Gymnast Korbut sells Munich Games medals to fight hunger
Former Soviet athlete whose performances dazzled the world at 1972 Games, sells Olympic medals and other memorabilia after apparently falling into financial difficulty
LOSANGELES: Olga Korbut, a former Soviet gymnast whose performances dazzled the world at the 1972 Munich Games, has sold her Olympic medals and other memorabilia after apparently falling into financial difficulty.
The US auction house Heritage Auctions confirmed that 32 lots, including two gold medals and a silver from those Games, changed hands for $333,500 (INR 2.22 crore) in an online sale at the weekend.
“Medals saved Korbut from hunger,” the Russian news outlet gazeta.ru reported. The top item was her 1972 team gold medal, which fetched $66,000.
Korbut also sold her Munich floor exercise gold, the silver won on the asymmetric bars, and a team gold and balance beam silpionship ver from the 1976 Montreal Games. Among other items in the sale were performance leotards, Korbut’s 1972 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, and assorted Soviet and World Cham- medals.
A third Munich gold, on the balance beam, was stolen some years ago.
Now 61 and living in Scottsdale, Arizona, Korbut, who was born in Belarus, captivated audiences at the 1972 Games with a string of acrobatic performances hailed as both charismatic and technically brilliant.
Known as “the Sparrow from Minsk”, the 17-year-old — just 4ft 11in (1.5 metres) tall and weighing 6 stone (38kg) — won three golds and a silver, followed by another gold and silver in Montreal where she ran up against the Romanian prodigy Nadia Comaneci.
The auction house said in its sale publicity: “She pioneered a spectacular move on the asymmetric bars, a backflip from standing on top of the high bar to regrasp the bar, that became known as the Korbut Flip.”