Olga Korbut - 1976 Olympic Balance Beam

[xrictinaaa1]

Olga was the one who opened the door for Nadia, Before Olga gymnastics was a sport for graceful women and she with her crazy flips made it a sport for young girls doing daring skills. Nadia perfected what Olga had creadet and popularised gymnastics all over the world. Nadia and Olga together changed the face of the sport forever and that's why they are considered to be two of the greatest gymnasts of all time and so many years later EVERY real gymnastics fun knows them by their first name.

[miley345ana]

Olga ingested drug wise to do that? then not perfect ... but drugs

[IseCastles]

she has amazing back flexibility

[1956blueeyes]

Olga did with gym what no one else would do at that time. She made it look fun and inviting. There was a 40% increase in participation right after those games. She also did what no other athlete could do at those games that was very important. She gave us something positive to remember out of a games that will forever be remembered for politics and murder.

[mamadoenut]

way better than nadia even though she had a slight bobble on the dismount; her moves are graceful

[Lovett19991]

on 0.41 i was like OMG O.o

[PhenixJoe]

I cannot believe this was once considered Olympic level difficulty!!! I mean, it's beautiful but there are level 7s who could perform these skills today, perhaps not with the same grace, but damn!

[ParanoidAndroidDA]

I was like how did this not win gold? Who beat her? Then I saw Nadia Comaneci got gold and I was like ah that explains it. They're both amazing gymnasts who scored what they scored and we should simply appreciate the beauty shown.

[MarieCampbell3000]

 she didn't get an applause after her routine? thats just mean.

[mahvachcheidani]

OLGA KORBUT= champion of people's hearts= butterfly= an angel

[hotwaiter]

I thought her dismount was awesome. Except for Khorkina, everyone generally does a backwards dismount - this forward dismount is awesome. Gymnasts these days should really draw a lot of inspiration from the gymnasts of days-of-old.

[thedarkglobe]

All what Olga did in her routines, is exactly what we are madly, uselessly, wishing to watch today.

[roch202020]

Her name should be change to "flexibility"; wow!!! :)))

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

She is the best, no matter what anyone says. No one can touch her, and no one can come close to replicating what she has done. Nadia may have a perfect ten, but Olga has the world in her hands.

[RJ4962]

excellent



[xxpinkyzxx]

she's a very good gymnast, but she demonstrated too much of her flexibility here, instead of her balancing

[ahrensgay]

The proper score here for Miss Korbut SHOULD have been 9.50.

[bbhouk1]

@ahrensgay HOW?

i would have given her a 9.85, and if she hadn't stumbled on the dismount, i would have given her a ten.

in fact both her beam and bars in 1972 would have been given tens if i had been the judge, and then Olga would be known as the "first perfect ten" and Nadia would be just another all around champion

[ahrensgay]

@bbhouk1 How? You are kidding me aren't you? You gotta be.There was NO difficulty.This routine was a joke.Where was her tumbling/acrobatic's? Some moron actually says here that Olga's beam routine was far more difficult and superior to Comaneci?!! WHERE? HOW? At these games, Korbut was a washed up old bag, of a hag, HAS been. Yep, 9.50 ALL the way!!!! Even that score is waaaaay generous.

[bbhouk1]

@ahrensgay as i said, look up her TEAM FINAL BEAM

if you had read carefully, you would have seen that that was what i said.

i agree her beam here isn't great. but during her 1976 TEAM FINAL BEAM, she does her slow backbend to chest stand, backhandspring into korbut flic, back tuck, and her regular Korbut flic.

that is more difficult than what Nadia did in '76 and '80 for that matter

the video is called:

Olga Korbut TF BB

watch it, and you'll see what i mean.

[ahrensgay]

@bbhouk1 Oh, o.k. Olga was the BEST gymnast there EVER was, and will EVER be.Happy now? Comaneci, on the other hand was nothing.She did NOT exist. I guess I'll just have to wait til they revise the scoring system as it once was, and I'll have to just wait, and hope, that SOMEONE will come along somewhere and score the first perfect 10.0 in olympic history.You mean, GASP, Olga didn't score the first 10.0.Can't figure out why, she was THE premier gymnast wasn't she?......Get a grip!

[bbhouk1]

@ahrensgay

you are really immature.

really living up to your name, ahrensGAY

[gold192]

this routine is a little too simple. surely this routine couldnt even have been difficult even back in the 70s? it looks like somebody warming up...

[bbhouk1]

gosh her full turn is so graceful!

unlike that ugly full turn with the leg at horizontal that they do now...

[ants2876]

@Gymnasticseverywhere as far as elegance and grace Ludmila Tourischeva always had Olga beat by miles. Olga used to stand out by her acrobatic work on bars and beam but here Nadia had surpassed her along with being technically cleaner. Olga just didnt have her own niche anymore, the field had passed her by.

[MTrif1]

She is not as strong as Nadia....She is a little too artistic :D

Nadia is much better than her

[bbhouk1]

@MTrif1 she is one of the last "old gymnasts" before much difficulty

personally i like her better than Nadia

nadia is a little too hyped

i don't deny she deserved her first perfect ten but after that the judges went overboard and olga's performance on the bars in 1972 EF was technically perfect and i feel it deserved the first perfect ten and olga would be the one known as perfection not just as the sweetheart of the 1972 olympics

[bbhouk1]

okay im doing this thing comparing who i like more on each event. olga or nadia

olga is definitely winning beam

[valebeu]

she was really good!! gr8 performer

but nadia was way better!!

76 was by far nadia´s olympics!

[bbhouk1]

@valebeu "but nadia was way better!!"

as if! i agree this routine isn't very difficult

but look up olga korbut 1976 olympics tf bb

she does what she's capable of on that routine, and with all her skills.

her team final beam routine is ten times harder than anything Nadia did here, or ever did.

[reelthomas]

i remember watching this routine in '76. when she did that amazing handstand to a slow back bend, to finally end up on the head/neck/chest with her legs before her. the camera shot when i was watching in '76 was on her face as she executed the move...it was awesome. she was the best....the best.

[bbhouk1]

@reelthomas ohmigosh i looked up her 1976 beam on google images and it took a while but i found it! someone took a picture as she executed the move

and she is smiling!!

grinning like a buffoon as she bends herself in half!!

she was amazing!!

better than nadia!!

[reelthomas]

@bbhouk1 i am an olympic junkie... always have been. I'm 60 now...so i've seen many many happenings on the olympics. to me, the balance beam w/ olga korbet has not been duplicated...not even a reasonable... close ... to the most compelling olympic event ever. it is burned into my brain. not by nadia, who was astounding....or whoever followed in her footsteps. to me, olga is the grand dame of all that is olympic historia...if that is a word....there are no words.

[bbhouk1]

@reelthomas she is most definitely my second favorite gymnast and my favorite to watch on the beam

[bbhouk1]

@reelthomas watch the video "Olga's Beaming" It shows her face when she does the the slow backbend to lower down

it's a video of her from either 1974 or 1975 i'm not sure

[KillaKitty09]

Wow the beam had so much more class back then!

It's actually more entertaining to watch then the beams nowadays, its pretty much all the same :(

[meganS891]

What is the move at 0:33? I love how she focused mainly on her flexibility. Nowadays it's all about acrobatics.

[bbhouk1]

@meganS891 handstand to slow backbend

[bbhouk1]

the older gymnasts had so much class, grace, balance

what happened to gymnastics??!!!

[gymnastics4eva369]

that was a wicked dismount

[luv4cookie1]

eh. it was alright even for Olga

[SAX713]

no korbut flip

[nikirififo]

1:03

[EIZvideos]

this is amazing and really impressive.... but she didn't do many flips... kinda simple compared to the beam routines today.

[danella20]

not really she just focused on her flexebility more than those flashy flips, nowadays that is all people care about

[sugafrost3]

your very right! i beleive that her success was all in her flexibilty!

[iPenguin01]

yah, but than people didnt have all these special equipment that they use. The level also changed over so many years. For than, it is amazing.

[frauklavier]

Though its very simple by today's standards, its still beautiful.

[eugvh18]

great routine too bad about the dismount landing

[TimTimKitty00]

may GOD bless her.

[Bolly031]

Does anyone know the name of the dismount flip?

[goodyougetastar]

@Bolly031 probably something like full-in front tuck.

[BrooklynRalph]

I remember both, Olga, and Nadia.

In my view, Olga was the more impressive one of the two.

She was technical, artistic, classy, and magical.

Olga is the one who made people aware of gymnastics. This sport suddenly became interesting.

Olga Korbut in my view, ranks among the all-time greats such as Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky, Babe Ruth, etc.

[Lucini91]

To me she is always the best, no matter what

[gymnasticslover43]

she is amazing

[brooke123456788]

nadia is a better gymnast, but olga is much much more graceful

[gymnast5987]

she should of stopped in 1973.. she was so much more bouncy and fun in the 1972 olympics, shes my hero!!

[staticroad76]

Sorry but her beam routine didn't have near the difficulty that Nadia's did for the period in time. It was almost identical to her 1972. It didn't even look like she upgraded a little bit.

[grifffinity]

The silver was a gift, IMO. Her routine in the Team Finals had more elements, including a connecting Back handspring into Korbut, and the back tuck. This was totally watered down due to her injury. Theodora Ungureanu should have won the silver if we actually look at the EF routines back to back. Olga should not have won a medal on this event with that routine.

[BeamBarsVaultFloor10]

olga was amazing, but nadia was more graceful

[cuteluv13]

she iz really good..but nadia comenecci iz a lil bit betta

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

Not really

[sugafrost3]

HOLY CATS! HER BACK IN BENDY! hey! i can acctualy do some of this!

[13DCH]

Pure Poetry... though as some of us already know, Olga wasn't really into her routines at this point.

Sadly, she was absolutely bored and uninterested with gymnastics entirely...

I'll always love you, Olga !

[amigozz4l]

yeah that's why she went to the olympics because she didn't enjoy it ...

[mrsflopi22]

she is really really good i can't believe it but i think Nadia Comanecci is a little better

[brookenicole222]

Honestly, I don't think I've seen anyone perform the Korbut Flip as well as Olga does. I know it's her signature move, but it's been so long, I would think someone else would have mastered Olgas deep back arch by now. Most of the girls I've seen perform it just dive back with a plain curve of the back.

[ladodgerschick]

it's fun to see how gymnastics has "evolved" from then :) I love how Olga does contortion on the beam, her back is so flexible!

[acaestoy85]

she was over...but a new star was born Nadia Comaneci!

[morenodelaorilla]

yes, she is good, but nadia is way better. it's just a matter of taste

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

Nadia is better at some events, like balance beam, even though Olga is still great at balance beam. But Olga totally beats Nadia at bars, her routine is just spectacular with the Korbut flip and all. Olga is also a little better on floor. Also Olga was the one who introduced gymnastics to the world with her stunning performances, Nadia followed in her footsteps.

[topjazz69]

Nadia may have followed (as she was younger) Olga. But it was Nadia who took gymnastics' popularity into greater heights. Besides, Olga never had a string of perfect 10's. Nadia, because of her dynamic routines, had a barrage of perfect 10s at the Olympics.

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

Nadia did not take gymnastics to different heights, she built on the foundation that Olga had created. Olga transformed gymnastics over night at the '72, there were few people in the world who didn't know her name, that was when the popularity of gymnastics started, I guarantee you. Nadia's perfect tens were not perfect, beautiful, they were, but not perfect. If you watch Olga's team bar routine from '72 I guarantee you, you will not find a single deduction, that routine was perfection.

[pietro0079]

@gymnasticsloverxoxo >>>>u Fail at stating facts. U need to know the difference between facts and opinions. Ur opinion can be respected but before u label something as factual do ur research. Olga was simply before Nadia...but the world knows gymnastics because of Nadia.

[Xsleeper]

@pietro0079

In the US, Olga was the sensation of the 72 Olympics and really made gymnastic popular. Ironic because her teammate Ludmilla Tourischeva was a much better gymnast at the time. Olga's cuteness won over the crowd.

When Nadia came in 76 she just blew everyone away. The Soviets still had the best team, but none of them could match Nadia.

More irony, if Nadia was competing today, she would not be able to be in the Olympics because she was 14 in 76.

[bbhouk1]

@gymnasticsloverxoxo do you know where to find footage of her 1972 team final bars???!!!

i ve only ever seen her aa and ef from 72

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

@bbhouk1 I am pretty sure, Olga Korbut, 1972 Uneven Bars !!!! is her team final.

[bbhouk1]

@gymnasticsloverxoxo thank you

[EuropeanGuy87]

@gymnasticsloverxoxo And who are you a gymnastic judge ?.. Im sure the judges who associated Nadia to perfection have a lot more experience than you. How dare you come here and spread things like "nadia's routine" wasn't perfect.. Trust me there were a lot of judges to state that and media and much more than that.. Olga Korbut routine was good, but her dismount was poor, and she doesn't move smooth at all... When you look at Nadia she looks like she is flying..... ;)

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

@EuropeanGuy87 I never said Korbut's beam routine here was perfect (I was speaking about her bars in 72) and I never said Nadia's routine wasn't beautiful. Nadia took a step on her landing, there were many other girls at these games who were not getting tens without steps on their landings.

[EuropeanGuy87]

@gymnasticsloverxoxo To me it's all about technique, Nadia's make it seem so easy like she is flying, while Olga is a tremendous gymnast to me..but she is missing that extra - It's true that Olga uneven bars routine in 1972 was a lot more difficult comparing to Nadia's in 1976, but nobody asked her to make it so difficult..I remember there were headlines "gymnastics is not circus" because what Olga did was amazing but a lot of her moves were banned afterward.. To me they are both perfect

[NYCBlonde]

@EuropeanGuy87 Oh, for God's sake. It's just an opinion. She's allowed her opinion, which is frankly pretty mild, don't get so worked up about it.

[EuropeanGuy87]

@NYCBlonde You are right on this one :) I like to argue sometimes..

[NYCBlonde]

@EuropeanGuy87 Okay ;) And you're right, they're both awesome.

[bunnierabbits]

@gymnasticsloverxoxo blah...blah...blah...no single gymnast transformed the sport on their own...to say so is to minimize all the great athletes that came before them. your right in saying nadia didn't do it on her own but then you make the same mistake and say olga did.

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

@bunnierabbits I never said Olga transformed gymnastics on her own. I said she started a foundation which other gymnasts built off of. Nadia built off of it, along with countless others. There were many great gymnast before Olga however Olga was the first to start popularizing the sport world wide.

[twilliger123]

@gymnasticsloverxoxo WTFever, you're still a cunt and never will change!

[veryzenken]

@gymnasticsloverxoxo You really seem very invested in how good Olga is and how Nadia does not deserve the attention she received. This was nearly 40 years ago. Get over it. Sheesh.

[MTVMANN]

@gymnasticsloverxoxo You are right...but Nadia's routines were that much better than the other gymnasts that you couldn't give her a 10...even with the little hops.

[ancamg]

Wow, there is no way Olga could match with Nadia in this Olympic games. Olga's routine is spectacular but much easier and so slow, compared to Nadia.

And please, name an element with Olga's name that is still an E in 2005 code?

[GoBogi]

Olga was injured in 1976, her full routine was much harder than this. She did a FF to two feet into her Korbut Flic, as well as a back tuck. She had an Ankle injury in 1976 that forced her to remove alot of difficulty from her excersizes. She also had a double back on FX first pass, but took it out for the AA (only did a flip flop instead). She just had a nagging ankle injury that hurt her, similar to Elena Zamoldochikova in 2001-2003 timeframe.

[GoBogi]

On top of that, she could do the same vault that Elena Davydova won the AA with in 1980 (should be named after her), and there were other elements on UB that she could have thrown but didn't. She could have thrown ALOT more difficulty on BB and FX, and had a much better performance, but the injury didn't let her. She did her double back out of a Round Off only, like Yulia Lozechko.

[GoBogi]

Oh, and Olga was training a full-in in 1976, so no wonder she was broken for the competition.

[minmeicwz]

yes Nadia won... Nadia had the best performance in 1976 in almost all the excercises. Olga was pretty good at the uneven bars, but Nadia ruled all

[willywinka78]

i can do that thing she does when she flips!!

[salubrioussalute]

woahmygoodness. now that was incredible. i loved the whole bit from 26-44 seconds.

[briaberger]

Who won the gold on balance beam in 76? Nadia?

[acaestoy85]

yes with a perfect 10

[mustangs0924]

Her back is amazingly FLEXIBLE it is a cool rountine LUV IT!!!!

[jkygogo]

Is this only the Video portion of this event? No audio?

I'm just curious.

Thanks.

[saltlakecity2002]

There is audio.

[bamagymnast94]

her dismount was soo cool

[KarenLovesGymnastics]

It had great distance, too.

[TUMuenchen]

This girl does everything so beautiful!

[OliverPenn1]

Without Olga Korbut, gymnastics would still be a minor Olympic sport. She is the ONE who drove it from a "secondary" attraction to the forefront. And, for her incredible routines in 1972, today, they should award her retroactive "perfect 10s."

[naomi186]

excuse me, didn't you hear about nadia comaneci? SHE made history, getting 4 time perfect tens! olga korbut is very good too, but she is moving really slowly. look at nadia, she got speed! ;)

[mistybabe5489]

nadia got perfect tens but she wasnt an inovater like olga. her moves were added on to and made more difficult. 2 were even banned for being to dangerous. her moves are still done today

[SystemUniverse]

Nadia was not inovater? there's a move calles "Comeneci dismount". You might want to read about Nadia in Wikipedia you would be impressed

[mistybabe5489]

yea i kno but her dismount is only a B move. her salto is the only hard move for back then which was an E. i kno she was good i dont need wikipedia to tell me, lol. i just meant that olga's moves were crazy hard for back then.

[klairebear93]

wow if only gymnastics was so simple today as it was back then....not to say that shes not good, shes amazing. what i mean is if gymnastics was still as graceful and beautiful as it used to be i'd win sooo much! today its all about powerful skills and the bigger the better. Id rather see a simple elegant graceful routine like that then see a lot of routines i see today

[HeyButtahfly]

I don't understand how someone can watch that awesome, unrivaled display of flexibility in that routine and yet comment that the gymnasts "didn't do much on beam back then". Quality over quantity, people!

[sjpflute]

I agree with you 100%!!! But we must also understand the ignorance of today's youth.

[sjpflute]

and I meant "some" of today's youth.

[kathleenirish]

First of all, this routine did not include her backflip/right into a front flip dismount, which was one of her signature moves. Beams were wooden, too. I'd watch this routine a million times over today's robotic, ugly gymnastics. Gymnastics may have technical difficulty now, but it has no grace or form like the greats of the 70s. Also, believe it or not, there were many who thought many moves should stay on the floor and not be put on the beam.

[xXruby123Xx]

why did no1 clap at the end?

[cheerleader216]

wow they didnt really do much on beam back then

[vanderbeans]

well,cirqueguy i would just love to see you do even half of what she can do.

[Rockawaysiren]

I'm so old...I was there! My mom took me just so I could see Olga! I was 7 and she was my hero!

[WillowLadyWarrior]

She was so good with her Uneven bar routine that year. Why the hell can't she do more then a watered down preschool routine for the balance beam?! At least beam's fun to watch at the olymipics now.

[megaleg11]

wow i just watched nadia comaneci's beam from montreal and its amazing how much better nadia wass

[black9dot]

Nadia Comaneci wasn't always perfect. Olga was good also. Don't say Nadia was better. She wasn't nessasarily better. She had bad routines also.

[megaleg11]

i just mean that she had harder skills

maybe she was just ahead of her i time, i dont know

[black9dot]

she did have harder skills and she was very

talented. but they are both quite skilled and talented for their time

[02rsrath]

omg no way that was olimpic standered i gess its changed alot since 76 lol

[kathleenirish]

You ought to know, I guess, as your spelling isn't exactly up to 'olimpic standard', as you say. You obviously are an idiot who knows nothing about gymnastics.

[CirqueGuy]

wow she sux.....

[black9dot]

WHAT??

excuze me. I bet you all the money in the world you couldn't dive blindly behind you on a 4 inch wide beam and stick it. No you couldn't. And you have the nerve to say "wow she sux....."??? Go be a bitch somewhere else. It take guts to do that.

[xochipepe]

Her work on the bars in 1972 helped to push the sport forward. Don't talk out of your ass.