I know.. I know.. The Olympics ended two weeks ago and what the heck am I writing about more Olympic news. I was supposed to write this a week ago but was either lazy to do it or too much work to do. Anyhow, in a sport where the older you get, the difficult it is to compete, this German female gymnast overcame it all and manage to win a Silver medal in the vault category in Beijing.
When her fellow Chinese gymnasts’ age are being questioned, no one can tell her that she’s not allowed to compete. Oksana Chusovitina is 33 years old and has been competing way before her fellow competitors are even born. This is her fifth Olympics for her third team (Soviet Union, Uzbekistan, Germany). She was even on the same team as the father of the all-around individual women’s gold medalist Nastia Liukin of the US.
When I first saw her, my friend and I commented, she look like a guy. She sported a boyish hairstyle and her muscles doesn’t help her with her looks. Her best apparatus is the vault and has won numerous world championships and a team Gold medal in the Barcelona Games. Her life story is inspiring, having a child who’s sick made her switch teams in order to be able to avail of the free medical benefits offered by Germany. She doesn’t back down and you can always see her smile after she performs. When everyone is rooting for the Chinese team, I was rooting for her to win. Will we see her in the London Games? Who knows maybe we would as she has this approach “you’re only old as you feel”.
Catch more of my Olympic park and games photos via this link.
Claudine on the Go 
i was disappointed that she won; but now that i learned of her background, i salute her!
yeah.. I was actually impressed with her vault.. I wasn’t rooting for the Chinese.. I was rooting for the US team.. hehehe!