Olympic great, Arizona resident Olga Korbut auctions off five medals
Mar 1, 2017, 11:11 AM | Updated: 2:31 pm
(AP Photo)
PHOENIX — One of the most famous Olympic gymnasts of all time who now calls Arizona home auctioned off several of her medals over the weekend.
Former Soviet Union gymnast Olga Korbut sold the medals for a combined cost of $229,200.
“This is Olympic history, and I would like to share with the whole world,” Korbut said of why she chose to sell the medals. “They helped to make it history and make it live forever. This is how I wanted to share with the people.”
Korbut — who was born near the Lithuania-Poland border and lives in Scottsdale — sprang onto the Olympic scene like a bottle rocket, a 4-foot-11, pigtailed waif who turned gymnastics on its head.
Nicknamed “The Sparrow from Minsk,” she did things no one had seen before, acrobatics that pushed the sport forward from balletic motions of the past. And she did it with an un-Soviet flair, playing to the crowd so much that people loved her even when she failed.
Korbut won three gold medals and a silver as a 17-year-old at the 1972 Munich Games, then added another gold and silver at Montreal in 1976.
NBC Sports reported a gold from Munich sold for the most money at $66,000.
She instantly became a worldwide star. People knew her around the world and treated her like royalty wherever she went, a transition that was sometimes difficult for a teenager from Grodno, near the borders with Poland and Lithuania.
“I came unknown to the Olympic Games and overnight people make me famous,” Korbut said. “I wasn’t prepared for that, but it was funny when I came to the store with my money, they would give it to me free.”
Korbut traveled the world doing exhibitions and became an ambassador of sorts for her sport, once meeting President Richard Nixon. She spearheaded efforts to help victims of the 1986 Chernobyl accident and moved to the United States in 1991, becoming a gymnastics teacher and motivational speaker while continuing to raise money for victims of the nuclear accident.
Korbut moved to Arizona in 2002 after participating in a clinic. She has spent her time in the desert giving private lessons and touring the world to promote gymnastics.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.