Oksana Chusovitina
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Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina (russian: Оксана Александровна Чусовитина; born 19 June 1975) is an eight-time Olympic
gymnast Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, sh ...
who has competed for the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
,
Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...
, and
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. Chusovitina's career as an elite gymnast has spanned more than a quarter century. She won the USSR Junior Nationals in 1988 and began competing at the international level in 1989, before many of her current rivals were even born. She is the only female gymnast ever to compete in eight Olympic Games, and is one of only two female gymnasts to compete at the Olympics under three different national teams: the Unified Team in 1992; Uzbekistan in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2016 and 2020; and Germany in 2008 and 2012. Chusovitina has also competed in 16 World Championships, four Asian Games and three Goodwill Games. Chusovitina holds the record for the most individual world championships medals on a single event (nine, on the vault). Chusovitina is a part of a small group of gymnasts to return to international competition after becoming a mother.


Soviet Union

Chusovitina began gymnastics in 1982. In 1988, at the age of 13, she won the all-around title at the USSR National Championships in the junior division. By 1990, Chusovitina was a vital member of the Soviet team, and was sent to compete in various international meets. She was the
vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosure ...
gold medalist at the 1990 Goodwill Games and nearly swept the 1990 World Sports Fair in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, winning the all-around and every event except the uneven bars. The following year she won the
floor exercise In gymnastics, the floor is a specially prepared exercise surface, which is considered an apparatus. It is used by both male and female gymnasts. The gymnastics event performed on the floor is called floor exercise. The English abbreviation for t ...
at the 1991 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and placed second on the vault. In 1992 Chusovitina competed at the Olympics with the Unified Team, shared in the team gold medal and placed seventh in the floor final. She also won her second World Championships vault medal, a bronze.


Uzbekistan

After the 1992 Olympics, when the former Soviet gymnasts returned to their home republics, Chusovitina began competing for Uzbekistan and continued training with Uzbekistan head coach Svetlana Kuznetsova, also her personal coach. Conditions at the national training facility in
Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...
were a far cry from the Soviet Round Lake training center, and Chusovitina was forced to practice on antiquated, and in some cases, unsafe equipment. In spite of this setback, she was able to consistently produce world-class routines. Chusovitina represented Uzbekistan from 1993 to 2006 and competed for them at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympics, the 1994, 1998 and 2002
Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...
and the 1994 and 2001 Goodwill Games. During this era she was the strongest gymnast on the Uzbekistan national team, earning more than 70 medals in international competitions and qualifying to the Olympics three times. For her contributions to gymnastics, Chusovitina was granted the title of "Honored Athlete of the Republic of Uzbekistan" by the Uzbekistan Ministry of Cultural and Sports Affairs. In 2001, she was named as the first WAG representative to the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG)'s Athletes' Commission. In addition, Chusovitina graduated from the Sports University in Tashkent. In late 1997 Chusovitina married Uzbek Olympic wrestler Bakhodir Kurbanov, whom she first met at the 1994
Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...
in
Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...
. The couple's son, Alisher, was born in November 1999.


Germany

In 2002, Alisher was diagnosed with
acute lymphocytic leukemia Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a cancer of the lymphoid line of blood cells characterized by the development of large numbers of immature lymphocytes. Symptoms may include feeling tired, pale skin color, fever, easy bleeding or bruisin ...
(ALL). Seeking advanced medical treatment for their son, Chusovitina and her husband accepted an offer of help from Shanna and Peter Brüggemann, head coaches of the Toyota
Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
club, and moved to
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. With prize money earned from gymnastics competitions, along with the help of the Brüggemanns and members of the international gymnastics community who fundraised and donated to the cause, Chusovitina was able to secure treatment for Alisher at the University of Cologne's hospital. While Alisher underwent treatment in Cologne, Chusovitina trained with the German team. Uzbekistan released Chusovitina to compete for Germany in 2003. However, due to rules requiring three years of residency, she was unable to gain German citizenship immediately. From 2003 to 2006 she trained in Germany but continued to compete for Uzbekistan, representing her native country at the 2003 and 2005 World Championships and the 2004 Olympics. In 2003, 12 years after her world championships debut, Chusovitina won the gold medal on the vault at that year's world championships in Anaheim. In 2006, Chusovitina obtained German citizenship. Her first competition for Germany was the 2006 World Championships, where she won a bronze medal on the vault and placed ninth in the all-around. In July 2007, she won the all-around title at the 2007 German National Championships. At her first European Championships, she placed second on the vault. At the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart, Chusovitina helped the German squad to a 10th-place finish in the preliminary round, which qualified them to send a full team to the 2008 Olympics in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, where she was the oldest female competitor in her discipline. She qualified for the vault event final where she finished in 2nd place, thus earning the first individual Olympic medal of her career. Chusovitina competed on three events at the 2008 Women's European Championships in
Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand (, ; ; oc, label=Auvergnat (dialect), Auvergnat, Clarmont-Ferrand or Clharmou ; la, Augustonemetum) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population ...
, France, helping the German team to a seventh-place finish in the team finals. In the vault event final, she defeated reigning European champion Carlotta Giovannini to win the gold medal. At the 2008 Olympics, the German team placed 12th in the qualifying round of competition. Chusovitina qualified to the individual all-around final, where she placed ninth overall. She also qualified in fourth place for the vault final. In the vault final, she won the silver medal with a score of 15.575. Despite earlier claims that she would attempt to compete in the
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
, Chusovitina announced in April 2009 that she intended to only participate in the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships in October, and that she would not continue. The championships, she stated, are "enough." However, she returned to compete in some competitions in 2010 (including the 2010 Houston National Invitational). She won the silver medal on vault at the 2011 European Championships, the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 European Championships. Chusovitina competed at the
2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
for Germany. The games were a remarkable sixth Olympics for Chusovitina, who qualified for the vault final where she placed in fifth behind her German teammate,
Janine Berger Janine Berger (born 21 April 1996) is a German artistic gymnast. In 2012, she began competing among seniors and was selected for the 2012 Summer Olympics, where her team was placed ninth. Individually she competed in the vault, uneven bars and ...
. Afterward Oksana declared she would retire as a gymnast and concentrate on coaching. However, instead of retiring, Oksana switched back to competing for Uzbekistan. She competed at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics. She has stated her goal is to win an Olympic medal on vault for Uzbekistan, because she’s already won medals for the Unified Team and Germany, but not for her home country.


Recent years

Despite her statements in 2012, Chusovitina ultimately returned the following year and announced plans to continue competing through the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. She went on to qualify an individual place for Uzbekistan at a qualifying event in Rio de Janeiro in April 2016. By competing, she set a record as the oldest gymnast to ever compete at the Olympic Games at the age of 41 and 2 months and the only gymnast ever to compete in seven consecutive Olympiads, surpassing the record of six that she set in 2012 with
Yordan Yovchev Yordan Yovchev Yovchev ( bg, Йордан Йовчев Йовчев; born February 24, 1973), also spelled Jordan Jovtchev, is a retired Bulgarian gymnast. He took part in six consecutive Olympic Games, more than any other Bulgarian athlete in O ...
of Bulgaria. Following those Olympics, Chusovitina announced that she would continue her career with the intention of competing in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo After competing solely on vault for several years, Chusovitina announced in 2018 that she would begin competing all-around again. Chusovitina competed at the
2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was held in Stuttgart, Germany from October 4–13, 2019. The championships took place at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, and was the third time the city of Stuttgart hosted the event following the ...
in order to qualify for Tokyo. She had a rough turn in qualifications, falling on her second vault and on balance beam, but despite these errors, she ended up ranked just high enough in the all-around standings to secure one of the last all-around berths to the Olympics from that event. She was selected as a flag bearer for Uzbekistan at the 2020 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, but was then replaced just few hours before the ceremony. Her final day of competition on 25 July 2021 in Tokyo saw her fail to qualify for the finals in Vault. Despite stating that she would retire following the delayed 2020 Olympic Games, she later stated that she would return to training for the 2022 Asian Games, which ended up being postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic. She then won a gold medal on vault at Doha World Cup Event in 2022, and won the vault again at the 2022 Uzbekistan National Championships. When asked how the postponement of the Asian games would influence her training plans, she stated that her goal now is to continue training and compete in the 2024 Olympic Games in
Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
. This would be her 9th Summer Olympic Games. Chusovitina competed at the postponed
Islamic Solidarity Games The Islamic Solidarity Games ( ar, ألعاب التضامن الإسلامي) is a multinational, multi-sport event. The Games involve the elite athletes of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation who compete in a variety of sports. The Solidari ...
in 2022 alongside Dildora Aripova and Ominakhon Khalilova. They finished second as a team behind Turkey. Individually Chusovitina won gold on vault.


Eponymous skills

Chusovitina has five eponymous skills in the Code of Points.


Competitive history

Chusovitina also won the 1994 Goodwill Games Mixed Pairs Silver Medal with Yevgeny Shabayev, Aleksei Voropayev and
Elena Grosheva Yelena Nikolayevna Grosheva (russian: Елена Николаевна Грошева; born April 12, 1979) is a Russian former competitive gymnast. She won silver in the team event at the 1996 Summer Olympics and two team medals at the World Cham ...
.


Year-end world rankings


Vault

2010: #9
2011: #1
2013: #1
2015: #1


Beam

2010: #28
2013: #24
2015: #45


Floor

2015: #7


See also

*
List of top medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Individual women who won eight or more medals World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The years listed for each gymnast only include World Championships where they won medals. American gymnast Simone Biles holds the record for the most World Cha ...
* List of Olympic female artistic gymnasts for Uzbekistan *
List of Olympic female artistic gymnasts for Germany Gymnastics events have been staged at the Olympic Games since 1896, with women competing for the time at the Gymnastics at the 1928 Summer Olympics, 1928 Olympic Games. Germany, German female gymnasts participated in the Gymnastics at the 1936 Summ ...
*
List of female artistic gymnasts with the most appearances at Olympic Games Women have competed in artistic gymnastics at the Olympic Games since 1928. While many women artistic gymnasts have competed in multiple Olympic Games, only four have competed in at least four separate Games: Oksana Chusovitina (8), Daniele Hypól ...
*
List of athletes with the most appearances at Olympic Games A small fraction of the world's population ever competes at the Olympic Games; an even smaller fraction ever competes in multiple Games. 849 athletes (260 women and 589 men) have participated in at least five Olympics from Athens 1896 to Beiji ...


References


External links

*
List of competitive results


{{DEFAULTSORT:Chusovitina, Oksana 1975 births Living people Uzbekistani female artistic gymnasts Soviet female artistic gymnasts German female artistic gymnasts Olympic gymnasts of the Unified Team Olympic gymnasts of Uzbekistan Olympic gymnasts of Germany Gymnasts at the 1992 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 1996 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2000 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2004 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2008 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2012 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the Unified Team Olympic silver medalists for Germany World champion gymnasts Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Originators of elements in artistic gymnastics German people of Russian descent Uzbekistani people of Russian descent People from Bukhara Olympic medalists in gymnastics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Asian Games medalists in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 1994 Asian Games Gymnasts at the 1998 Asian Games Gymnasts at the 2002 Asian Games Gymnasts at the 2014 Asian Games Gymnasts at the 2018 Asian Games Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Asian Games gold medalists for Uzbekistan Asian Games silver medalists for Uzbekistan Asian Games bronze medalists for Uzbekistan Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games Competitors at the 1990 Goodwill Games European champions in gymnastics Islamic Solidarity Games competitors for Uzbekistan Gymnasts at the 2020 Summer Olympics