“I want to show if a female gymnast wants to train, if she likes it, why should she retire if she is 30 years old?” In a sport like gymnastics, where being over 30 is often seen as being too old, someone has to blaze the trail, right? Well, there’s one gymnastics icon who is challenging these longevity norms at 49. She’s not just showing up on the mats; she’s actually winning and proving that age indeed is just a number. But last year, at 48, she went through a major injury that cast doubts on everything…

We’re talking about the Uzbekistan gymnast, Oksana Chusovitina. She is an eight-time Olympian already, having competed in every Olympic Games since 1992, and was eager to make her ninth bid at the Paris 2024. But last year, while she was at the podium training for the Asian Gymnastics Championships, she got injured during the floor exercise. That was one nasty injury that actually gave her a really hard time. Well, about a year later, Chusovitina has now opened up about that horrific pain.

Speaking to Olympics.com in an interview published on June 16, Chusovitina opened up about that 2024 injury that shattered her Paris Olympics dreams last year. It wasn’t an easy one, she confessed,“This injury kind of drained me mentally because I was preparing so hard…” It “killed” her morale when she could not put up a good gymnastics show for the audience, “I wanted to show a good performance there in front of our fans, in front of our people, but unfortunately, this did not happen…”

And just when the legend picked herself back up, this year, the same Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships appeared to haunt her again. 2 days back, at the 2025 edition of this event, Oksana Chusovitina reappeared to try her luck. But the injury jinx continued as she seemed to have injured her knee in the first round, before withdrawing from the second. Imagine going through such major injuries at the age of 49.

But this gymnastics legend is someone who doesn’t scare easily. Her willpower? Her commitment? It’s all rock-solid! She’s already started 2025 with a bang, having already bagged a bronze at the Cottbus World Cup in January and a vault gold at the Baku World Cup in March. And this isn’t where she stops. Her dream? To step on the LA mats in 2028!

This gymnastics legend wants to compete in LA at 53

In conversation with Olympics.com, Oksana Chusovitina confessed,  “My number one goal is to get to Los Angeles.” But since there’s a long road to that, Chusovitina said, “I go step-by-step, from one competition to the next. If it happens, it happens. If not, then no.” But she isn’t leaving everything to fate either. She said, “I will try and I will give it everything I’ve got.” 

Well, if this gymnastics star reaches LA, she’ll be 53, which would be simply commendable. It will show that gymnastics is no longer the sport where you retire because of age. Today, gymnasts like Ellie Black, Simone Biles, and all are going with the flow, competing till their hearts and bodies deem it right. And Oksana is taking that to a whole other level!