Like all sports where flexibility, coordination of movements is required, gymnastics is a sport for young people. Not even for the young - for the very young. This is especially true for women's gymnastics. The heyday of the form falls on the girls for 17-19 years. A gymnast at the age of 25 is practically a long-liver in this sport. The more surprising is the story of Oksana Chusovitina. The Olympics in Rio was the seventh for this athlete! Who is Oksana Chusovitina? The biography of this woman deserves the attention of all sports fans.
How it all began
Oksana Chusovitina began her sports career in difficult times. The beginning of the 90s, the collapse of the country, general uncertainty. All this broke the fate of adults and seasoned athletes.
Bolshoi sport was recognized by such an athlete as Chusovitina Oksana, in 1991. At the age of 16, she performed great at the World Gymnastics Championships in Indianapolis, while still defending the colors of the Soviet flag. Gold in the vault and team competitions, silver in the floor exercises - an excellent result for the debutante.
But Oksana went to her first Olympics in her life as part of a completely different team. The USSR collapsed, and the athlete played for the CIS team.
Then she received her first and, unfortunately, the last so far Olympic gold medal in team exercises.
At the turn of the eras
After the collapse of a large country, many athletes faced a difficult choice - which country to connect their lives with? Many Ukrainian football players, for example, chose to play for the Russian national team, there were other examples of citizenship changes. Among these athletes was Chusovitina Oksana. The gymnast was born in Bukhara, lived in Tashkent.
At that time of troubles, many people left Uzbekistan. The parents of the athlete also moved to the Russian Federation. But Oksana Chusovitina decided to stay in her beloved city and play for the national team of Uzbekistan.
In 1993, she still traveled around the country as part of a group of athletes, which was assembled by a former Olympic athlete Bilozerchev. For the performance, the athletes received decent money for those times. The gymnast herself said that young dumb girls bought whole boxes of equipment and put them at home, not knowing where to spend money. But this did not last long. Sponsorship contributions ran out, Bilozerchev went abroad. Oksana Chusovitina began to represent the national team of Uzbekistan at international competitions.
Uzbekistan's pride in sports
Such successes as in the Soviet team, the athlete did not achieve. There was bronze at the World Cup, several awards at the Asian Games. As part of the Uzbek team, she went to her second Olympics in Atlanta. There, unfortunately, Oksana Chusovitina was left without medals.
The most important event in her life happened during this period on the personal front. Having married the wrestler Bakhodir Kurbanov, she gives birth to his son Alisher. Most gymnasts leave sports after giving birth, but for Uzbekistan, Oksana was not just an ordinary athlete. For a republic not spoiled with sports awards, the legendary athlete who became the Olympic champion was a real banner.
The athlete continues her performance after leaving the decree. In order not to disperse her forces, she focuses all her attention on her crown discipline - vault.
After 1996, she represents a sports club in Germany as a legionnaire. From time to time protecting his colors, she receives some money for this. At the same time, at that moment, she did not even think about changing her sports citizenship. Chusovitina Oksana remained faithful to the Uzbek team. In the 2000s, medals at the World Championships rained down again - gold, silver, bronze. In her honor, the brand was even issued at home.
Difficult period
In 2002, the child of Oksana Alisher fell ill with leukemia. To treat a three-year-old child, huge amounts of money were required, which were not in the family of athletes. In order to collect the 120,000 euros needed for the course of treatment, they sold an apartment in Tashkent, personal cars. But that money was not enough. In desperation, the athlete seeks help in Germany.
The sports club, for which Oksana stands, helps her, a charity fund is being created. Immediately after a terrible diagnosis, Alisher undergoes the first course of treatment. Three years later, the course of the disease stops. In gratitude to the country that saved her son, Oksana Chusovitina begins to represent the German national team at international tournaments.
In 2006, she as part of the new team, already at a solid age for the gymnast, takes bronze at the World Championships. It should be a whole scattering of medals at the European Championships.
As if having found a second wind, she, 16 years after Barcelona, again won the medal at the Beijing Olympics.
Given the immeasurably increased level of competitors over a decade and a half, this
silver medal is akin to gold. Finishes his relationship with the German team Oksana at the Olympics in London.
Return under the colors of Uzbekistan
After 2012, the athlete decides to complete her breathtaking sports career at home. Wanting to return the debt of gratitude to her native country, she plans to spend another season playing for the team of Uzbekistan. But the farewell dragged on for as long as 4 years.
Along the way, Oksana Chusovitina wins silver at the Asian Games, wins the stages of the World Cup. The Olympics in Rio becomes the seventh in a career. Never before has this happened in high achievement sport. Although Oksana did not win awards, but getting into the top ten at the age of 41 is already a fantastic achievement.
And this is in the form of a sport where 25-year-old young girls retire.
Now Oksana is a coach in the national gymnastics team. Son Alisher successfully coped with the disease, playing football for the youth team. Who knows, maybe Oksana Chusovitina will perform again at the next Olympics.