48-year-old Oksana Chusovitina wins Uzbek national title, holding off a challenger more than three decades younger
Eight-time gymnastics Olympian Oksana Chusovitina captured the Uzbekistan all-around title this week at the age of 48.
Chusovitina secured a score of 49.200, besting Lobar Amrillaeva’s 48.550 total. Amrillaeva was born in 2006, two years after Chusovitina made her fourth appearance at the Olympic Games at Athens 2004.
The event serves as a warm-up for the legendary gymnast who will be seeking an historic ninth trip to the Olympic Games next month at the Asian Championships from 24 to 26 May in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
At that competition, Chusovitina will need to finish as the top eligible gymnast in the all-around standings. It’s no easy feat for the Uzbek, who has not competed on all four events internationally since 2019, according to thegymter.net.
However, her win at the national championships is a promising step forward. Her competition included performing a Tkatchev release move on the uneven bars for the first time in five years, according to a post from Chusovitina on Instagram.
“I made it!!!!” she wrote in the post. “Today, I took flight on a Tkatchev after 5 years.”
In addition to claiming the all-around title, Chusovitina secured the gold medal in the vault and a silver on the uneven bars.
ICYMI: Healthy Hashimoto Daiki targets Paris repeat; Max Whitlock to end career with fourth Games
It’s been another busy week in the sport – but Olympics.com has it all covered, including from the All-Japan Championships where reigning Olympic all-around champion Hashimoto Daiki says he’s not taking anything for granted.
Also this week: Team GB’s Max Whitlock, his nation’s most successful gymnast, announced that he’ll end his storied career following the Paris 2024 Games.
“It’s weird to think about and to say, but I’ve decided Paris 2024 will be my fourth and final Olympics,” said Whitlock.
From the vault…
This week, we take a look back at Team GB on the floor exercise during women’s qualifying at the Olympic Games Sydney 2000. The team finished 10th overall and was led by Paula Thomas’ 9.475 on the apparatus.