OLGA KORBUT

Olga Korbut was born 16 May 1955. She’s a Soviet Belarusian former gymnast. Nicknamed the “Sparrow from Minsk”, she won four gold medals and two silver medals at the Summer Olympic Games, in which she competed in 1972 and 1976 for the Soviet team,] and was the inaugural inductee to the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1988.

Korbut, who has won four Olympic gold medals, is best known for her move, the “Korbut flip”, a backflip performed on the uneven parallel bars, starting from a standing position on the high bar and then catching the same bar from below on the under swing. Named after Korbut since she was the first to perform the skill at an international competition in 1972, the move has since been made illegal in the Olympic Code of Points. After the 1972 Olympic competition, she also met United States President Richard Nixon at the White House.