Uzbek gymnast Oksana Chusovitina (44 years old) is preparing to participate for the eighth time in the Summer Olympic Games, in a sport in which teenage mathematics usually stands out.
"I love gymnastics," Chusovitina said in a recent interview in Tashkent. I say to myself: Why am I not training and performing if I am able to? If I stopped, I would regret it. ”
As competition inside her flame, Chusovitina said she had promised her family, which she described as "the strongest motivation", that Tokyo 2020 would be her last Olympics.
Chusovitina started her international participation with the Soviet Union, but after its disintegration, she participated in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with a united team representing the former republics of the Soviet Union.
There she won the gold medal, but she waited 16 years and four copies of the games to win a new Olympic medal.
In Beijing 2008 she crowned the silver horse jumping, as she represented Germany after moving there in 2002 to treat her son Alisher of leukemia, which proved to be effective.
But Tokyo 2020 will be the fifth Olympic version in which it represents Central Asia, with a population of 33 million people, where it is greatly appreciated to the extent that its image appeared on postage stamps.
Her presence at the Rio 2016 Olympics, made her the only gymnast in history to participate in seven Olympics in a row.
Chusovitina said during a break between her exercises that it was her son Alicher, who is currently 20 years old, who persuaded her to put an end to her international career, "It worries a lot about me that I will be injured or ill."
Her favorite Olympic moment remains when she returns from Beijing, where she has climbed onto the podium with competitions from China and North Korea that are more than ten years younger than her.
“When I came back, the doctors told me that my son would finally be in good health. As for the mother, this news cannot be compared to any medal. ”
Her 20-year-old son persuades her to retire, fearing injury.