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 almost 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 four Olympic
Games, and 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). She 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. Chusovitina 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.
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. She
qualified for the vault event final, finishing in
6th place after falling on her first vault.
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.
