| The usual narrative around this skill is that it was banned because it was too dangerous, but that doesn't ring true to me -- many release moves performed both by women on the uneven bars and men on the high bar have similar motions whose risk is surely equal to or greater than a Korbut flip. For example, here's a Korbut flip: it's a back flip from the feet to catch the bar: https://youtu.be/NZYPcdj_wn4?t=15 Compare this with a Mo Salto, one of the hardest (legal!) release moves in the women's code of points: https://youtu.be/eIwTquLwGpA?t=26 On the men's side, the Korbut flip is a pretty similar motion to a Kovacs (https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6yRJaivL1TE) which is a staple of high-level men's gymnastics; in fact the basic Kovacs is "so easy" that you rarely see the vanilla version performed by top athletes! It's more common to do them with a full twist (Coleman/Cassina, e.g. https://youtu.be/8IeBXhijY0M?t=40) or in combination with other release moves (e.g. Zonderland at the 2012 Olympics https://youtu.be/I0TM2sOnvyI?t=1160). Hidetaka Miyachi is one of the few people to ever have competed a double-twisting Kovacs (both tucked and straight! https://youtu.be/RgW36EKyKyg?t=23), and there are a few videos online of people practicing a "double Kovacs" with an extra flip (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zI8VEll7wKI) but nobody has ever done one in competition. While it's perceived danger might have been a factor in the initial ban of the Korbut flip, in light of these modern release moves it's hard to see how that is still a good reason. Instead, I think the reason it remains banned is more aesthetic; bars are supposed to be a swinging event, and we don't want to allow skills that have athletes standing on the bar instead of swinging around it. On the other hand, banning the Thomas salto (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkQRWCsKyj0) and other similar roll-out moves on floor is very clearly motivated by safety -- these are indeed very dangerous, and athletes have been seriously injured by them (most famously Elena Mukhina who became a quadriplegic as a result of this skill). |