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Oksana Chusovitina
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Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina (; born June 19, 1975 in Bukhara, Uzbek SSR, USSR) is an Olympic medalist and World Champion gymnast who has competed for Germany since 2006. She was formerly a citizen of, and a competitor for, the Soviet Union (before 1993) and Uzbekistan (1993-2006).
To date, Chusovitina's career in elite gymnastics has spanned twenty years. She won the USSR Junior Nationals in 1988 and began competing at the senior international level in 1989, before many of her current rivals were even born.
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Encyclopedia
Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina (; born June 19, 1975 in Bukhara, Uzbek SSR, USSR) is an Olympic medalist and World Champion gymnast who has competed for Germany since 2006. She was formerly a citizen of, and a competitor for, the Soviet Union (before 1993) and Uzbekistan (1993-2006).
To date, Chusovitina's career in elite gymnastics has spanned twenty years. She won the USSR Junior Nationals in 1988 and began competing at the senior international level in 1989, before many of her current rivals were even born. She is the only female gymnast ever to compete in five Olympic Games, and is one of only two female gymnasts to compete at the Olympics under three different national teams: the Unified Team in 1992; Uzbekistan in 1996, 2000 and 2004; and Germany in 2008. Chusovitina has also competed in ten World Championships, three Asian Games and three Goodwill Games. In addition, Chusovitina holds the record for the most individual World Championships medals on a single event (8, on the vault).
Chusovitina is also one of only a handful of women, along with Cuban Leyanet Gonzalez and Soviet legend Larissa Latynina, to return to high-level gymnastics and international competition after becoming a mother. She is remarkable in her ability to remain competitive for so many years, often in the face of great adversity, and has been cited as a role model and an inspiration by many of her peers in the gymnastics community.
Soviet Union
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.
By 1990 Chusovitina was a vital member of the Soviet team, and was sent to compete in various international meets. She was the vault gold medalist at the 1990 Goodwill Games and nearly swept the 1990 World Sports Fair in Japan, winning the all-around and every event except the uneven bars. The following year she won the floor exercise gold at the 1991 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and placed second on the vault. In 1992 Chusovitina competed at the Olympics with the Unified Team, shared in the team gold medal and placed seventh in the floor final. She also won her second World Championships vault medal, a bronze.
Uzbekistan 1993-2006
After the 1992 Olympics, when the former Soviet gymnasts returned to their home republics, Chusovitina began competing for Uzbekistan and training with the Uzbekistan head coach Svetlana Kuznetsova. Conditions at the national training facility in Tashkent were a far cry from the Soviet Round Lake training center, and Chusovitina was forced to practice on antiquated, and in some cases, unsafe equipment. In spite of this setback, she was able to consistently produce world-class routines.
Chusovitina represented Uzbekistan from 1993 to 2006 and competed for them at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympics, the 1994, 1998 and 2002 Asian Games and the 1994 and 2001 Goodwill Games. During this era she was the strongest gymnast on the Uzbekistan national team, earning over 70 medals in international competitions and qualifying to the Olympics three times.
For her contributions to gymnastics, Chusovitina was granted the title of "Honored Athlete of the Republic of Uzbekistan" by the Uzbekistan Ministry of Cultural and Sports Affairs. In 2001, she was named as the first WAG representative to the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG)'s Athletes' Commission. In addition, Chusovitina graduated from the Sports University in Tashkent.
In late 1997 Chusovitina married Uzbekistani Olympic wrestler Bakhodir Kurpanov. The two originally met at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, where they were both competing. The couple's son, Alisher, was born in November 1999.
Move to Germany
In 2002, Alisher was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). 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.
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.
While Alisher underwent treatment in Cologne, Chusovitina trained with the German team.
Uzbekistan released Chusovitina to compete for Germany in 2003. However, due to rules requiring three years of residency, she was unable to gain German citizenship immediately. From 2003 to 2006 she trained in Germany but continued to compete for Uzbekistan, representing them at the 2003 and 2005 World Championships and the 2004 Olympics. In 2003, thirteen years after her World Championships debut, Chusovitina won the gold medal on the vault at that year's World Championships in Anaheim.
In 2006, Chusovitina obtained German citizenship. Her first competition for Germany was the 2006 World Championships, where she won a bronze medal on the vault and placed ninth in the all-around.
Current status
As of 2008, Chusovitina is still active on the international competition circuit. In July 2007, she won the all-around title at the 2007 German National Championships. At her first European Championships, she placed second on the vault. At the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart, Chusovitina helped the German squad to a 10th place finish in the preliminary round, which qualified them to send a full team to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where she was the oldest female competitor in her discipline. She qualified for the vault event final where she finished in 2nd place, thus earning the first individual Olympic medal of her career.
Chusovitina competed on three events at the 2008 Women's European Championships in Clermont-Ferrand, France, helping the German team to a 7th place finish in the team finals. In the vault event final, she defeated reigning European champion Carlotta Giovannini to win the gold medal..
At the Olympics, the German team placed 12th in the qualifying round of competition. Chusovitnia qualified to the individual all-around final, where she placed 9th overall. She also qualified in fourth place for the vault final. In the vault final, she won the silver medal with a score of 15.575.
Skills
- Floor Exercise: Chusovitina is credited as being the first woman to successfully perform a layout-full out on floor. Her music for floor routines has included:
- Vault: Chusovitina is renowned as a vault specialist. She is the only top female vaulter in the world who does not perform Yurchenko style vaults. Instead, she competes only front handspring entry and Tsukahara-family vaults. She currently performs the handspring laid-out Rudi (which is named after her in the Code of Points) and a Tsukahara with a 1 1/2 or a double twist.
- Uneven bars: Chusovitina is also credited with two bars moves in the Code of Points: a hop-full pirouette release and a full-out dismount.
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