Former Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut forced to sell her gold medals
Now a U.S. citizen, the former Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut, who dazzled audiences at the 1972 Munich Games, has sold off her Olympic medals.
As rumors swirl that she is "almost destitute," Korbut, formerly known as "The Sparrow from Minsk," auctioned off two of her four gold medals and a single silver metal, U.S. auction house Heritage Auction confirmed Tuesday.
Korbut also auctioned off other memorabilia, including a leotard, in conjunction with her Olympic medals, raking in about $333,500 in total during the online sale over the weekend, auction house spokesman Elon Werner told NBC News.
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"Medals saved Korbut from hunger," a Russian news outlet reported, adding that Korbut's "gesture of despair" emphasized "hard life circumstances."
But Werner insists that such reports were not the case for Korbut's auction.
"That's one hundred percent inaccurate," Werner told NBC News. "She's fine financially. She just wants to pass on the medals to people that will enjoy them, celebrate her accomplishments, things like that."
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Jay Schanfeldt, Korbut's husband-to-be, also refuted claims that the Olympian had fallen into financial difficulty.
"It's totally not true," Schanfeldt told NBC News when asked if Korbut was broke. "She's healthy and fine and she's just planning to retire. So she decided to sell the stuff."
Though the now 61-year-old Korbut, who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, has not yet released a statement on the auction, she disclosed to the Associated Press earlier in February that funds were not the sole motivation in her decision to sell her medals.
