Olympic great Chusovitina, 50, wins World Challenge Cup silver

Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina marked her 50th birthday with a silver medal in the vault at the Gymnastics World Challenge Cup – 33 years after she became an Olympic champion.

Chusovitina was part of a Unified Team of athletes from post-Soviet nations that won the team all-around gold at the 1992 Barcelona Games, and has competed at eight Olympics in total.

Three decades later the Uzbek, who is also a three-time world champion, is still winning medals in a sport in which most retire in their twenties.

Competing in her native country at the International Gymnastics Federation’s World Challenge Cup in Tashkent one day after her birthday, Chusovitina took vault silver behind Bulgaria’s Valentina Georgieva – who, at 18, is 32 years her junior.

Until Paris 2024, Chusovitina had competed at every summer Olympic Games since 1992.

She was looking to equal the record – set by Georgian shooter Nino Salukvadze, who is the only Olympian to have competed in nine consecutive Games – for most Olympic appearances in a row last year in Paris.

Chusovitina was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2017, and eight years later she remains the only member to still be competing after their induction.

She explained before the Tokyo Games why she had not yet retired: “I could have stopped at 25, 19, or 30, but I didn’t. I realised with age I didn’t get worse, I only got better, like fine wine.”

She had made it clear in February that she was targeting her home event.

“In June, on my 50th birthday, we will have a competition here in Tashkent. It will be a World Challenge Cup, and I really want to compete there so I’m keeping my fingers crossed,” she said.

After her team gold in Barcelona, she represented Uzbekistan at the next three Games but, after moving to Germany when her son was diagnosed with leukaemia, she gained citizenship and switched allegiances.

Her second Olympic medal was a silver in the vault while representing Germany at the 2008 Beijing Games.

She represented Germany at the 2012 Games in London then switched back to Uzbekistan for the 2016 Rio Olympics – and qualified for the delayed Games in Tokyo in 2021.

Chusovitina did briefly retire after the Tokyo Games, but returned to the sport just 67 days later.

Speaking about the decision in 2023, she said: “I just realised, I felt that I can do this. Why should I leave the sport if it brings me joy?”.

Previously this season she had won gold at the Baku World Cup and bronze at the Cottbus World Cup.

By the time athletes head out to the United States for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, Chusovitina will be 53 years of age, but she has not ruled out a ninth trip to the Olympics.

“My number one goal is to get to Los Angeles,” she said before this week’s competition.