Skip to main content

Korbut/Knysh rape allegations resurface

Image
By

Knysh and Korbut in training, 1973

Olga Korbut has repeated her allegations of mistreatment and rape by her coach, Reynald Knysh, in a Russian Jerry Springer style panel show.  She first made these allegations public in the early 1990s.

Supported by her sisters, and her first husband Leonid Bortkevich, Korbut confronted Knysh, who has repeatedly protested his innocence, revealing that he had been suspended from the national team after an investigation into complaints made in the 1970s.  Korbut says her abuse went on for over one year.

An occasionally hostile audience, and a sceptical panel who included 1968 Olympian Olga Karaseva, could not drown out Korbut's strong and assertive performance.  After Olga was accused of lying, former husband Bortkevich spoke out: 

'I was married to Olga for 25 years and she never lies'.  

It is now too late for any legal redress against Knysh.  
.
A Sports Express report of the documentary includes a video of the show.

Update : a better, fuller translation from Luba at Gymnovosti.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Unknown22 February 2022 at 18:21

    Why would she say something like that if it didn't happen? Because she's telling the truth.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The State of Gymnastics - 'Soviet' or 'American' style?

By
Lioudmilla Tourischeva, 1972 Olympic All Around champion in artistic gymnastics, was held up as an example of the ideal Soviet citizen.  Here she coaches one of the Soviet Union's leading gymnasts from the 1980 Olympics, Natalia Shaposhnikova The Soviet Union had a genius for lifting sport beyond the textbook, injecting the aesthetic where previously only goals had been in plain view.   This was not only manifest in gymnastics.  Do you remember the ‘Russian Five’, the players who elevated ice hockey to a creative sporting display, mesmerising their opponents and spectators with intricate patterns of play, so rhythmic and entertaining that they could have been set to music?   In gymnastics, a sport where the aesthetic counted as much as the outcome, it was this ability to create spectacle out of competition that resulted in the most extraordinary athletic performances.  The ‘Golden Era’, most commonly understood to cover the years from 1952-1...
15 comments
Read more

Russian gymnasts return to the world stage

By
According to the Russian Gymnastics Federation via sports.ru.  Google translate. ‘The Russian Gymnastics Federation announces the return of the Russian gymnastics community to the world arena. 🤸Participation of athletes: 🔸Participation in the 2025 Trampoline World Cup stages in Portugal (July 5–6), Germany (September 20–21), Bulgaria (September 27–28), and France (October 3–5) has been confirmed. 🔸Participation of Russian athletes is planned in the Trampoline World Championships (Madrid, November 2–10) and the World Championships (November 10–17). 🔸A preliminary application has been submitted for the participation of Russian athletes in the 2025 Candidates' Cup in artistic gymnastics, which will be held in Paris on September 13–14. The final number of participants will be determined by July 16, 2025. ✍Participation of judges in competitions: 🔹Alina Gusarova and Irina Berek will work as neutral judges at the Tbilisi Cup in rhythmic gymnastics from June 11 to 15, 2025. 🔹RGR Vic...
2 comments
Read more

Tatyana Nabiyeva on work and love in China

By
Some highlights from a long interview with 2010 World champion Tatyana Nabiyeva.  Source: Russian team page on VK.com.  Translation - Google translate A big interview with Tatyana Nabieva about the peculiarities of work and life in China, the bright years of her sports career, a little about modern gymnastics and about love. On the Nabiyeva flight — At the same championship, you presented a new element on the bars, which was later added to the rules with your last name (flying over the top bar with a straight body, difficulty group F. — Sport24). How did you come up with the idea to try something new? — Actually, it happened spontaneously, I think. We worked with Vera Iosifovna [Kiryashova] on the purity of the elements on the bars, sometimes I didn’t fly all the way to the Shaposhnikova element. Once I didn’t fly all the way to the bars either and stood on my feet between the bars, bending my legs in flight for safety. Then Vera Iosifovna said that this was a different eleme...
Post a Comment
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010