AIR Staff

Rio 2016: This 41 Year Old Female Gymnast Makes Olympic History At 7th Games

RIO-2016: Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina will be making history at the Rio Olympics – she is the oldest Olympic female gymnast in history and one of only a few women to return to the international competition after becoming a mother.

Chusovitina earned a place in her (gymnastics record) seventh Olympics at a last-chance qualifying event at the Rio Olympic venue. She previously competed internationally for the Soviet Union, Unified Team, Uzbekistan and Germany before switching back to Uzbekistan.

She earned team gold for the Unified Team at her first Olympics at Barcelona 1992 and vault silver as a German at Beijing 2008.

Chusovitina is still talented enough to make the eight-woman vault final in Rio. She was fifth in the event at the 2012 Olympics and 2013 World Championships.

She owns 2 individual gold medals and 11 Worlds championship medals, with the last podium finish in 2011. She had said she’d retire after the London Games.

“Am I old? I don’t feel old,” she told the New York Times in 2012, adding, “Gymnastics keeps me young.”

Watch her in action in the video below:

Rio 2016: This 41 Year Old Female Gymnast Makes Olympic History At 7th Games

Rate This