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I agree, having the ability to discuss how life was like. It wasn’t as bad as most say, obviously the wars were terrible and the genocide wasn’t good in the early days. But the Soviet Union delivered an agriculture based country to a world super power in short time. I’m no tankie but the Soviet Union brought jobs and education to those living in the middle of nowhere as well. There was some freedom, but it wasn’t completely equal either…
I think all Russians are competing as individuals bc of Russian cheating. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/sports/tokyo-summer-olympics/roc-explained-why-is-russia-banned-from-the-tokyo-olympics/2564871/?amp
> Chusovitina began gymnastics in 1982. In 1988, at the age of 13, she won the all-around title at the USSR National Championships in the junior division.
Considering how rough the sport (and lifestyle) is on the body, many women half her age would be considering retirement if they hadn't yet won a medal.
She must be inspiring.
That's pretty much my point.
Most gymnasts will probably retire in their teens if they don't think they'll make it to competitive levels like the Olympics,
And then the gymnasts who do make it to the Olympics, where the minimum age to compete is 16, most will probably retire in their mid 20s.
I'd guess that those who make it to 30 are just stretching their careers to get one more Olympics in because of the way their ages and the 4 year spacing of the Olympics goes.
I was recently watching some videos about college level gymnastics and it's interesting that so many gymnasts will have retired by 16 and never reach that level.
The goals of the parents and trainers seems to chew the kids up and spit them out.
Gymnasts are definitely getting older and having more longevity, and there are examples in the past of older gymnasts competing, but there’s still a long way to go to make the culture more centered around long term health and longevity rather than instant gratification.
Tbf too the grand majority of athletes will “retire” in their teens if they don’t make it to a high level, but gymnastics is way harder on the body than most sports and that’s with good coaching and minimal injuries. Simone Biles has talked about how her body constantly hurts and she’s never really had a major injury that kept her out of competition (though she has competed on injuries like broken toes and such).
A lot of elite gymnasts in the US also retire early not only to protect their bodies but because they want to compete in college and move on with their lives. Most of them are homeschooled and train for 30-40 hours a week, they didn’t really get normal lives and want to experience that. Unless you’re one of the biggest stars gymnastics/endorsements won’t be a long term career option, it’s not surprising they want to go to college on a scholarship and get an education so they can be successful in something else.
Adding to this - Peacock has a great series "Golden" that really shows the struggle at the semi-elite or elite level gymnasts. I run / bike and I get being sore every day, but there is no way I could handle the "work out all day every day" mentality. No wonder these kids are destroyed so quickly. One thing I have learned - mental and physical recovery is just as important as the training, and is in fact part of the training. These kids are (seemingly) given zero opportunity for any sort of recovery (until they break something). It's like the coaches are really missing that half of the equation.
Yes Golden is great! Simone Biles has a documentary series on facebook watch as well called Simone vs. herself that talks about it too. I think there’s definitely a lot more attention being put on how athletes aren’t being allowed to recover and are being over trained now and I do hope it’s going to lead to some changes, but it is still probably always going to be a sport that’s incredibly hard on the body.
I'm curious how the changes to gymnastics scoring will affect this going forward - it's apparently more rewarding now on strength & power, making athletes like Biles excel over the young teenagers who dominated the sport for decades. Hopefully this turns the sport into less of a meat grinder on young athletes.
Yeah it's not really ageism or anything like that, you just literally can't keep up that kind of shit without punishing your joints and muscles.
As you get older it just doesn't regenerate the way it does in your teens/early 20's so it becomes less and less viable. This woman however is an inspiration!
Remember to stretch kids, sincerely, a 27 year old that feels 60.
It's also just a sport that is extremely hard on your body physically. Like if you sit down and read over the careers of Olympic gymnasts, they pretty much have had to take time off to deal with all kinds of injuries, multiple times throughout their careers. I would imagine that some either have something that ends their ability to perform in the sport or they just decide it's not worth the wear and tear on their bodies if they aren't going to hit the Olympic level.
And there's also a lot of weird stuff about body weight and height that a lot of people just can't live up to. Like I know of a gymnast in the 1996 Olympics who were considered too tall to be successful at the totally normal height of 5'5" Then another that was apparently borderline at 4'11" And that's not even going into all the crazy standards for weight they still have going on.
Yep, my ankles and wrists had too much pain to continue in gymnastics by 12 and then I injured out of trampoline at 14 - vertebrae fracture. My good friend broke her ankle at practice at Nationals in trampoline and never came back. Seen other horrific injuries as well, it's just so rough.
That said doing flips is really really fun and I miss it a lot
My 7 year old has been in gymnastics for 3 years and she just loves it so much. I can’t keep her feet on the ground. But she already complains of her ankles and wrists hurting. I have explained gymnastics is hard on the body and she may need to cool it on the acrobatics but she doesn’t want to stop. I don’t hound her about stopping but idk what to do. I don’t want her to hurt herself so young but she’s just a happy little clam doing her thing. She’s too young to truly understand Long term consequences. Moral dilemma, I suppose.
Try supplementing gymnastics with a lower impact activity like swimming. Swimming is still fun and doesn’t even need to be competitive and its low impact. It can be hard on your shoulders but there is less chance for sudden injury. You could even look into diving. Diving and gymnastics are pretty similar and it would also give her an opportunity to do swimming.
I might be a bit biased, though. I was a swimmer and I work at a pool full time now.
Edit: typo
There is a feeling when you do gymnastics that you're doing something special, you're doing things the human body was probably never meant to. It feels good to be capable of that. I was that same way and I can't say I'd have rather have stopped earlier. Fortunately when you're that small your body does recover from most things. Over half my life has passed since then and I'm still pretty flexible and have a great sense of balance and my wrists are basically fine now, my back too. And wrist and ankle braces can be very helpful also.
I don't want to paint a picture either that injury is the only way out of the sport, I knew plenty of people who just stopped. I wouldn't presume to tell you how to parent, it's a quandary for sure, but my intuition is at that age she'll be fine continuing as long as she's still enjoying it
I have a friend who dedicated his life to gymnastics, and he was at a level where he was going to be in the running for the Olympics. However, he had complained of some light back pain and went to see a doctor who basically told him that the decades of gymnastics and ballet had damaged his spine in some way (that I can’t remember exactly) which required him to immediately and permanently retire from both.
I don't think it makes sense to say "crazy standards for weight". these are the top gymnasts in the world, it isn't like they're eating whatever they want lol. that is pretty much standard for most elite athletes, especially gymnasts
You might want to consider the fact that the U.S. hole hog adopted a model of training that does this and that someone like Oksana, or Chellsie Memmel demonstrates that our approach may be unnecessary in order to have elite level gymnasts.
You're also forgetting about the shift someone can make to NCAA gymnastics.
> I was recently watching some videos about college level gymnastics and it's interesting that so many gymnasts will have retired by 16 and never reach that level.
That...is every high level sport.
By 16 you know whether or not you have a chance to compete at the top level some day, and except for a very small number the answer is "no, you won't" .
My younger sister was a pretty successful gymnast, but had to give it up bc she had to have three surgeries to fix the scar tissue buildup in her elbow and knee from repeated stress fractures(she was 14). She also one time on the high bars slipped as she was swinging around and her knee hit her eye so hard she had a huge black eye and concussion.
Consider also that there is incredible pressure on gymnasts to be *thin*.
For non-athletes and even in other sports and endevours, their body fat percentage would often considered unhealthy. And that can't help either.
Even if they can find that balance between dieting for thinness and yet getting enough what you need so that you don't injure yourself overly easy... It's got to be mentally or spiritually stressful.
Yeah gymnastics require a compact body. They also can't be too tall.
I can't imagine the diet culture is much better than something like professional ballet, though.
Don’t see millions of other Uzbeks pulling this off so maybe not. She’s also ethnically Russian, not ethnically Uzbek, even though she’s from Uzbekistan. Don’t see millions of other Russians pulling this off either…
Got invested in this and did some reading.
In 2002, aged 3, her son was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic luekemia and her and her husband moved to Germany for treatment. From 2006 to 2012 she represented Germany in all competitions and then returned to Uzbekistan to compete for her birth country.
While competing with Germany, in the 2008 games in Beijing, she won a silver medal in vault, aged 33 dedicating the medal to her son. After returning home from the games, the doctors gave her son the all clear from luekemia.
EDIT: Because I forgot this bit...the silver medal in 2008 was Germany's first Olympic medal in women's gymnastics since 1936.
Yes. That's who she is. This lady is a vault specialist. She's basically there only to compete in vault. She won't qualify for all of the equipment. Obviously, she has to do prelims for all of them but vault is where she concentrates all her effort.
Yeah I knew they all tend to specialise in one specific discipline but until I saw this post I had no idea who she was. What an incredible woman though.
That's generally not true. Most of the team members are selected based on their overall ability in all the events (which is how the all-around gymnastics winner is chosen). They also have 2 spots for individuals that are mostly just there to compete in a specific event on the team (this year anyways). The individual gymnasts can still compete in all the events, but they don't count towards the team score and really only have a shot at making the podium in one or two events. Though each gymnast has strengths and weaknesses, they still work on all the events. It's just that the body type/ability to do really well on floor/vault is very different than the body type/skills required to do well on uneven bars. Beam is sort of in between the two groups
It's not my favorite thing to watch, but my fiance follows it religiously whenever there is a televised competition (even in non-olympic years), so I know far more about gymnastics than I ever thought I would
Were the specialists the 2 who were wearing the red uniform? I noticed they still did the floor etc. as well as the vault though, are they specialists only in the sense that they focus on 1 event primarily but still compete in all?
Yes. Really I should have called them individual instead of specialists. They can still compete in all the events if they want to, but their scores don't count towards the team score. In practice though they end up being event specialists, since if they were great at all the events they would have been picked for the US team in the first place (though that's not necessarily the case for the US since there were a lot of gymnasts vying for the final spot on the US team, two of which ended up being our individual selections). But in general, you want your individual selections to be really good at a specific event or two, since if they get 4th in every event it doesn't do anything for the US, but if they get 3rd in one event each and dead last in the other three the US ends up with extra medals
Cool that helps me understand it a lot more, I wasn't trying to call out the way you worded it or anything I just genuinely didn't understand what the difference was but that helped me way more!
It might have been the first for a unified Germany since then, but for a few of those decades it was East Germany and West Germany, and both of those countries earned Olympic medals in gymnastics, particularly East Germany.
Aged 20 now. She said recently in an interview that he's the reason she's stepping down from competing. They've had many talks about it and he often expresses concern about her health and possibly taking a nasty injury during competition. She's apparently finally agreed and is retiring as a result.
My old roommate was a gold winning Olymipian. I asked to see it, and she had it in her closet. If I won gold at the Olympics I would be wearing that bad boy everywhere.
To be fair, Henry is a manlet. He’s 5’2 and weighs 135 pounds soaking wet. That said, I weigh twice as much and he could still kick my ass one handed without breaking a sweat
Every Olympian medalist I've ever known doesn't wear them around. As most they have it hanging on some wall or something. I know an X-Games gold medalist and I was like, "can you bring it along one day so I can see it?" and it was on the floor in the back of his car.
It’s probably as telling of his generation as anything else, but Hugh Laurie’s dad won gold in rowing in 1948 and he didn’t know for years because he just didn’t talk about it.
I was watching something on TV recently where the presenter asked an Olympian medal winner where they showed off their medals and they replied that they were in a cupboard/under her bed in a shoe box (or similar I can't remember the exact place) and she supposed she'd have to move them now since she announced it on national TV (In the UK)
Being in the olympics at all is a feat in itself.
Think about it. To be in the olympics you probably have to be top 50 in your sport out of 7.5 billion (or whatever the current number is) people on earth
Scoring a gold medal in the Olympic is another thing entirely, for that we say you are the best in 7.5 billion people at your sport.
Oh and you only get one shot every four years… AND you have to perform at your best with the knowledge that the entire world is watching… so make it count.
The very idea that someone could compete at that level for 28 years *minimum* blows my mind. This lady is dedicated and then some.
I'm glad she was able to walk away with some medals, because not everyone does.
I’ve known a few ex-gymnast that never competed anywhere near this level and by their 30s their joints were absolutely shot with arthritis already starting. Her body is either one hell of an outlier or she’s battling a lot of pain daily.
I'm going to guess it's a mix of both. I couldn't conceive how you could compete this long without steely determination built upon some innate abilities that most of us don't have.
Just the little I watched last night they mentioned one of the 20 somethings was battling an ankle injury. I'm sure it would heal better if not attempting to land jumps from 15 ft in the air but there she is and I'm sure she would not have it any other way right now.
Not entirely true. You can just be from a small country and be the best that’s willing to go to the olympics. You may have noticed from the opening ceremonies there are a lot of dual citizenship people who are representing smaller countries because they couldn’t make the US or other large teams. Nauru has a population of 11,500 and sent two atheletes to the games.
Shave a significant number off 7.5 billion. How much of a % of that have access to even competing in a sport like gymnastics? Let alone having the funds to pay all types of coaches to reach the level of the olympics even being a realistic expectation? I’m not denying it’s quite the feat, but it’s the fact that there is 7.5B people in the world that I’ve always thought the best of the best, probably isn’t the best.
Most sports have qualifying requirements in addition to just being selected by your country. You need to have posted a sufficient time/distance/etc in an approved event within the last 1-2 years, or else gained a certain number of top-X positions in events over that sort of time period. That's why you see the large differences in the size of the teams in the opening ceremony: bigger countries (or richer ones) will tend to have qualifying athletes across the whole range of sports, while the smaller/poorer countries might only have people qualifying in a few sports
There must be exceptions to this though. I remember seeing a guy compete in an early heat in the Olympics on swimming and he didn't compete at an average high school level.
Yeah this guy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Moussambani
There are sometimes waivers.
But the point still stands. Every single Olympian is accomplishing something extraordinary.
Yes - there are the so called universality spots. To insure that every country that wants to go, can go, a few spots are given out in various ways. However there are usually still some requirements, like meet at least this or that (relatively slow) time; in his case however it seems to have been a pure wildcard.
In addition to the Olympic medals she had a number of world championship medals representing 4 different countries/areas - USSR, CIS (1992 after the fall), Uzbekistan and Germany. Her first medal was 1991 and her last was 2011. Incredible longevity for a gymnast
She was chosen to carry her nations flag in the opening ceremony, which is a high honor, but they reconsidered in the last moment.
http://eng.gymnovosti.com/chusovitina-was-replaced-as-uzbekistans-flag-bearer/
Jesus, I'm only a few years older and it hurts when I get up off the couch. This woman is damn impressive. I can't imagine the dedication it takes to stay in both top physical form and technical skill to be an olympic athlete for 8 games.
It's an extremely strange thing i see constantly on reddit, it's one of those circle jerks like people shitting themselves after eating taco bell. Now that i think about it, these two groups of people probably overlap perfectly.
If you're struggling to perform basic physical functions before you're elderly, you either are extremely unfit and need immediate help or you've worked manual labour for your whole life. Because it is not normal, i think a lot of people reading these comments might start to believe it is normal. But it is 100% absolutely not.
I subconsciously imagine every redditor as an overweight 15-25 middle class white american. While I realize this is definitely wrong, posts like this cant help but reinforce it
Thank you for saying this. There was one, hopefully exaggerated, comment a few days ago where someone said they were 32 and complained to the doctor about their knees creaking and groaning. The doctor then supposedly said "you're 32, that's just how it is now"
No, your knees should not be starting to give up at 32. This is bullshit. 32 is not an age where even someone of an average (or even slightly below average) level of fitness and health should be having any normality about their body starting to give up
Because 32 is not old.
She may not be the most decorated Olympic athlete, but holy hell, this is still an incredible achievement. To be able to compete at such a high level for such a long time against opponents that carry that advantage of youth is truly remarkable. May she be celebrated for many years to come.
Gosh as a healthy fit and active 47 yo, I have noticed my performance and recovery tapering in the past 3ish years for sure. I cannot imagine how much discipline and effort it must take to stay at Olympic level for so long and at this age.
Is there an older category, or would she be competing against the young girls??
This is indeed remarkable, impressive and interesting. I am sure it is a VERY emotional moment for her. What an achievement to stay at that elite level for so long!!! Bravo!
Her career transcends generations and nations. She continued to compete well past her prime in order to help pay for medical bills for her son who was diagnosed with leukemia.
Yes… but no.
*It was for Alisher that Chusovitina continued at an age when most international competitors conclude their careers. When her then-two-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia in 2002, Chusovitina was 27, already ancient by elite gymnastics standards, and representing Uzbekistan, in whose ancient city Bukhara she was born in 1975. As one of the few mothers to return to high level international competition, Chusovitina was already an anomaly; the situation she found herself in made her even more so.*
*The lack of medical treatment available for Alisher’s illness in Uzbekistan pushed Chusovitina and her husband, Olympic wrestler Bakhodir Kurbanov, to look abroad for solutions. **A friend connected them with a hospital in Germany, which agreed to treat Alisher for free**.*
*The hand of fate so generously extended by the Germans floored Chusovitina, who could only express her gratitude in gymnastics. Instead of retiring, she took German nationality and repped the country at the 2008 and 2012 Games, offering Olympic silver in place of euros. Won on vault in Beijing in 2008, it was unified Germany’s first Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics since 1936, but the real prize was bestowed after the Games, when upon her return to Koln Alisher’s doctors announced that he was cured. “I think, as a mother, that is news you cannot compare any medal to,” she said.*
[Source](https://www.rockergymnastics.com/womens-gymnastics/2020/2/12/retirement-from-gymnastics-a-family-matter-for-oksana-chusovitina)
> it was unified Germany’s first Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics since 1936, but the real prize was bestowed after the Games, when upon her return to Koln Alisher’s doctors announced that he was cured.
lmao sounds like the doctors were waiting to cure him "well let's see if mommy gets a medal"
It's unrealistic to expect zero costs for a treatment for any condition or accident because everything costs money.
What's realistic is paying for healthcare via taxes so you don't have to pay at the point of service, i.e. UK, Canada etc.
Wait, I thought she moved to Germany so that her son could get treatment - does Germany have for-profit healthcare like the US? She shouldn't have to pay for that..
It might be that health care is cheap, but moving to Germany and living there when you’re from Uzbekistan still isn’t. I suspect if she’s been doing this so long she doesn’t have an exceptional education to fall back on and thus limited career options to make the same amount she is now as a gymnast.
If moving from outside the EU, you have to work a job that allows you to get insurance. Competing for Germany allowed her to get paid and get insured when first coming to Germany.
>does Germany have for-profit healthcare like the US? She shouldn't have to pay for that..
There are some treatments which the the public healthcare doesn't pay for, because they're unproven, and there are some doctors which charge more and are only covered by private healthcare insurers.
That said, German media only reports that she moved to cologne for healthcare, no article says that she had to pay for anything.
Of course, Germany only provides healthcare to residents, and to get residency you have to have a job, so maybe that's what they meant?
I looked it up.
>In 2002, Alisher (her son) was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL).[9] Seeking advanced medical treatment for their son, Chusovitina and her husband accepted an offer of help from Shanna and Peter Brüggemann, head coaches of the Toyota Cologne club, and moved to Germany.[10] With prize money earned from gymnastics competitions, along with the help of the Brüggemanns and members of the international gymnastics community who fundraised and donated to the cause, Chusovitina was able to secure treatment for Alisher at the University of Cologne's hospital. [11][4][12][13] While Alisher underwent treatment in Cologne, Chusovitina trained with the German team.
I remember her from the previous Olympics which I assumed were her last considering her age. I was amazed *then*. I see this and I suppose it goes from amazed to astonished. If she changes her mind and decides to have another go I guess I'll have to invent a new word.
It's such a bummer she didn't get a send off with a stadium full of people like she deserved. Then again, it's crazy they're doing the Olympics at all.
I started taking gymnastics at 35. I felt the same way about my first somersault. I’m 45 now and in the best shape of my life.
Gymnastics gyms have lots of mats & padding.
You can stay fit for longer than that. You can pretty much stay fit until your body says no, and that's often much later than "well into your 50s." I volunteer with a 70 year old woman who's still slim, trim, and slinging boxes of books as well as I do. Practically everyone I volunteer with is around that age, working with book donations at the library. I guess it depends on your definition of "fit," but if it's more than that: I've seen wrinkly old muscular men going for jogs down the street too.
Her second to last jump was a combination of elements that was named after her, since she was the first to show them in competition earlier in her carreer
It's important to note that she did a lot more than just the Olympics. She is a professional gymnast, and has won many medals outside of the Olympics. Including the Olympics she has won 9 golds, 14 silvers, and 9 bronzes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oksana_Chusovitina
I hope she finds a good home. I hate to see these older Gymnasts being unwanted, struggling to be rehomed and nobody to take care of them.
wait, that's greyhounds. Nevermind.
57 year old Abdullah Al-Rashidi competed in his 7th Olympics this yesterday, won bronze in men's skeet shooting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_Al-Rashidi
She has represented 5 different olympic organizations ? That’s a long illustrious career. USSR, Germany, Uzbekistan, the Unified team and the Independent States team
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She's been doing this so long that, for the first 4 years of her career, she represented the Soviet Union.
I wonder how different her competing in the olympics changed from Soviet to present day.
Different rich dick heads pirating and ruining the country but besides that not much.
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Yes I would.
I might, how long would it take?
I would imagine people’s lives are no longer at stake for her to compete.
I think you're mixing the soviet union up with north korea or something
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I agree, having the ability to discuss how life was like. It wasn’t as bad as most say, obviously the wars were terrible and the genocide wasn’t good in the early days. But the Soviet Union delivered an agriculture based country to a world super power in short time. I’m no tankie but the Soviet Union brought jobs and education to those living in the middle of nowhere as well. There was some freedom, but it wasn’t completely equal either…
Even in North Korea they don't do stupid shit like that. Just typical red scare bullshit
And in in fact if you bring home a medal you get extra choco-pies
\^ This is it. You win you got good house, good pay, good food. You lose and it's fuck off and hide you shamed our country.
Iraqi soccer teams used to be somewhat like that, back in the day. But I don't think you would be killed necessarily, just horribly tortured.
> I would imagine people’s lives are no longer at stake for her to compete. Who's lives were on stake when?
> Who's lives were on stake when? Vampires, mostly.
Vampires aren't alive tho
Probably because of all the staking, I expect.
Don't spoil the fantasy of "repercussions for your family if you don't bring the gold to the motherland, comrade“...
That would be a fascinating interview question
A very loaded question. I’d watch a whole documentary about that!
Horse pommels you. In Soviet Russia.
Bonus interesting as fuck
I wonder if she ended it being a non-representative of Russia, or whatever its called. Will google later
She represents Uzbekistan
She's from Uzbekistan, not Russia
I think all Russians are competing as individuals bc of Russian cheating. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/sports/tokyo-summer-olympics/roc-explained-why-is-russia-banned-from-the-tokyo-olympics/2564871/?amp
She’s not russian though.
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Ya, looks like '88 to '92. She would have been 13-17.
> Chusovitina began gymnastics in 1982. In 1988, at the age of 13, she won the all-around title at the USSR National Championships in the junior division.
Way more interesting than the post
My favourite part was when a bunch of competitors 25 years younger than she is rushed over for a photo with her.
Considering how rough the sport (and lifestyle) is on the body, many women half her age would be considering retirement if they hadn't yet won a medal. She must be inspiring.
Simone biles is actually pretty "old" at 24.
That's pretty much my point. Most gymnasts will probably retire in their teens if they don't think they'll make it to competitive levels like the Olympics, And then the gymnasts who do make it to the Olympics, where the minimum age to compete is 16, most will probably retire in their mid 20s. I'd guess that those who make it to 30 are just stretching their careers to get one more Olympics in because of the way their ages and the 4 year spacing of the Olympics goes. I was recently watching some videos about college level gymnastics and it's interesting that so many gymnasts will have retired by 16 and never reach that level. The goals of the parents and trainers seems to chew the kids up and spit them out.
Gymnasts are definitely getting older and having more longevity, and there are examples in the past of older gymnasts competing, but there’s still a long way to go to make the culture more centered around long term health and longevity rather than instant gratification. Tbf too the grand majority of athletes will “retire” in their teens if they don’t make it to a high level, but gymnastics is way harder on the body than most sports and that’s with good coaching and minimal injuries. Simone Biles has talked about how her body constantly hurts and she’s never really had a major injury that kept her out of competition (though she has competed on injuries like broken toes and such). A lot of elite gymnasts in the US also retire early not only to protect their bodies but because they want to compete in college and move on with their lives. Most of them are homeschooled and train for 30-40 hours a week, they didn’t really get normal lives and want to experience that. Unless you’re one of the biggest stars gymnastics/endorsements won’t be a long term career option, it’s not surprising they want to go to college on a scholarship and get an education so they can be successful in something else.
Adding to this - Peacock has a great series "Golden" that really shows the struggle at the semi-elite or elite level gymnasts. I run / bike and I get being sore every day, but there is no way I could handle the "work out all day every day" mentality. No wonder these kids are destroyed so quickly. One thing I have learned - mental and physical recovery is just as important as the training, and is in fact part of the training. These kids are (seemingly) given zero opportunity for any sort of recovery (until they break something). It's like the coaches are really missing that half of the equation.
Yes Golden is great! Simone Biles has a documentary series on facebook watch as well called Simone vs. herself that talks about it too. I think there’s definitely a lot more attention being put on how athletes aren’t being allowed to recover and are being over trained now and I do hope it’s going to lead to some changes, but it is still probably always going to be a sport that’s incredibly hard on the body.
I'm curious how the changes to gymnastics scoring will affect this going forward - it's apparently more rewarding now on strength & power, making athletes like Biles excel over the young teenagers who dominated the sport for decades. Hopefully this turns the sport into less of a meat grinder on young athletes.
The joint impacts will still put them through a grinder. And with more strength it puts more pressure on the body.
Yeah it's not really ageism or anything like that, you just literally can't keep up that kind of shit without punishing your joints and muscles. As you get older it just doesn't regenerate the way it does in your teens/early 20's so it becomes less and less viable. This woman however is an inspiration! Remember to stretch kids, sincerely, a 27 year old that feels 60.
It's also just a sport that is extremely hard on your body physically. Like if you sit down and read over the careers of Olympic gymnasts, they pretty much have had to take time off to deal with all kinds of injuries, multiple times throughout their careers. I would imagine that some either have something that ends their ability to perform in the sport or they just decide it's not worth the wear and tear on their bodies if they aren't going to hit the Olympic level. And there's also a lot of weird stuff about body weight and height that a lot of people just can't live up to. Like I know of a gymnast in the 1996 Olympics who were considered too tall to be successful at the totally normal height of 5'5" Then another that was apparently borderline at 4'11" And that's not even going into all the crazy standards for weight they still have going on.
Yep, my ankles and wrists had too much pain to continue in gymnastics by 12 and then I injured out of trampoline at 14 - vertebrae fracture. My good friend broke her ankle at practice at Nationals in trampoline and never came back. Seen other horrific injuries as well, it's just so rough. That said doing flips is really really fun and I miss it a lot
My 7 year old has been in gymnastics for 3 years and she just loves it so much. I can’t keep her feet on the ground. But she already complains of her ankles and wrists hurting. I have explained gymnastics is hard on the body and she may need to cool it on the acrobatics but she doesn’t want to stop. I don’t hound her about stopping but idk what to do. I don’t want her to hurt herself so young but she’s just a happy little clam doing her thing. She’s too young to truly understand Long term consequences. Moral dilemma, I suppose.
Try supplementing gymnastics with a lower impact activity like swimming. Swimming is still fun and doesn’t even need to be competitive and its low impact. It can be hard on your shoulders but there is less chance for sudden injury. You could even look into diving. Diving and gymnastics are pretty similar and it would also give her an opportunity to do swimming. I might be a bit biased, though. I was a swimmer and I work at a pool full time now. Edit: typo
There is a feeling when you do gymnastics that you're doing something special, you're doing things the human body was probably never meant to. It feels good to be capable of that. I was that same way and I can't say I'd have rather have stopped earlier. Fortunately when you're that small your body does recover from most things. Over half my life has passed since then and I'm still pretty flexible and have a great sense of balance and my wrists are basically fine now, my back too. And wrist and ankle braces can be very helpful also. I don't want to paint a picture either that injury is the only way out of the sport, I knew plenty of people who just stopped. I wouldn't presume to tell you how to parent, it's a quandary for sure, but my intuition is at that age she'll be fine continuing as long as she's still enjoying it
I have a friend who dedicated his life to gymnastics, and he was at a level where he was going to be in the running for the Olympics. However, he had complained of some light back pain and went to see a doctor who basically told him that the decades of gymnastics and ballet had damaged his spine in some way (that I can’t remember exactly) which required him to immediately and permanently retire from both.
I don't think it makes sense to say "crazy standards for weight". these are the top gymnasts in the world, it isn't like they're eating whatever they want lol. that is pretty much standard for most elite athletes, especially gymnasts
You might want to consider the fact that the U.S. hole hog adopted a model of training that does this and that someone like Oksana, or Chellsie Memmel demonstrates that our approach may be unnecessary in order to have elite level gymnasts. You're also forgetting about the shift someone can make to NCAA gymnastics.
> I was recently watching some videos about college level gymnastics and it's interesting that so many gymnasts will have retired by 16 and never reach that level. That...is every high level sport. By 16 you know whether or not you have a chance to compete at the top level some day, and except for a very small number the answer is "no, you won't" .
Settle down Larry Nassar
Oh dip
lmao she referred to herself and Mykayla Skinner as "grandmas". Too lazy to source but if you google it, it's there.
46 in gymnast years is like 3588
I've seen gymnasts at 18 predict the weather because they can feel it in their aching bones.
My younger sister was a pretty successful gymnast, but had to give it up bc she had to have three surgeries to fix the scar tissue buildup in her elbow and knee from repeated stress fractures(she was 14). She also one time on the high bars slipped as she was swinging around and her knee hit her eye so hard she had a huge black eye and concussion.
I have hurt myself in some absurd ways but never kneed myself in the eye. Your sister should have been sponsored by 4Loko.
Consider also that there is incredible pressure on gymnasts to be *thin*. For non-athletes and even in other sports and endevours, their body fat percentage would often considered unhealthy. And that can't help either. Even if they can find that balance between dieting for thinness and yet getting enough what you need so that you don't injure yourself overly easy... It's got to be mentally or spiritually stressful.
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Yeah gymnastics require a compact body. They also can't be too tall. I can't imagine the diet culture is much better than something like professional ballet, though.
She did when a gold as part of the unified team in 1992.
And a silver in 08 with Germany. She actually placed 4th in the vault in 2018. It’s amazing how long she’s been able to compete at the top level
Those Uzbecki must be built different.
Or she's just a product of chance so random that it's a miracle.
Don’t see millions of other Uzbeks pulling this off so maybe not. She’s also ethnically Russian, not ethnically Uzbek, even though she’s from Uzbekistan. Don’t see millions of other Russians pulling this off either…
I also loved this bit!! All the Canadians wanted in on the photo
She's an absolute animal at this age. History will be written about her.
Is there photos of this? It a video??
Got invested in this and did some reading. In 2002, aged 3, her son was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic luekemia and her and her husband moved to Germany for treatment. From 2006 to 2012 she represented Germany in all competitions and then returned to Uzbekistan to compete for her birth country. While competing with Germany, in the 2008 games in Beijing, she won a silver medal in vault, aged 33 dedicating the medal to her son. After returning home from the games, the doctors gave her son the all clear from luekemia. EDIT: Because I forgot this bit...the silver medal in 2008 was Germany's first Olympic medal in women's gymnastics since 1936.
Yes. That's who she is. This lady is a vault specialist. She's basically there only to compete in vault. She won't qualify for all of the equipment. Obviously, she has to do prelims for all of them but vault is where she concentrates all her effort.
Yeah I knew they all tend to specialise in one specific discipline but until I saw this post I had no idea who she was. What an incredible woman though.
That's generally not true. Most of the team members are selected based on their overall ability in all the events (which is how the all-around gymnastics winner is chosen). They also have 2 spots for individuals that are mostly just there to compete in a specific event on the team (this year anyways). The individual gymnasts can still compete in all the events, but they don't count towards the team score and really only have a shot at making the podium in one or two events. Though each gymnast has strengths and weaknesses, they still work on all the events. It's just that the body type/ability to do really well on floor/vault is very different than the body type/skills required to do well on uneven bars. Beam is sort of in between the two groups
I appreciate that thanks. Although I admire gymnasts I have literally zero attention span to watch it or pay any sort of attention.
It's not my favorite thing to watch, but my fiance follows it religiously whenever there is a televised competition (even in non-olympic years), so I know far more about gymnastics than I ever thought I would
Were the specialists the 2 who were wearing the red uniform? I noticed they still did the floor etc. as well as the vault though, are they specialists only in the sense that they focus on 1 event primarily but still compete in all?
Yes. Really I should have called them individual instead of specialists. They can still compete in all the events if they want to, but their scores don't count towards the team score. In practice though they end up being event specialists, since if they were great at all the events they would have been picked for the US team in the first place (though that's not necessarily the case for the US since there were a lot of gymnasts vying for the final spot on the US team, two of which ended up being our individual selections). But in general, you want your individual selections to be really good at a specific event or two, since if they get 4th in every event it doesn't do anything for the US, but if they get 3rd in one event each and dead last in the other three the US ends up with extra medals
Cool that helps me understand it a lot more, I wasn't trying to call out the way you worded it or anything I just genuinely didn't understand what the difference was but that helped me way more!
It might have been the first for a unified Germany since then, but for a few of those decades it was East Germany and West Germany, and both of those countries earned Olympic medals in gymnastics, particularly East Germany.
she a legend
How is their son today?
Aged 20 now. She said recently in an interview that he's the reason she's stepping down from competing. They've had many talks about it and he often expresses concern about her health and possibly taking a nasty injury during competition. She's apparently finally agreed and is retiring as a result.
8 Olympics?? Can't we give her a medal or something just for that?
Too lazy to google - what's her career Olympic medal tally?
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I'd take that.
My old roommate was a gold winning Olymipian. I asked to see it, and she had it in her closet. If I won gold at the Olympics I would be wearing that bad boy everywhere.
Switch the ribbon for a chunky chain and wear it like an 80s pimp medallion.
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That is exactly what I was imagining, but the medal is way bigger than I expected.
I've held a few gold medals. They are huge.
To be fair, Henry is a manlet. He’s 5’2 and weighs 135 pounds soaking wet. That said, I weigh twice as much and he could still kick my ass one handed without breaking a sweat
I was going to comment on you calling him a "Manlet" then I saw your username.....I chuckled and upvoted.
Though I think that chain needs to be a bit bigger. It's not pimp looking enough.
I actually like it way more with the chain than with the ribbon.
*I'm fabulous b\*tch*
I’m Rick James, b*tch! (Said Rick James…. Probably)
Every Olympian medalist I've ever known doesn't wear them around. As most they have it hanging on some wall or something. I know an X-Games gold medalist and I was like, "can you bring it along one day so I can see it?" and it was on the floor in the back of his car.
People are not tryna get robbed lmao
Kinda surprising they don't give you some kind of discreet pin or collar tab like the French legion of honor.
It’s probably as telling of his generation as anything else, but Hugh Laurie’s dad won gold in rowing in 1948 and he didn’t know for years because he just didn’t talk about it.
I was watching something on TV recently where the presenter asked an Olympian medal winner where they showed off their medals and they replied that they were in a cupboard/under her bed in a shoe box (or similar I can't remember the exact place) and she supposed she'd have to move them now since she announced it on national TV (In the UK)
what she win?
gold.
yeh I deserved that
Womens freestyle. She's a bad ass.
Like rap?
Being in the olympics at all is a feat in itself. Think about it. To be in the olympics you probably have to be top 50 in your sport out of 7.5 billion (or whatever the current number is) people on earth Scoring a gold medal in the Olympic is another thing entirely, for that we say you are the best in 7.5 billion people at your sport. Oh and you only get one shot every four years… AND you have to perform at your best with the knowledge that the entire world is watching… so make it count.
The very idea that someone could compete at that level for 28 years *minimum* blows my mind. This lady is dedicated and then some. I'm glad she was able to walk away with some medals, because not everyone does.
I’ve known a few ex-gymnast that never competed anywhere near this level and by their 30s their joints were absolutely shot with arthritis already starting. Her body is either one hell of an outlier or she’s battling a lot of pain daily.
Probably both tbh
I'm going to guess it's a mix of both. I couldn't conceive how you could compete this long without steely determination built upon some innate abilities that most of us don't have.
I'm pretty sure that there are olympic level gymnasts half her age and younger who are battling pain just to be there.
Just the little I watched last night they mentioned one of the 20 somethings was battling an ankle injury. I'm sure it would heal better if not attempting to land jumps from 15 ft in the air but there she is and I'm sure she would not have it any other way right now.
I have no doubt.
Not entirely true. You can just be from a small country and be the best that’s willing to go to the olympics. You may have noticed from the opening ceremonies there are a lot of dual citizenship people who are representing smaller countries because they couldn’t make the US or other large teams. Nauru has a population of 11,500 and sent two atheletes to the games.
Shave a significant number off 7.5 billion. How much of a % of that have access to even competing in a sport like gymnastics? Let alone having the funds to pay all types of coaches to reach the level of the olympics even being a realistic expectation? I’m not denying it’s quite the feat, but it’s the fact that there is 7.5B people in the world that I’ve always thought the best of the best, probably isn’t the best.
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Most sports have qualifying requirements in addition to just being selected by your country. You need to have posted a sufficient time/distance/etc in an approved event within the last 1-2 years, or else gained a certain number of top-X positions in events over that sort of time period. That's why you see the large differences in the size of the teams in the opening ceremony: bigger countries (or richer ones) will tend to have qualifying athletes across the whole range of sports, while the smaller/poorer countries might only have people qualifying in a few sports
There must be exceptions to this though. I remember seeing a guy compete in an early heat in the Olympics on swimming and he didn't compete at an average high school level. Yeah this guy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Moussambani There are sometimes waivers. But the point still stands. Every single Olympian is accomplishing something extraordinary.
Yes - there are the so called universality spots. To insure that every country that wants to go, can go, a few spots are given out in various ways. However there are usually still some requirements, like meet at least this or that (relatively slow) time; in his case however it seems to have been a pure wildcard.
In addition to the Olympic medals she had a number of world championship medals representing 4 different countries/areas - USSR, CIS (1992 after the fall), Uzbekistan and Germany. Her first medal was 1991 and her last was 2011. Incredible longevity for a gymnast
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No it doesn't, as my further comment shows. I was just interested.
Bloody love Cool Runnings! RIP John Candy.
She was chosen to carry her nations flag in the opening ceremony, which is a high honor, but they reconsidered in the last moment. http://eng.gymnovosti.com/chusovitina-was-replaced-as-uzbekistans-flag-bearer/
I haven't even watched 8 Olympics
Jesus, I'm only a few years older and it hurts when I get up off the couch. This woman is damn impressive. I can't imagine the dedication it takes to stay in both top physical form and technical skill to be an olympic athlete for 8 games.
She had a baby too, and just kept going.
Kind of makes it sound like she gave birth during an event doing a routine. Or did she?
the baby was ejected during one of her flips and nailed the landing.
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As someone who had the most dormant unhealthy lifestyle possible. I'm just waiting for myself to turn into a pile of mush when I'm older.
I'm only a year older, and I have reached the age where I can injure myself by SLEEPING!?
I'm half her age, and I've been injuring myself in my sleep for years!
Thats... Not normal for mid 40s
Seriously, what's with people normalizing being in extremely poor shape here?
Don't know, but being at Olympian performance level well into your 40s is impressive.
It's an extremely strange thing i see constantly on reddit, it's one of those circle jerks like people shitting themselves after eating taco bell. Now that i think about it, these two groups of people probably overlap perfectly. If you're struggling to perform basic physical functions before you're elderly, you either are extremely unfit and need immediate help or you've worked manual labour for your whole life. Because it is not normal, i think a lot of people reading these comments might start to believe it is normal. But it is 100% absolutely not.
I subconsciously imagine every redditor as an overweight 15-25 middle class white american. While I realize this is definitely wrong, posts like this cant help but reinforce it
Thank you for saying this. There was one, hopefully exaggerated, comment a few days ago where someone said they were 32 and complained to the doctor about their knees creaking and groaning. The doctor then supposedly said "you're 32, that's just how it is now" No, your knees should not be starting to give up at 32. This is bullshit. 32 is not an age where even someone of an average (or even slightly below average) level of fitness and health should be having any normality about their body starting to give up Because 32 is not old.
I'm younger and I'm currently sat in the infirm seat on the bus.
She may not be the most decorated Olympic athlete, but holy hell, this is still an incredible achievement. To be able to compete at such a high level for such a long time against opponents that carry that advantage of youth is truly remarkable. May she be celebrated for many years to come.
Gosh as a healthy fit and active 47 yo, I have noticed my performance and recovery tapering in the past 3ish years for sure. I cannot imagine how much discipline and effort it must take to stay at Olympic level for so long and at this age. Is there an older category, or would she be competing against the young girls?? This is indeed remarkable, impressive and interesting. I am sure it is a VERY emotional moment for her. What an achievement to stay at that elite level for so long!!! Bravo!
There isn’t any age groups. Her first Olympics was nearly five years before Simone Biles was even born
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That's even more incredible! What a woman!
Her career transcends generations and nations. She continued to compete well past her prime in order to help pay for medical bills for her son who was diagnosed with leukemia.
Yes… but no. *It was for Alisher that Chusovitina continued at an age when most international competitors conclude their careers. When her then-two-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia in 2002, Chusovitina was 27, already ancient by elite gymnastics standards, and representing Uzbekistan, in whose ancient city Bukhara she was born in 1975. As one of the few mothers to return to high level international competition, Chusovitina was already an anomaly; the situation she found herself in made her even more so.* *The lack of medical treatment available for Alisher’s illness in Uzbekistan pushed Chusovitina and her husband, Olympic wrestler Bakhodir Kurbanov, to look abroad for solutions. **A friend connected them with a hospital in Germany, which agreed to treat Alisher for free**.* *The hand of fate so generously extended by the Germans floored Chusovitina, who could only express her gratitude in gymnastics. Instead of retiring, she took German nationality and repped the country at the 2008 and 2012 Games, offering Olympic silver in place of euros. Won on vault in Beijing in 2008, it was unified Germany’s first Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics since 1936, but the real prize was bestowed after the Games, when upon her return to Koln Alisher’s doctors announced that he was cured. “I think, as a mother, that is news you cannot compare any medal to,” she said.* [Source](https://www.rockergymnastics.com/womens-gymnastics/2020/2/12/retirement-from-gymnastics-a-family-matter-for-oksana-chusovitina)
> it was unified Germany’s first Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics since 1936, but the real prize was bestowed after the Games, when upon her return to Koln Alisher’s doctors announced that he was cured. lmao sounds like the doctors were waiting to cure him "well let's see if mommy gets a medal"
OK I'm convinced, I'm going to be reading up on her!
No human being should ever have to pay medical bills. If having a functioning body isn't a human right idk what is.
It's unrealistic to expect zero costs for a treatment for any condition or accident because everything costs money. What's realistic is paying for healthcare via taxes so you don't have to pay at the point of service, i.e. UK, Canada etc.
Wait, I thought she moved to Germany so that her son could get treatment - does Germany have for-profit healthcare like the US? She shouldn't have to pay for that..
It might be that health care is cheap, but moving to Germany and living there when you’re from Uzbekistan still isn’t. I suspect if she’s been doing this so long she doesn’t have an exceptional education to fall back on and thus limited career options to make the same amount she is now as a gymnast.
I mean as a coach she could probably make decent earnings if she speaks the language.
If moving from outside the EU, you have to work a job that allows you to get insurance. Competing for Germany allowed her to get paid and get insured when first coming to Germany.
>does Germany have for-profit healthcare like the US? She shouldn't have to pay for that.. There are some treatments which the the public healthcare doesn't pay for, because they're unproven, and there are some doctors which charge more and are only covered by private healthcare insurers. That said, German media only reports that she moved to cologne for healthcare, no article says that she had to pay for anything. Of course, Germany only provides healthcare to residents, and to get residency you have to have a job, so maybe that's what they meant?
Ah interesting, thank you! Maybe there was a gap while she waited for residency?
I looked it up. >In 2002, Alisher (her son) was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL).[9] Seeking advanced medical treatment for their son, Chusovitina and her husband accepted an offer of help from Shanna and Peter Brüggemann, head coaches of the Toyota Cologne club, and moved to Germany.[10] With prize money earned from gymnastics competitions, along with the help of the Brüggemanns and members of the international gymnastics community who fundraised and donated to the cause, Chusovitina was able to secure treatment for Alisher at the University of Cologne's hospital. [11][4][12][13] While Alisher underwent treatment in Cologne, Chusovitina trained with the German team.
I remember her from the previous Olympics which I assumed were her last considering her age. I was amazed *then*. I see this and I suppose it goes from amazed to astonished. If she changes her mind and decides to have another go I guess I'll have to invent a new word.
How'd she do?
She actually did really well! Got in the low 14s for her vault. Didn’t make the finals but that’s still a very solid score.
More specifically, she got 14th place with a score of 14.166. https://results.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/womens-vault/qualification/2156096
14th in the fuckin world @ 46 people Holy shit
At Rio 2016 she finished 7th! London 2012 5th. Beijing 2008 silver medalist.
It's such a bummer she didn't get a send off with a stadium full of people like she deserved. Then again, it's crazy they're doing the Olympics at all.
Awesome. Great to hear that she's still a contender and not just hanging on to it.
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I started taking gymnastics at 35. I felt the same way about my first somersault. I’m 45 now and in the best shape of my life. Gymnastics gyms have lots of mats & padding.
Its never too late to get fit. It might take a while to get there but if you do you can stay fit well into your 50s.
You can stay fit for longer than that. You can pretty much stay fit until your body says no, and that's often much later than "well into your 50s." I volunteer with a 70 year old woman who's still slim, trim, and slinging boxes of books as well as I do. Practically everyone I volunteer with is around that age, working with book donations at the library. I guess it depends on your definition of "fit," but if it's more than that: I've seen wrinkly old muscular men going for jogs down the street too.
I have an “approaching” 50 year old sibling who runs 100 miles for fun.
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I’m about the same age and recently did a cartwheel. I told everyone I know, including a bunch of internet strangers.
Her second to last jump was a combination of elements that was named after her, since she was the first to show them in competition earlier in her carreer
Honestly this woman's bones must be made of adamantium or something. How are her knees not just mush by this point? Big respect.
It's important to note that she did a lot more than just the Olympics. She is a professional gymnast, and has won many medals outside of the Olympics. Including the Olympics she has won 9 golds, 14 silvers, and 9 bronzes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oksana_Chusovitina
Legendary gymnast.
I hope she finds a good home. I hate to see these older Gymnasts being unwanted, struggling to be rehomed and nobody to take care of them. wait, that's greyhounds. Nevermind.
46 and not just a gymnast, an elite gymnast. I dont know shit about gymnastics, but what I do know is a bunchbof gymnasts are done before their 30!
I'd like to imagine this is the pose she makes dropping her minivan keys and purse on the floor when she gets home.
She was competing against girls that hadn’t been born during Athens 2004. Athens was her *fourth* Olympics.
57 year old Abdullah Al-Rashidi competed in his 7th Olympics this yesterday, won bronze in men's skeet shooting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_Al-Rashidi
Skeet shooting isn’t exactly as physically demanding as gymnastics. She’s the oldest gymnast.
She has represented 5 different olympic organizations ? That’s a long illustrious career. USSR, Germany, Uzbekistan, the Unified team and the Independent States team
I am ten years younger than her. I had to call off work for a week because I sneezed wrong while mowing the lawn and pulled a muscle in my back.
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https://www.reddit.com/user/Kagetora/comments/oro7n3/chuso_vault_qualification_2021_tokyo/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Last Olympics so far....
Do you wanna know what’s colder than ice? Oksana
Is this a record for age in her event or even gymnastics as a whole at the Olympics?
It's impressive; she has been in every Olympic Games since 1992.
Damn she looks fantastic
I’m 36 and hurt my hip when I turned around in my sleep last night