Nickname: “The Sparrow From Minsk”
Sport: Gymnastics
Country: USSR
Olga Korbut’s electrifying, gold- and silver-medal-winning performances on the uneven bars, the balance beam and in her floor routine at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics in Munich and Montreal are credited with helping to launch a new Golden Age of gymnastics in both the East and the West — and no wonder. In 1972, especially, when the 17-year-old won three golds and stunned audiences with her at-once fiery and technically brilliant routines on the bars and the beam, the slight and engaging “Sparrow From Minsk” did, if one squinted just a little bit, really seem to fly.