Olga Karasyova

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Olga Dmitryevna Karasyova-Kharlova, also known as Olga Kovalenko, was a Soviet artistic gymnast. She was born on July 24, 1949, in Bishkek, then part of the Soviet Union, and died on October 26, 2025, at age 76.

She competed for the Soviet Union at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and won a gold medal as part of the team event. She trained at CSKA Moscow under head coach Igor Zhuravlev, with Sofia Muratova as assistant coach.

Olga was married to fellow gymnast Valery Karasyov and studied French at the Pedagogical Institute.

In 1994, she was involved in a report claiming she and teammates were pressured to have abortions before the 1968 Olympics. The claim was later shown to involve an impostor, and Karasyova won a libel case in 2000 for damages.