Legendary gymnast Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan has one last chance to earn a quota spot to the Olympic Games Paris 2024 this Friday (24 May) at the Asian Gymnastics Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
In order to obtain the quota for her ninth Olympic appearance, Chusovitina will need to finish as the highest eligible athlete in the all-around standings.*
It’s likely to be a tall order for the 48-year-old, who missed out on qualifying in the all-around at last year’s Asian Champs.
“The main thing is not to give up,” Chusovitina said in an Instagram post featuring a montage of her preparation ahead of the event.
Winner of two Olympic medals, Chusovitina has participated in every Olympic Games dating back to 1992 when Barcelona took centre stage as host.
At those Games, she won a team gold medal as a member of the Unified Team. She later collected her second Olympic medal of her career at Beijing 2008, a silver on the vault.
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Securing a quota to Paris has been a series of difficulties for the Uzbek.
First, Chusovitina missed out on all-around qualification to the 2023 World Championships after a subpar performance at last year’s Asian Championships. That limited her pathway to being the top eligible qualifier on the vault among a talented field.
Then, earlier this year, she crashed out of several World Cup events, never fully getting into the fight for one of two vault quotas on offer through the series.
This week’s Asian Championships are the last opportunity for Chusovitina to earn a quota and a ninth trip to the Games.
The gymnastics legend has said that she would retire following the Olympic Games in Tokyo, but two months later announced that she had resumed training with the goal of winning a medal for Uzbekistan at the Asian Games.
"I want to tell everyone that I have decided to prepare for the Asian Games 2022," she said in an Instagram story announcing her return. "I just can't finish my career without a medal for Uzbekistan."
That competition was postponed to 2023, and Chusovitina came up short of a medal, finishing just off the podium in fourth in the vault final.
She has not said what the future holds for her career should she fail to obtain the quota in Tashkent.
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