Olga Korbut is rightly considered an innovator in artistic gymnastics. As a member of the USSR national team, she won many important victories and even invented her own element: the “Korbut loop”. However, in the personal life of the great athlete not everything was as simple as in sport.
The scandals began after the champion moved to the United States. A truly dramatic destination!
Grand Champion
Korbut started doing gymnastics in the second grade of school. Just seven years later, under the guidance of coach Renald Knysh, she became USSR champion and joined the national team. Olga delighted fans with her audacity of elements and her incredible plasticity. World fame came to him in 1972 at the Munich Olympic Games. Korbut won four medals in various competitions: three gold and one silver.
Then there was a great performance at the World Championships in Varna (1974) and another Olympic triumph (Montreal, 1976). During those same years, Korbut toured the United States and spoke with the country’s then president, Richard Nixon.
Photo source: Getty Images
After Montreal, Korbut ended his career as an athlete. She married the vocalist of “Pesnyary” Leonid Bortkevich and wanted to get a job in the national team. However, it didn’t work: all because of the loss of my match card.
After the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Korbut and her husband considered that it was no longer possible to remain in the USSR. She and the child moved to the United States. After this the problems began.
Echoes of the past
At first life was going well. However, Bortkevich soon became saddened by the lack of performances and decided to return to his homeland, Belarus. The long-distance marriage did not last long. After 22 years of marriage, the couple decided to separate.
In 1999, Korbut appeared on the covers of all world publications. Olga made a shocking confession: Coach Knysh supposedly raped her. According to the champion, this happened just before the Munich Olympics. Later, Olga also told this story on the program “Let them talk.” Knysh was connected there via video link. He, of course, denied everything and cursed every last word.
“After me there was another girl who the same thing happened to. She told her parents and they wanted to put him in prison. I didn’t say then that she raped me. But when I saw how painful it was throughout my life… After all, this wound cannot be healed,” Korbut said then.
However, Knysh soon died, ending the controversy. The coach’s wife, by the way, assured that it was the scandal caused by Korbut that caused the specialist’s death.
Photo source: RIA Novosti
After this, other strange stories happened to Korbut. She once even got caught for a petty shoplifting. The champion’s son was then jailed for fraud for three full years and deported from the United States. They were worried about the former athlete even after she suffered a terrible injury: Olga fell from a horse and the horse impaled her chest with its hoof.
In 2017, the sports world was shocked by the news that the Olympic champion had sold all her prizes. Rumors spread that the great champion was barely making ends meet. However, this information was soon denied.
“By no means out of necessity. She has a young, wealthy husband, David, the son of a wealthy philanthropist who received an inheritance. He completely provided for Olga. He became her third husband. They have both a house and an apartment. They live luxuriously. Better than you and me! — Leonid Bortkevich told Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Korbut herself also denied information about the sale of medals out of necessity. He now still lives in Arizona and doesn’t really like the Russian and Belarusian press. There seemed to be a pause in the life of the heroine of the two Olympic Games after a streak of various scandals.
