Oksana Chusovitina is greatly admired for her longevity in the physically demanding sport. The Uzbekistan gymnast has been competing since t...
Oksana Chusovitina is greatly admired for her longevity in the physically demanding sport.
The Uzbekistan gymnast has been competing since the late eighties. Recently, she announced that she aims at competing at the 2024 Paris Olympic, which will be her ninth Olympic Games.
But for the Russian head coach Valentina Rodionenko, she doesn't agree with the veteran gymnast's continuous presence in the sport.
"Oksana is generally an unpredictable person. It’s hard to say for how long she can continue exploiting her body. I think [the Paris Olympics] are unlikely [for her]. Just to be present? Well, perhaps," the Russian coach told Match Tv according to Gymnovosti.
"But she’s incapable of showing any [high] results. I don’t believe in this, honestly. To claim it and not to show anything is one thing, I don’t know what goals she’s trying to achieve. It’s still unclear to me. She also didn’t show anything in Tokyo," she continued.
"Tell me, for what is [she doing] all this? After all, we want to see some results, we want to see some routines. Olympic Games aren’t a backyard competition, after all. If she can get Uzbekistan’s spot, if she can go… After all, not everyone can go to the Olympics. I respect Oksana, I know her well, but it’s not clear to me why exploit yourself without showing anything [good]."
On Valentina's statement, Oksana responded with "It’s my body, so I get to exploit it. Sometimes I look at younger gymnasts and their bodies look less healthy than mine. I feel healthy, I’m full of energy."
The eight time Olympian stated that she is not interested in setting records but rather enjoys competing.
"I’m good at it so I want to try it, to see, to qualify. You know, when a person is striving towards something and enjoys it, why not?"
Chusovitina was part of the 1992 Olympic gold winning Unified team. Individually, she won silver on vault at the 2008 Olympic Games.
The 46 year old gymnast hopes to compete a new vault, which she has never done before.
On Instagram, she uploaded a video of herself training a new vault entry, a round off half on.
Oksana competes a Tsukahara and handspring forward on vaults.
Photo: Ginnastica Artistica Italiana
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Sounds like Valentina is a little jealous. Maybe she should put on a leo and do a Produnova on vault? Yikes! Oksana just want to say how respected, inspirational and admired you are. You are one in a million! Please keep doing what you love.
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