The legend of Oksana Chusovitina: why does gymnastics mean so much to the eight-time Olympian?

You know who doesn’t care about there being a 46-year-old artistic gymnast still competing at the highest level? Oksana Chusovitina, the gymnast herself.

The eight-time Olympian understands the interest in her longevity in a sport that had previously been more a young woman’s game. But while gymnastics fans, headline writers and her contemporaries wax lyrical about the Uzbekistani still competing at elite level 32 years after first competing on the international stage, 'Chuso' as she’s affectionately known, just keeps on training.

Not just training either. Since ‘retiring’ – again – after the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, which finished in August, Chuso has won gold on vault at the Doha World Cup on 5 March, the second of four of the 2022 FIG Artistic Gymnastics Apparatus World Cup series. She is also on the nominative roster of attendees at the next World Cup, in Cairo, Egypt, which takes place 17-20 March. The final edition takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan from 31 March to 4 April.

Other Olympic medallists on the initial roster to take part at the Cairo International Stadium are 2020 Olympic floor champion Artem Dolgopyat of Israel, high bar silver medalist Tin Srbic of Croatia, and vault bronze medalist Artur Davtyan of Armenia.

Gymnasts earn ranking points in each event, which determine the 2022 World Cup series champions. It also just so happens, note those fans willing Chuso on to continue to Paris 2024 and her ninth Olympic Games, that qualification points for this Apparatus World Cup series play a role in qualification for the World Championships in Liverpool, UK from 29 October to 6 November, a registered stepping stone for Chuso toward an Olympic Games after past 'retirements'.

But Chuso has a wily head on her shoulders saying, "I don't dare to set goals, everything happens in sports".

A history repeated

Born in Bukhara, Uzbekistan in 1975, Oksana Chusovitina competed in her first Olympic Games at Barcelona 1992, winning gold with the Unified Team – 12 former Soviet republics who chose to compete together following the break up of the Soviet Union for whom Chuso had originally competed.

Chusovitina competed for Uzbekistan at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, and by 1997 had married Uzbek Olympic wrestler Bakhodir Kurbano. The couple’s son, Alisher, was born in 1999.

Chuso's first ‘retirement’ was due after the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games by which time five world championship medals had been won including three golds, but in 2002 Alisher, then two years old, was diagnosed with leukemia. The family moved to Germany where better treatment was available and Chuso continued to train as a way to take a break from the stresses of her son’s health.

"Many people thought that I was competing to provide medical treatment to my child, but it was the whole world that helped me to collect money for Alisher's treatment,” Chuso told CNN in 2020. “This was not in any way related to my career. I was training to distract myself from everything that was going on at the hospital."

Chuso competed at Athens 2004, and in 2006 gained German citizenship winning silver on vault at Beijing 2008 for her adopted nation, aged 33, just months after Alisher received the all-clear.

At the next Games, London 2012, Chuso came fifth in the vault final and finally, in 2013 after eight years in Germany, Chuso returned to the place she calls home, Uzbekistan. Chuso switched back to competing for her home nation at Rio 2016 and at Tokyo 2020 she just qualified for the Games on her specialist apparatus, vault, but unfortunately did not make the apparatus final.

The familiar ‘retirement wave’ to the crowd at the end of the Games, followed by the ‘retirement announcement’, was soon followed by training videos in the gym on Chuso’s Instagram account, followed shortly after that by the appearance at the Doha World Cup earlier this month.

Chuso has suggested the Asian Games taking place in Hangzhou, People's Republic of China in September is a target following the World Cup series, where she will try to win a medal for her beloved nation.

Uzbekistan

Despite the plethora of Olympic medals won by Chuso, none have been for her beloved Uzbekistan, which is no doubt in the back of her mind as she takes tentative steps back into the sport. 'Home sweet home' is the caption on an Instagram post from May 2021, months before she headed to her record-breaking eighth Olympic Games.

Maybe, just maybe, with the next Olympic Games just two years away, there's a hint of an idea to try and win that elusive Olympic medal for her nation at Paris 2024.

Her son

On the occasion of her son's 20th birthday in November 2020, Chuso posted a then and now photo of Alisher with the following caption:

“My beloved son. I sincerely congratulate you on your birthday. I want to wish you that all your dreams and desires come true, and reach the goal that you set for yourself. Remember we are always there for you. WE LOVE YOU VERY. WE ARE PROUD OF YOU.”

Wishing that ‘all his dreams and desires come true’ with a hope that he ‘reaches the goal he sets himself’, sounds very much like someone else, a mother who continues to show her son that he can achieve anything he sets his mind to, including beating cancer.

Chuso and Bogy

The gymnastics community loves the relationship between Chuso and former teammate and sometimes coach, Svetlana Boginskaya. Famed for her expressive and innovative floor routines in which she was 1989 world champion as well as four-time Olympic medallist including two golds, Bogy as she’s known to fans, occasionally accompanies her friend to some of the smaller events.

Now living in America, Bogy is not an official coach for Uzbekistan so does not go to the main events and also because she has a young family to support so cannot commit to travelling all over the world but she goes whenever she can to support her friend.

The playful twosome showcase their friendship on Instagram and in 2019 Chuso told Gymstars.co.uk, “I will be honest with you, when Svetlana is standing next to me as a coach I feel very comfortable, and I feel confident,” to which Bogy replied: “That’s very flattering to me!”

The photo below shows Chuso and Bogy standing side by side, with Bogy far right, at Chuso's first-ever major competition, the Goodwill Games in 1990.

Peers

Chuso enjoys superstar status even among her gymnastic peers who are household names in their own right. The USA's Simone Biles who has had a career long enough to have achieved seven Olympic medals including four golds, and 25 World Championship medals including 19 golds, wasn't even born when Chusovitina was first competing. Now they compete against each other with even Biles keen to have a photo with the legend that is Chuso.

Fans

Wherever she goes Chuso's fans adore her, the enjoyment of the sport writ large on her face even during the stresses of competition and a wry smile when things don't go according to plan. Breaking barriers such as returning to gymnastics after having a child when it was more unusual to do so and continuing long after others have retired continue to inspire those inside and outside the sport.

Finally, the pure joy Chuso conveys whether training or competing emanates from the gymnast who now showcases her life to followers on social media, an invention not even thought of when she started her career. Yet Chuso insists she is nothing special.

"I'm an ordinary person," she says. "I have my feelings, tribulations and sometimes I'm even in a bad mood. Nothing phenomenal about me, just stuck in sports a little longer. It all depends on the person, if they want to achieve something, there is always a way. If he doesn't want to, nothing can force him."

Wise words spoken from the gymnast whose motto is, "I'd rather try today than regret tomorrow".