh’s predilections for minors came to light, we went together to the prosecutor and begged him to close the criminal case. Still, she loved him on some level.

— Was Richard the long-awaited son?

— Olga just left sports, in the Union she was assigned a lifelong allowance of 300 rubles, and for three years she traveled with “Pesnyary” throughout the Union, it was the happiest time in my life. And my wife was spoiled by trips abroad, but she didn’t 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, the Polish prince.

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

“Misfortunes indeed haunted us at one time.” It was especially difficult for Olga. They had already come up with 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. Everyone called us with congratulations the next day, and we cried into the phone, reporting our grief. Olga was terribly depressed, she tried to forget herself in her new achievements - she took up sports dressage horses, but before one meeting with journalists in the stable, the horse threw himself from the saddle and pierced the chest with his hoof. Olga had three internal bleedings, before my eyes in the hospital she almost died - she was already starting to turn blue when she was given a blood transfusion...

Arizona Dream

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

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

“I spent a whole month transferring my responsibilities to the remaining members of the group,” he says. - In Atlanta, they gave us a house, Olga was surrounded by fans, she trained gymnasts and went on demonstrations, and for two years I was completely idle, studying with Richard, whom we got into 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 profession is the meaning of life for me when I was invited to a festival in Belarus. I went out onto the hay again, sang “Birch Sap”, the audience stood up... And I went backstage and cried. 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 a long time ago, but I did not cheat on Olga... 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 groom from Belarus myself. Our mutual friend Alex had been in love with her for a long time, we went with him to the consul, and honestly told him why we wanted to send Alex to America. He understood everything. And for some time Olga lived with him, but then they ran away - they didn’t get along in character.

— Why did your son Richard also return to Belarus?

“He trained in America to be a programmer and showed such talent in this matter that the American intelligence services caught him hacking. They offered either cooperation with them or deportation. And Richard chose the second - now he has his own company in Belarus. And Olga was left in America completely alone.

— What’s the dark story when Olga was detained for theft in a supermarket in 2002?

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

Korbut admitted to a 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. 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 enormous experience. And I would leave my profitable work in America for this. He promised to think about the proposal, but for now it hung in the air. It’s strange, but I travel a lot around the world, all countries have invited me to the Olympics. But I’m not sure whether they’ll invite me to Sochi...

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

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

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

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

A strange remark, to put it mildly. As if the sexual relationship of a 16-year-old athlete with a 40-year-old mentor, even if it is not violent, is the norm.

"I WAS A LITTLE GIRL AND STANDED EVERYTHING"

In a personal conversation ( Knysh, who has been living in the Belarusian Grodno for many years, went on a video call with the studio), Korbut charged the coach not only with sexual harassment. She also spoke about constant beatings and humiliation.

Do you want to evaluate whether it was real at that time? Let's remember the biography of the gymnast: Korbut from a poor large family; 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 didn’t even know that their daughter was doing gymnastics. What emerges is an ideal portrait of a potential victim of a rapist.

By the way, shortly after the 1980 Olympics, that is, several years after Korbut finished her career Knysha suddenly they abruptly asked me 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 he never returned to work at the top level. The answer to the question “why” was given on air by Korbut.

“You know why you were banned from coaching,” she told Knysh. - Because I told the truth! You didn't just do this to me. And this continued with me for more than one year. I was just little and endured everything.

CAN AGE BECOME AN INDULGENCE?

History Korbut It’s easiest to imagine the accusations of a middle-aged woman against an 86-year-old man as ridiculous. Like, what difference does it make what happened between them forty years ago? Even criminal offenses have a statute of limitations, but here it has long passed. And Korbut is simply promoting himself, unable to accept that his former popularity is long gone.

But let's remember the trials against Nazi criminals. They were tried at both 80 and 90 years old and sentenced to real prison terms. One could, of course, feel sorry for some very old man in the dock, who was 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 we feel sorry for him? Can age become an indulgence for a crime of such gravity?

There is, of course, no question of applying it now to Knysh real criminal punishment. But why Korbut has no right to force him to pay for the crime, at least morally? A coach who calls his former pupil a “bastard”, but does not explain anything in fact, clearly does not feel any remorse.

IT'S TIME TO BREAK THE CLUE

In gymnastics circles Knysha Of course, everyone has known everything for a long time. It is impossible to hide anything in this small world, and in the truth of the story Korbut Almost no one doubts this. 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 shouldn’t Korbut, at least as moral compensation, have dispelled this myth?

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

Don't you understand that if I had remained silent, he would have continued to rape other girls?! - in the end, I lost my temper on air Korbut.

And this is actually the key point. Unfortunately, there are other girls suffering in different parts of the world right now who have experienced something similar in sports. Korbut’s story should give them a thought: there is no need to remain silent. If a coach has committed violence against you, it doesn’t matter - domestic or sexual - you need to report it immediately, without waiting for years. Argue, swear, present evidence without delay. 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. Decades later, the world will again want to believe the respected master, and not the absurd gymnast. If only she were right a thousand times.