Chusovitina chases eighth Olympics at the age of 44
Uzbekistan veteran sets sights on astonishing feat in Tokyo, writes Liubov Baladzhaeva
Gymnastics is often thought of as a sport for talented teenagers. But, at 44 and competing in the World Championships in Stuttgart this week, Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina has been working on changing the parameters of her sport for the best part of three decades. As the American gymnast, Shawn Johnson, put it: “No one even knows how old she is any more, because it seems like she’s been to the last gazillion Olympics.”
Actually, she has been to seven, the only gymnast to do so, and with an eye on her eighth if she can qualify for Tokyo this weekend. Her winning vault routine at last month’s World Challenge Cup showed that she is still competing with the best.
Following that win in Paris, a video of her competing in 1994 went viral with the original commentary: “Oksana Chusovitina, 19 years old, you don’t see many gymnasts her age. Most of them are in and out of the sport by 17 or 18.” Twenty-five years later, having become a mother, she is still going strong.
It has not been an easy journey. Chusovitina began with the Soviet Union team in the 1980s, practising on rudimentary equipment. As the rules of the sport changed, the apparatus changed, and yet Chusovitina continued to compete at the highest level, sharing the podium with gymnasts younger than her own son.
Her personal life has been challenging. In 1999 she had a son, Alisher, with husband Bakhodir Kurbanov, a Greco-roman wrestler. At the age of three, Alisher was diagnosed with leukaemia. Without adequate medical care available in her native Uzbekistan, Chusovitina moved to Germany. The gymnastics community helped raise funds for his treatment. Chusovitina kept competing – this time for Germany – dependent on the prize money to keep her son alive. “If I don’t compete then my son won’t live, it’s as simple as that,” she said.
She contemplated retiring several times. After attempting the “Produnova” at the Rio Olympic Games – a handspring double front salto vault, commonly dubbed the “vault of death” which Simone Biles famously refused to attempt, saying: “I’m not trying to die” – she finished a disappointing seventh.
“After the final, I kept thinking about what happened for a long time,” she said. “Should I continue or not? But the next morning, I woke up and realised that I would prepare for my next Olympics, I would go for my dream.
“I competed at seven Olympic Games. I won a gold medal for the Soviet Union, I won a [silver] medal for the country that helped me – Germany. But I’ve never won a medal for Uzbekistan. That’s my dream – an Olympic medal for Uzbekistan. When I was thinking after Rio whether to retire or not, I realised that I still can, I have the energy. I thought that if I don’t try again, I will regret it for the rest of my life.” In 2013, she switched to compete for Uzbekistan, to give it another go in Rio.
Chusovitina was not the first gymnast to compete in her sport as a mother. Larisa Latynina won five gold medals at the 1958 World Championships for the Soviet Union while pregnant – but in the modern era mothers are rarer than ever. Last year two new mothers, the Marta Pihankulesza, of Poland and Aliya Mustafina, of Russia, came back to competition, citing Chusovitina as the example to follow. Chusovitina says the secret of her staying power is a full life alongside gymnastics. “I am doing everything I’m interested in while competing. I’m being invited to gym openings, I present awards to children, I give masterclasses, I do community outreach, I’m not just at the gym all the time.”
Asked what her future holds, beyond competing, she said: “I definitely won’t become a politician. I want to develop children’s sports in Uzbekistan, specifically gymnastics, which, in my opinion, is the start for every other sport. It’s important for me to leave a legacy behind.”