2023-04-21 00:30:56
6 minutes ago
Some of Oksana Chusovitina’s rivals were not yet born when she started winning medals
At the last three stages of the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup (the fourth will be held in April), an athlete from Uzbekistan, Oksana Chusovitina, climbed the podium. Two bronzes and one silver in vault. There would be nothing outstanding in this if it were not for the age of the athlete – 47 years old!
Oksana Chusovitina, a native of Bukhara, won her first significant medals at the 1991 World Championships, being in the USSR national team: gold in floor exercises and in the team championship, as well as silver in the vault, a discipline that would become her crown. Then there will be the 1992 Olympics as part of the joint CIS team, playing for Uzbekistan, Germany and Uzbekistan once more. In Tokyo, the 45-year-old gymnast will become 14th in the vault, say goodbye to sports, cry and … in two months she will return to the gym to train for her ninth Games – in Paris 2024, at the time of which she will turn 49.
Coaches say: for her longevity in sports, Oksana must say thanks to her unique natural data, the absence of injuries, gentle training without overloads and the International Gymnastics Federation, which allowed her to perform in only one form – Chusovitina goes to the vault.
Oksana’s achievement as the only gymnast who performed at eight Olympics is included in the Guinness Book of Records. However, there are other examples of longevity in sports.
Nino Salukvadze overtakes Chusovitina in the number of Olympics – she has nine of them. They managed to win two awards: in Seoul-1988, where the Soviet athlete made her debut at the age of 19, – gold and silver, in Beijing-2008 – bronze, already for Georgia. In Rio de Janeiro, Nino performed with her son, also a shooter. At the Tokyo Games, the 52-year-old athlete announced her retirement, saying that her eyesight was already failing.
17 days before her 50th birthday, German speed skater Claudia Pechstein competed at her eighth Olympics (Beijing 2022). It was not possible to take a medal, but in her piggy bank from previous Games there are nine of them, of which five are gold. At the world championships, Claudia ran into 40 medals, including six of the highest value. This year, 51-year-old Claudia managed to grab the gold of the German championship at 5000 m and the silver at 3000 m. Our luger Albert Demchenko passed seven Olympics. His last performance at the Sochi 2014 Games brought two silver medals. The athlete was 42 years old.
At the same number of Olympics, the French cyclist Jeannie Longo pedaled and brought gold, two silvers and bronze from them. Her last tournament was the French Road Racing Championship, which she won at 58.
Biathlete Sergei Chepikov has six trips to the Olympic Games. And the same number of Olympic medals – two golds, three silvers and bronze. At the Turin Olympics – at the age of 39 – he and his colleagues became the second in the relay.
In terms of the number of Games, the Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen is inferior to others – he had five of them. But in terms of performance, try to catch up! 13 Olympic medals, eight of them gold, and 43 – from the world championships (20 gold). He was going to end his career following Sochi, where he twice climbed the first step of the podium – he was 40 years old. But he stayed for four more seasons. I might not qualify for Korea, and earned my last award – bronze in the Christmas race at 44.
Winning silver in swimming at age 41 has only happened once in Olympic history. American Dara Torres brought three such medals from her fifth Games: she snatched one in the individual category and two in the relay.
Swede Oscar Swan went to the first Olympics at 60, and to the third – at 72. In 1908, he became a two-time Olympic champion in shooting and won bronze, in 1912 he won gold and bronze, and in 1920 – silver. He did not reach Paris in 1924: the 76-year-old shooter fell ill. He kept only the Olympic gold medals for himself, the other three he threw away or donated.
Athlete Ekaterina Podkopayeva had only one Olympics, where she failed to reach the podium. For 21 years, she played for the USSR national team, then for Russia, and won her second and last world championship gold at the age of 44.
Just me and the horse
Most centenarians are in equestrian sport. They say that to reach a decent level, you need at least 15 years, but they start practicing at 10-12 years old. Here also consider.
- Arthur von Pongrash competed at three Olympics: in 1924, 1928 and 1936. The last Games turned out to be the most successful for the 72-year-old athlete, he became the fourth in team dressage competitions.
- The Japanese Hiroshi Hoketsu first went to the Olympics in 1964, especially since he did not have to travel far, it was held in his native Tokyo. After a long break, there were the Games of 2008 and 2012 – the last rider turned 71 years old.
- Lorna Johnston from Great Britain competed at the age of 70 at the third Olympics – in Munich in 1972.
- At the age of 66, Australian rider Mary Hanna went to her sixth Games (Tokyo 2020).
- So our Inessa Merkulova, who was 56 at the last Olympics in Tokyo, can be considered just a girl.
Photo source: Vitaly Belousov/TASS, Globalookpress.com/© Stefan Lafrentz, Nikku
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