Rio de Janeiro, Aug 5: Oksana Chusovitina from Uzbekistan has made a decision to retire after her seventh Olympic Games here at Rio and the 41 years old gymnast hoped that she can reach the vault final this time.
Advertisement
Rio de Janeiro: Standing alongside gymnasts half her age, Oksana Chusovitina was playing it safe in her bid for an Olympic medal at the age of 41 years on Sunday.
“I really love the sport, I love to give pleasure to the public”. I still like to train and compete. Her best chance to make an impact is reaching the vault finals, where she will compete against American Laurie Hernandez, among others.
Today Miller completed her podium session alongside Chusovitina for the first time in her career. I have a son who I want to think about. “When I retire from gymnastics, it has to be on a Monday, because that is the hardest day of training”.
Despite nearly retiring a handful of times, she has returned to compete in all of the Olympic games proceeding 1992.
A hop back on landing did little to dampen the mood and a score of 15.166 proved that she was not in Rio to simply celebrate competing at a record seventh Olympics for a gymnast.
The big question is: how in the world does Chusovitina keep herself fit enough to continue competing at a high level in a sport that’s normally dominated by people who were born after she won her first Olympic gold medal? By then Chusovitina was representing Germany, a country she moved to in 2002 to get her son Alisher, born in 1999, successfully treated for leukaemia.
Advertisement
“I’m woman”, she said, answering in English when asked to explain the change of heart.
