Oksana Chusovitina, a 44-year-old gymnast, has qualified for her eighth Olympics, breaking her own record. The Uzbek athlete made the field for Tokyo 2020 when the dust settled on the final day at the world championships in Stuttgart, Germany.
Chusovitina failed to qualify outright after missing this week’s individual finals. However, due to a lack of gymnasts making apparatus finals from nations not already qualified for the Olympic team event, extra athletes from all-around qualifying made it.
Chusovitina began her career competing for the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.
She is already the oldest female gymnast in Olympic history. She is in line to become the fourth-oldest Olympic gymnast and the oldest since 1920, according to the OlyMADMen.
The 2017 International Gymnastics Hall of Fame inductee made 14 world vault championships finals, highlighted by a 2003 World title. She also reached the last three Olympic vault finals with a silver at Beijing 2008.
She debuted at the world championships in 1991, winning gold with the Soviet Union, and at the Olympics in 1992 with the Unified Team.
She also represented Germany from 2006 through 2012. She had moved there to seek treatment for son Alisher’s leukemia. Alisher turns 21 next year.
Chusovitina has long focused on vault, where she has won nine world medals, the most recent in 2011.
