Article by Oana Enemănescu – published Monday, August 25, 2025, 14:47 / Updated Monday, August 25, 20:47
Oksana Chusovitina made her gymnastics debut more than three decades ago, competing for the Soviet Union. At the age of 50, which he turned in June, Uzbeka dreams of qualifying for the ninth edition of the Olympic Games, the one that will take place in Los Angeles in 2028.
Challenging the rules of the passage of time, Oksana Chusovitina is the only gymnast in the world that took part in 8 editions of the OJ, Being the Olympic champion in 1992, along with the unified team of the former Soviet republics, but also a vice -champion in jumping in 2008, in Beijing, representing Germany.
Washington Post watched it in the summer at the Tashkent World Cup stage, the hometown of Oksana, where the athlete won the silver medal. A week earlier, in Baku, Chusovitina had won gold with her jumps.
The two trophies in June bypassed the social networks, reminding the world about the uniqueness of Oksana in the world of gymnastics, a world in which, usually, success comes in a fairly tight window and does not expect even 25-30 years.
Oksana Chusovitina has been since 2016 the oldest gymnast of all time. Five elements of gymnastics were named after it – two jumps, two in unequal parallels and one on the ground. Uzbeka even managed to land the famous “Produnova”, known as “deadly jump”.
Due to an injury, Oksana Chusovitina did not enter the race for qualifying at the Paris 2024 Olympics
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games could have meant the ninth edition of Olympic Games for Oksana Chusovitina, but an injury kept it away from reaching this terminal.
The athlete is extremely determined to reach Los Angeles 2028, when he will be 53 years old.
Her former colleague and her current coach, Svetlana Boguinskaia, who withdrew almost 30 years ago, described Oksana as “unique”, considering her a real source of inspiration. “It is possible not to see this again, for many years from now on, maybe,” Boguinskaia added.
In 36 years of career you count so far, Chusovitina has exceeded any expectation. He broke his tendon Achilles, suffered shoulder and back operations, and probably fell thousands of times in the training room.
Oksana Chusovitina, on the podium next to the Romanian Sandra Izbașa, in 2011 photo: Guliver / Getty Images
Currently, she runs the National Gymnastics Academy of Uzbekistan in a building that bears her name. In 2018, Chusovitina was received in the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Why does he want to continue?
Oksana Chusovitina: “Gymnastics means my struggle with myself, with my own limits”
“I like my job,” says Oksana simply. “The main thing I love when it comes to gymnastics is the struggle with me. And, when I come out, I live a great satisfaction.”
The silver medal conquered at the Beijing OJ for Germany has a special history. Oksana moved there because His only child, Alisher, needed effective cancer treatments that could save his life.
For Alisher's life, Oksana and her husband, former fighter Bakhodir Kurbanov, fought all the powers and put her out. Now, their 25 -year -old son is a basketball player. For him, Oksana Chusovitina initially extended her career, leading to official or demonstrative events, to collect the money needed for her son's treatments.
In the last 12 years, in which two editions of the Olympic Games have slipped, Oksana Chusovitina competed for Uzbekistan. For the overwhelming majority of top gymnasiums, 12 years means a whole career. For Chusovitina, it's just a chapter in a history that seems endless.
Her ambition to reach the Los Angeles Olympics gives Svetlai Boguinskaia, who worries whenever she sees Chusovitina training.
Therefore, she asks Oksana daily how she feels – from a physical and mental point of view, knowing that her answer is crucial to the training program chosen. “He knows and understands his limits,” said Svetlana Boguinskaia. But Oksana, her former teammate, seems to not understand her age.
“I feel that I am young. I cannot think of anything else. I think no one should take their own age seriously. You have to do what you want and this, if you have the power you do, your age should not prevent you.
Many look at the age they have and say, “Ah, I'm 50, I can't run anymore.” It's a mistake. There are people who are 20 years old, but mentally they have already reached 50. And there are 60 -year -olds or even older people who are young and do exactly the same things that young people do, ”explained Oksana Chusovitina.
Oksana Chustovitina saved her son from death through gymnastics
More strange is the fact that Oksana Chusovitina did not propose from the beginning to become a gymnast. In the early 1980s, her brother went to gymnastics and Oksana to have an occupation. He discovered quite quickly that he likes to run and jump, so he soon arrived at a Moscow Sports Academy.
It could have been stopped after finishing the 10th place Competition composed of the OJ in Atlanta 1996 or a year later, when he was married to Kurbanov. Or in 1999, after the birth of their son, or in 2000, when Jo from Sydney only brought him 45th in the individual compound and 23rd place in jumps.
He was 25 years old, that is, after the time the gymnasts live, he was already old.
But, forced by the drama that life brought, Oksana Chusovitina went on. In 2002, Alisher received the cruel diagnosis: leukemia. As there was no oncological hospital in Tashkent, Chusovitina found a clinic in Cologne, who could have helped her son.
Oksana moved to Germany with her son and husband, training and competing for this state. “It was the hardest period of all,” recalls the gymnast.
On Monday, the boy lived practically in the hospital, and the chemotherapy sessions were doing, as his mother says. In the evening, Chusovitina retired to the gym of a university, “so I wouldn't think about all the problems I had.” She trained, to release the tension and anger she had accumulated with her son's disease.
“Gymnastics helped her and gave her the mental force that made her believe that her son will survive,” said Svetlana Boguinskaia.
After her son healed, Oksana Chusovitina realized she couldn't stop
Alisher was recovered, but he still needed expensive treatments. So Chusovitina continued to compete to the point where she realized she doesn't really want to stop. Gymnastics had saved his child, he had become more than just a job.
In 2003, Oksana won the world gold in jumping. Between 2007 and 2008, she won all the international jumping competitions she participated in. At 33, she won silver in Beijing, her only individual Olympic medal.
Oksana Chusovitina Lka Jo from Tokyo 2021 Photo: Imago Images
Just then, when he was preparing to leave China, Alisher's doctor called. The boy was considered completely healed. “That's why Beijing became my favorite Olympics,” said Uzbeka.
Since then, Oksana Chusovitina has continued her journey. He retired for a few months, then returned to Uzbekistan and gymnastics. After in 2016, at the OJ, he did not take the medal, he obtained gold at 14 of the next 20 competitions he participated in.
He went to the OJ from Tokyo 2021 with the promise that after them he would even withdraw, but after a few days he returned to the room, to workouts. Actually, Oksana didn't want to stop.
Missing the Paris Olympic Games did not mean a disaster for Oksana Chusovitina. He had been injured in the leg during the Asian championships and did not obtain the qualification for the great competition in the capital of France.
The Oksana Chusovitina road to Los Angeles 2028 will be the hardest so far. Then the gymnast will be 53
“If I had ten years less, if I had 35 years old, this would have devastated me. I considered it to happen,” said Oksana Chusovitina.
But immediately after the Paris 2024 Jo, Oksana began to talk about Los Angeles 2028. “This makes Oksana unique – after every obstacle that is put in the way, she returns with even more strength,” added Svetlana Boguinskaia.
However, the road to Los Angeles will be an extremely difficult one. Chusovitina is not in the past years, because the competitions that take medals lately are not very high. Her chance is to have special results at CM 2027 or at the Asian games of 2028.
“If I could return in time 10 years ago with the mind now,” said Oksana Chusovitina, whose son is already 25 years old and studies Mathematics and Physical Education at Cologne. Alisher calls his mother every day and congratulates her after every competition, no matter what place.
After the Tokyo OJ, the Uzbekistan authorities laid the foundation for a gymnastics academy in Tashkent, and Oksana Chusovitina was invited to run. Although he never wanted to be a coach, he now has 160 children, but also a few teachers.
It has been brought to inspire other generations, but for now, Oksana Chusovitina still lives its present. He has to train to qualify for his ninth Olympics, which will take place over 3 years.
