Like everyone who watched the 1972 Munich Olympics, I was quite taken with Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut — the 4-foot-11, 85-pound sprite who performed a back flip off the uneven bars, danced on the four-inch-wide balance beam, and seduced a worldwide audience with her floor exercise routine “like a little kid playing in the sun,” in the words of ABC commentator Jim McKay. During the intervening years she has taken a tumble from the world’s stage, but her fans still love her.
NOTE: The above documentary film first aired on the BBC in August of 2001.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Jarome Hollingsworth
// Sep 2, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Olga Korburt is absolutely amazing. I am now a fan.
2 A. Medina
// Sep 21, 2008 at 11:15 pm
As someone who truly enjoys watching archive footage of Olympics history, IMO, Olga’s glowing 72 performance with her beaming smile, & especially after her tearful stumble (plus the fact that this was all during the weighty-time of the Cold War) is one of the games’ most beautiful moments.
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