Soviet Gymnast Olga Korbut Sells Off Olympic Medals

Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut sold off her Olympic medals and multiple trophies for $183,300.

SOVIET GYMNAST OLGA KORBUT SELLS MEDALS

The entire sale consisted of seven lots, including two gold and one silver medal from the Munich Olympic games. The single most expensive piece was the team gold, which went for $66,000. A Russian paper reports that Korbut sold the trophies to help settle her financial woes.

Korbut charmed Western audiences in 1972 when she was just 17 years old. She was nicknamed “the Sparrow from Minsk” (she hails from Belarus) and wont three golds (in team, balance beam, and floor) and a silver at the Munich games. She won another gold and silver in Montreal in 1976.

In addition to medals, the sale also included a leotard, her ’72 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, multiple Soviet medals and trophies, and a signed magazine.

Heritage Auctions said, “there is hardly a gymnast alive who doesn’t credit this tiny force of nature for the explosion of the sport’s popularity on a global level.”

Korbut famously coined the Korbut Flip, a trick that is now banned from the Olympics for being too dangerous. See it below.

Korbut is now 61 and lives in Arizona.