Oksana Chusovitina
Encyclopedia
Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina ' onMouseout='HidePop("35517")' href="/topics/Bukhara">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 more than 20 years. She won the USSR Junior Nationals in 1988 and began competing at the 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 10 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 (9, on the vault).
Chusovitina is also one of only a handful of women, along with Cuban Leyanet Gonzalez
, Soviet legend Larisa Latynina, and Dutch Olympian Suzanne Harmes
, 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.
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.
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.
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.
, 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. Chusovitina 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.
, Chusovitina announced in April 2009 that she intended to participate in the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships
in October, but indicated that she will not continue. The championships, she stated, are "enough."
Oksana Chusovitina then took that statement back after she tore her Achilles in early 2009. She has competed in some competitions in 2010 (including the 2010 Houston National Invitational) and has stated she plans on competing in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games
She won the silver medal on vault at the 2011 European Championships and the 2011 World Championships.
Bukhara
Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time...
, Uzbek SSR
Uzbek SSR
The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Uzbek SSR for short, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union since its creation in 1924...
, USSR) is an Olympic medalist and World Champion gymnast
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
who has competed for Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
since 2006. She was formerly a citizen of, and a competitor for, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
(before 1993) and Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
(1993–2006).
To date, Chusovitina's career in elite gymnastics has spanned more than 20 years. She won the USSR Junior Nationals in 1988 and began competing at the 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 10 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 (9, on the vault).
Chusovitina is also one of only a handful of women, along with Cuban Leyanet Gonzalez
Leyanet Gonzalez
Leyanet Gonzalez is a Cuban gymnast. An Olympian who finished 22nd in the 2004 Olympics all-around, she is exceptionally unusual in gymnastics. Not only has she enjoyed a long career, but she remained in high level competition after having given birth...
, Soviet legend Larisa Latynina, and Dutch Olympian Suzanne Harmes
Suzanne Harmes
Suzanne Helena Johanna Harmes is a Dutch gymnast.In 2002 she won the silver medal at the European Championships in Patras as a part of the Dutch team alongside Gabriella Wammes, Renske Endel, Monique Nuijten and Verona van de Leur. A year later she became Dutch National Champion for the first time...
, 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
Goodwill Games
The Goodwill Games was an international sports competition, created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s...
and nearly swept the 1990 World Sports Fair in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, 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
1991 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 26th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held in Indianapolis, USA, in the Hoosier Dome, September 6 to 15, 1991.-Medals:-All-round:-Apparatus:-All-round:-Apparatus:-References:**...
and placed second on the vault. In 1992 Chusovitina competed at the Olympics with the Unified Team
Unified Team
The Unified Team was the name used for the sports team of the former Soviet Union at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville and the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. The IOC country code was EUN, after the French name, Équipe Unifiée...
, 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 TashkentTashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
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
Asian Games
The Asian Games, officially known as Asiad, is a multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until the 1978 Games. Since the 1982 Games they have been organised by the...
and the 1994 and 2001 Goodwill Games
Goodwill Games
The Goodwill Games was an international sports competition, created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s...
. 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
Asian Games
The Asian Games, officially known as Asiad, is a multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until the 1978 Games. Since the 1982 Games they have been organised by the...
in Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
, 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 CologneCologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
club, and moved to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
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 BeijingBeijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, 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
Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of 140,700 . Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census. It is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department...
, 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
Carlotta Giovannini
Carlotta Giovannini is an Italian artistic gymnast who competed at her first international competition in 2003....
to win the gold medal.
At the Olympics, the German team placed 12th in the qualifying round of competition. Chusovitina 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.
Faux Retirement
Despite earlier claims that she would attempt to compete in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Chusovitina announced in April 2009 that she intended to participate in the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships
2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 41st World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was held at The O2 arena in London, United Kingdom, on 12 October to 18 October 2009. Similar to the World Championships in 2005, there were no team competitions...
in October, but indicated that she will not continue. The championships, she stated, are "enough."
Oksana Chusovitina then took that statement back after she tore her Achilles in early 2009. She has competed in some competitions in 2010 (including the 2010 Houston National Invitational) and has stated she plans on competing in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games
She won the silver medal on vault at the 2011 European Championships and the 2011 World Championships.
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:
- 1991: "William Tell Overture (Overture de Guillaume Tell)William Tell OvertureThe William Tell Overture is the instrumental introduction to the opera Guillaume Tell by Gioachino Rossini. William Tell premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, after which he went into semi-retirement, although he continued to compose cantatas, sacred music and secular vocal...
" from William Tell (opera) by Gioacchino RossiniGioacchino RossiniGioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces... - 1992: "Triumphal March" from SpartacusSpartacus (ballet)Spartacus, or Spartak, is a ballet by Aram Khachaturian . The work follows the exploits of Spartacus, the leader of the slave uprising against the Romans known as the Third Servile War, although the ballet's storyline takes considerable liberties with the historical record. Khachaturian composed...
by Aram Khachaturyan - 1994: "In the Hall of the Mountain KingIn the Hall of the Mountain KingIn the Hall of the Mountain King is a piece of orchestral music composed by Edvard Grieg for the sixth scene of Act II in Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, which premiered in Christiania on February 24, 1876....
" from Peer GyntPeer GyntPeer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...
by Edvard GriegEdvard GriegEdvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
- 1991: "William Tell Overture (Overture de Guillaume Tell)
- Vault: Chusovitina is renowned as a vault specialist. She is the only top female vaulter in the world who does not perform YurchenkoYurchenko (vault)Yurchenko is the name of both a specific vault and a vault family in artistic gymnastics. The Yurchenko was named after Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko, who originated the vault in the early 1980s....
style vaults. Instead, she competes only front handspring entry and TsukaharaTsukahara (vault)The Tsukahara can refer to a specific vault and a family of vaults in artistic gymnastics. The first Tsukahara vault was performed by Mitsuo Tsukahara in 1972....
-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 1½ 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.