The 1970s was the golden era of gymnastics. It was a decade in which Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) gained unprecedented popularity and produced two of the most iconic stars in the history of the Olympics. Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci are names that even the most casual of WAG fans will recognize. Their names are synonymous with the sport, but they are also so famous that many know only their names, but not much about the actual gymnast themselves. This article is going to breakdown the differences between Nadia and Korbut.
To start with the basics, Olga Korbut competed for the Soviet Union whereas Nadia competed for Romania. Romania and the Soviet Union would emerge as the two most iconic WAG programs of the Cold War and were also fierce rivals. Korbut and Nadia would be on opposite spectrums of one of the most epic Olympic rivalries of all time.
Olga Korbut competed at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics. Nadia competed at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics. Their careers had only a brief overlap competing at the same time in just 1975 and 1976. The 1976 Olympics would be the only time Nadia and Korbut ever directly competed against each other. They never faced each other in the top non-Olympic WAG competitions and there was a reason for this. Nadia was far superior in skill level to Olga Korbut and the Soviets wanted to avoid having Korbut lose to Nadia until they absolutely had to at the 1976 Olympics.
Until the arrival of Simone Biles, Nadia was the standard for gymnastics success. She was widely regarded as the greatest gymnast of all time. Olga Korbut was a great gymnast, but she never achieved the level of athletic success or popularity as Nadia. Olga Korbut is famous for being the very first WAG superstar. Nadia is famous for being the most successful and iconic WAG superstar during the golden age of gymnastics.
To put their timelines and their relationship to the Perfect 10s in its simplest of terms, Nadia is best known for being first gymnast to score a Perfect 10 at the Olympics. Olga Korbut never scored a Perfect 10 in her career. Olga Korbut is best known for the 1972 Olympics, Nadia is best known for the 1976 Olympics.
Both gymnasts achieved incredible levels of fame, but they were famous in very different ways. Olga Korbut loved interacting with fans, crowds, and the media. Korbut gave people a direct insight into her life and as a result, people wanted to know even more about her. In contrast Nadia was kept more guarded by the Romanians. Nadia did her fair share of interviews with the media. But Nadia’s fame was more about keeping the public in the dark regarding what her life was like outside of gymnastics. Nadia was built up to be mysterious and an absence of answers. And that made fans want to know even more about her.
The polar opposite ways in which Nadia and Korbut dealt with the media, but still achieving widespread fame is reflective of why the 1970s was the golden age of gymnastics. The media spotlight was at its most intense and people wanted WAG superstars and they were willing to find any reason to fall in love with Nadia and Olga. It didn’t matter that in a competition Korbut was more likely to focus on waving to the crowd whereas Nadia seemed more focused on taking instructions from her coach. It didn’t matter that Korbut usually had a smile on her face whereas Nadia typically looked like her main concern was to avoid getting yelled at by her coach.
Korbut and Nadia weren’t just opposites in the way they handled media attention and carried themselves. They also had very different styles of gymnastics. Olga Korbut was known as an innovator and is famous for pioneering new moves such as the Korbut Flip and Korbut Dismount on bars. She also introduced the backflip on beam. Nadia has a number of original moves herself, but her reputation as an innovator played a secondary role to her reputation as a technician. Whereas Korbut beat her opponents by coming out with daring new moves that had never been seen before, Nadia took existing moves and did them better than anyone else.
Many of these differences come off as basic for fans who revel in the finer details of WAG history. Korbut and Nadia are the two gymnasts who were the most responsible for WAG what it is today. Their names have stood the test of time and are still remembered today whereas so many others have fallen into obscurity. As a result they are often talked about as if they were two sides of the same coin. In reality, they were anything but.
An Old School Gymnastics Blog 
Olga deserved the first 10 in 1972. The Korbut Flip is very impressive. I do not see in Nadia such impression. I believe the 10 on Nadia had to do with political move back there.
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I 100% agree!
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Nadia ha meritato il 10 al 100%!!! Anzi, i russi mettevano bastoni fra le ruote, non digerivano il fatto che la Romania avesse una ginnasta superiore alle loro.
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That was also my thoughts
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I agree!
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Olga’s flip was so hard it was banned.
Girls kept hurting themselves trying to learn it.
Nadia may have been the superior gymnast, but Olga was the most spectacular.
That said, they were both fantastic, and both massively abused by their respective countries for the purposes of political point scoring.
And yes, Olga deserved the 10!
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I think we are missing that Olga Korbutt & Ludmilla Tourischeva were same country rivals. Tourischeva actually won a lot more gold medals, but Olga Korbut became a media darling with a cute pixie look & an easy name. They were both beautiful gymnasts. It was a time of smooth balletic moves, before the bombastic American tumblers like Mary Lou Retton in 1984.
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Olga Korbut by far is a better Gymnast. Not only the “Korbut Flip”, but the first in the world we saw a back flip on the balance beam, and on the floor exercise she also had a very difficult element. Balance beam and the floor exercise gave her the gold medals in the Munich 1972 Olympics.
Nadia Comaneci did receive a perfect 10. In my opinion of course, it was a political move.
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A small but interesting point. When I was in training to be a judge we naturally viewed Nadia’s bar routine. It is a tenth deduction if you stop. The instructors were quick to point out the hesitation necessary for her trademark dismount, spectacular though it was. They all said it was a one tenth deduction. But not for Nadia. Shrug.
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That was also my thoughts
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Korbut’s fame had way more to do with politics than Nadia’s. She was paraded everywhere in order to generate a thaw in the relationship between the Soviets and the US.
1. As far as Korbut being the better gymnast, that’s just preposterous. At her time, Nadia was simply in a class of her own, miles ahead of any competition ( similar to how Biles is perceived now), and miles ahead of Korbut. If she weren’t that far ahead, the Soviet-controlled judging system would have easily underscored her, just as they did with Teodora Ungureanu, Nadia’s team-mate.
2. Korbut’s backflip was banned because it was considered a “distasteful circus trick”( it was discussed exactly in these terms!!!) and because it did not use the apparatus the way it was intended. Judges did not want gymnasts climbing or standing on bars, they wanted gymnasts swinging on them. And the backflip is not that dangerous or difficult. It is very flashy and spectacular though.
3. As for being an innovator and trendsetter, even Knysh complained about Korbut’s refusal to learn new things. At her second Olympics, in 1976, Korbut was competing with lower difficulty than in 72, while Nadia constantly increased difficulty throughout her career.
The idea that somehow Korbut was more innovative than Nadia is ridiculous.
Beyond the fact that she usually packed in one of her routines 3x more difficulty than your average Olympic routine (an attempt which was in itself a revolutionary idea), Nadia premiered doing difficult skills in combination and introduced plenty of new elements ( the Comaneci salto (rated E, but probably worth more since very few other gymnasts have managed to do it ), and the Comaneci dismount on bars, the tucked double back and the double twist on floor, the aerial walkover and an aerial cartwheel-back handspring combination and the double-twist dismount on beam )
4. Unfortunately, Korbut’s “charm” was a mere act, rehearsed and drilled into her by Knysh. Tourishcheva reminisced in one of her interviews about how Knysh constantly yelled at Korbut asking her to smile and to project a happy face regardless of how Korbut was actually feeling.
5. The Karolyis might have been quite abusive, but Nadia was actually a very self-motivated athlete. She always did more than what she was asked.
Nadia was a real prodigy, she had way more difficulty than anyone else long before she could compete internationally. When she finally could participate in the 1975 Euros, she won gold in 4 events (AA, UB, BB, V) and silver on FX. And prior to 1976 OG, she got a 10 on FX at the American Cup!! She is basically the only gymnast in history who went to the Olympic Games with a real chance to win all individual golds!! She literally had no weakness: amazing execution, consistency, and huge difficulty for that time. Nadia earned 7 10s in Montreal while being injured and lowering her difficulty !!! Korbut is nowhere in the same class as Nadia.
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Qué persona más soberbia que eres al opinar.. eso demuestra lo poco objetivo e inseguro que eres. Saludos
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Never seen anything more artistically beautiful than Olga’s beam performance in Munich, gives me chills. Olga was 1st and paved the way, and after I discovered her she replaced my Nadia worship which is saying a hell of a lot!!! 🙂 Olga brought the human side & that’s what touched crowds & made us root for her along with her daring, fearlessness!!! A fearlessness that span over not caring what her Soviet controllers say or do or think and knowing that it’s okay to be emotional & show it when you’ve worked your butt off for seven years to show what your made of in a four day run!!! She adores people & has a way that shocked me to pull my all time favorite immediately over with her and wish I knew of her earlier in life. I LOVE the acrobatics & dazzling new & bold moves & routines but she was also mesmerising in artistic form, STUNNING!!! Just watch her beam performance on YouTube 1972 Munich. She was #1 before Nadia who came along. She created the “Star” and I know for a fact the Korbut flip was banned and safety was issued as reasoning, so the attempt by the upper review to degrade her by claiming it wasn’t dangerous is total garbage. Broken neck & concussion were serious injury resulting from being off by even two inches, which can potentially kill or disable and destroy ones life and career. How do I know this? My family is from Czechoslovakia and we know a judge who said this was the case. You can look it up that safety /danger pulled more weight, banning due to “crude circus tricks” wasn’t going to happen because crowds enjoyed it to much which boosted ratings, demand, publicity, attendence & ticket sales, MONEY!!!!!!! An if it was banned allegedly because it was considered inferior and crude, why hadn’t they banned it prohibiting Olga Korbut from doing it in competition then?!? Others were trying to learn it and not everyone is Olga and not everyone takes to moves the same way, we all different. They decided rather than risk more, along with other extremely dangerous moves that paralyzed, they would let it rest in Olga’s Legacy, so I Love seeing her do it because it was made for her & her only!!! Her art and beam routine was pure BelaRussian Beauty, Breath Taking- Nadia was tight, a full on trained machine, landings were always impeccable, natural gymnast & one of a kind in her ability & physique, they were about the same size starting out but I suspect Nadia grew taller than Olga although I could be wrong on that. They were different people, and this article hits that main point well. I like both of them as people but Olga won me, she has a charm yet a stance one can’t explain and she adores her audience and I heard rival gymnast in her own team criticise that “smile” of hers as being for show & fake but we can pick up and tell genuine from phony and Olga was just Olga, true with her emotions, happy, sad, whatever and she was a good showman & teamster when it comes to being next to Nadia up there on that podium looking up, who is one with the sweet smile & just a genuine goodness & fun spirit, OLGA. Nadia is up expecting what’s coming to her, like a fine oiled, tuned machine. Absolutely nothing wrong with that and she has a sweet tenderness but once one discovers Korbut when the Nadia dust settles, you realize who started it and when a person appeals to your heart, they are your winner!!! I liked that Olga has spoken up in the press & media about her abusive, pedophile coach, she’s feisty & got guts and went public long before all the rest sadly started to but she certainly helped open the door to bravery on that front as well!!! Encouraging to speak up & not remain silent in that industry or any abuse situation. She raised a lot of money for children suffering in Belarus due to radiation from Chernobyl, and established a foundation on their behalf. She has spoken about her miscarriage although not loudly but it’s a part of her life I deeply sympathize with. She’s no saint & had her share of infractions & accusations but that somehow makes her all the more appealing, & likeable because it makes her human & relatable yet REMARKABLE & UNIQUE IN HER DAZZLING MANEUVERS THAT ONLY OLGA KORBUT CAN DO 🙂 She’s very open about her life & upbringing in the communist state, she had a spunk, a kick to her, pizazz, sensitivity, she was not afraid to show her vulnerability to anyone, not the crowd nor the communists just as she was not afraid to flip off backwards beam or bars, that’s where Nadia simply could never measure up. It is about the heart, soul, passion, not just technical precision. Ask all those crowds stomping for Olga to be given a higher & more deserving score in that Munich arena!!! They knew she poured her all & she won them without even being best but mistakes in being human, people related & connected to her… She’s so fun & inspiring, and interesting, Happy I discovered her when I finally did and I hope more people see beyond & BEFORE Nadia as I’d never think of anyone but Nadia and stumbled across Olga by mistake, ironically. *Heart* 🙂
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I Watched Olga when she did her unbelievable ( yes we said that move was Impossible even though we had Just watched it), and we still regret that politics kept her from her well deserved 10 !
Soviets bullies then – Bullies still.
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Nadia was beautiful to watch, but she never made you hold your breath. Olga pushed the envelope. I adore both, but Olga holds a special place in my heart for her authenticity, skill, daring and technique. To me, she is the better gymnast and should have received the first 10 on bars.
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Nadia was technically amazing. Every move was perfectly executed. But Olga was beautiful! Her routine was more skilled and had more risky moves. The way she flew on those bars was like poetry. And the landing was perfect. I can’t understand how she did not get the 10 and only placed 5th!
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