Olga Korbut

In 1978, she married Leonid Bortkevich, famous singer of the Belarusian folk band ‘Pesniary’ and gave birth to their son, Richard. In 2000, the couple got divorced. Later she became a naturalized U.S. citizen and got married to Alex Voinich.

In 1999, she publicly accused Renald Knysh, her former coach, of abuse and rape while she was under his training.

She has also been actively involved in charitable work, most notably on behalf of victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant contamination.

She was born on May 16, 1955, in Grodna, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union, to Valentin Korbut, an engineer and his wife, Valentina Korbut, a cook. She was the youngest child in her family with three elder sisters.

At the age of eight, she started training in gymnastics and the following year, she entered a Belarusian sports school headed by Coach Renald Knysh. Under his guidance, she learned a difficult backward somersault on the balance beam.

In 1969, she debuted her backward somersault at a competition in the USSR. The same year, she completed a backflip-to-catch on the uneven bars; this was the first backward release move ever performed by a woman on bars.

She took part in her first USSR championship in 1969 where she was allowed to compete as an underage 15 year old. She was placed fifth all-around in the championship. The following year, she won a gold medal in the vault.

Her first big success came in 1970 when she became a champion of the USSR and joined the USSR national team. But due to illness and injury, she was unable to compete in many of the competitions before the 1972 Summer Olympic Games.

In 1972, she participated in the Olympic Games held at Munich, where she demonstrated innovative gymnastic moves and became a favorite of the audience, winning three gold medals and a silver medal. She won two individual gold medals in Balance Beam and Floor Exercise, and the third one in the team all-around competition. She won silver medal in the Uneven Bars

In 1974, she competed in the World Championships at Varna, where she won six medals. She won the gold medal on Vault and team all-round competition, and silver medals on Uneven Bars, All-Around, Balance Beam and Floor Exercise.

In 1972, she was named ‘Female Athlete of the Year’ by the Associated Press and ‘Sportswoman of the Year’ by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The same year, she also earned ABC's Wide World of Sports title ‘Athlete of the Year’.

In 1975, the United Nations named her ‘Woman of the Year’ and awarded her with the ‘Gold Tuning Fork’ for her ability to bring the world together.

In 1988, she became the first gymnast to be inducted into the ‘International Gymnastics Hall of Fame’.