Olga Korbut was recently on a Russian talk show “Pust Govoryat” [Let them talk] telling about her life in the US. She also described her first visit to the States in March of 1973 and the meeting with the US President Richard Nixon. Apparently, Korbut believes that this meeting and her charisma persuaded Nixon to visit the USSR a year later and helped to end the Cold War.
She said that meeting with Nixon was one of the most memorable events of that visit:
“In the evening the USSR Ambassador, Dobrynin, called me and said: President Nixon wants to meet with you tomorrow at 9 am. I say: I can’t. He: why? Me: I have a practice at 9. He says: well, I promise you that after the visit you will definitely go to the practice. I deliberated and said: well, ok, but it has to be quick. When we came to the White House, they first gave us a tour, showed all the rooms and then lined us up and there was a lot of journalists. I didn’t know how Richard Nixon looked. And suddenly he’s going straight to me. I didn’t speak English but knew some simple words from school. He approaches and he’s very tall, looks at me and says: you’re such a little girl. And I [say]: and you’re a big boy. Of course, all the press were laughing so hard”.
“The [Soviet] embassy invited us for dinner and Dobrynin approached me again and said: “you, little girl, can’t even imagine what you’ve managed to do in one meeting with a president that we couldn’t manage in five years”. You probably know that there was the Cold War and after that [meeting], Nixon came to Moscow in 1974. But I didn’t understand that I created big politics between the Soviet Union and America. It’s a very nice feeling, of course”.
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