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Any gymnast that brought home medals from the Olympics or World Championships in Gymnastics brought to their country to glory and fame of having distinguished themselves and their country for being the very best in the most difficult and most popular of the Olympic sports.

Often gymnasts who won World and Olympic titles became celebrities in their own and country and around the world. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, Soviet Gymnast Olga Korbut became an instant celebrity with her daring and original moves. In 1976 she would be overshadowed by a 14-year old Romanian gymnast who would score the first perfect score in the Olympics, Nadia Comaneci, also was a hit around the world.

Gymnastics grew in popularity around the world. The Soviet Union was unbeatable during this period in gymnastics history, producing more team and individual Olympic and World champions than any country before or since.

With the break-up of the Soviet Union, many former coaches have taken positions around the world coaching for countries such as South Korea, Australia, Japan, England, Spain, and the United States. Former world champion, Valery Liukin (first man to perform a triple back on the floor exercise) moved to the US, opened a gym in Texas and coached his daugther, Nastia, to be the US Champion and World Champion.

Gymnastics has contributed much more than most people realize. Thanks to the poplarity of gymnastics, many more athletes with a strong background in gymnastics have been able to elevate other sports and even create entirely new ones, such as those in the X Games.

Most people do not realize it but even in the movies, gymnastics has elevated the action in all types of movies. Jackie Chan, who is a Martial Arts master, former gymnast and acrobar has changed the way we view martial arts movies. In the Matrix, Keanu Reeves character was viewed as superhuman because of his ability to mix martial arts and gymnastics skills. The Power Rangers are superheros whose power as gymnastics and martial arts, among others. In the movies, gymnasts moves are being performed by non-gymnasts thanks to the wire-work in Spiderman, Batman and many others.

So, to answer your question, gymnastics has brought - alot - to the US and other countries in more ways than you realize.

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13y ago

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