FILE PHOTO: Tokyo 2020 Olympics – Gymnastics – Artistic – Women’s Vault – Qualification – Ariake Gymnastics Centre, Tokyo, Japan – July 25, 2021. Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan in action on the vault. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/File Photo
Uzbek gymnast Oksana Chusovitina celebrated her 50th birthday in remarkable fashion by winning silver in the vault at the Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in Tashkent on Friday.
Bulgarian Valentina Georgieva, 18, beat the former Olympic and world champion to claim gold while Uzbeki compatriot Shakhinabonu Yusufova took third place.
Chusovitina become the Soviet all-around champion at 13 and the world champion on floor in 1991. She won gold in the team event at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and silver in the vault in Beijing 16 years later when she had temporarily switched her allegiance to Germany.
In 2021, Chusovitina defied the odds to compete at her eighth Olympic Games in Tokyo but following the opening day of the women’s competition she bade a tearful farewell after failing to make the cut for the vault final.
