To wonder how in the world Oksana Chusovitina is still competing at such a high level?

[hellokittymania]

How old is she now anyway? 43? I wonder if she will go to the Olympics again? I seriously think she will. She just want another silver silver medal in the Asian games on the vault. She is amazing.

Should 44 year old be putting their feet up and knitting instead?

Definitely not! Not if you're Oksana anyway. I just don't know how her body can take it. At gymnastics is not the easiest to sports, and I think she has blown out her Achilles tendon a few times. Or whatever that thing is. Achilles' heel. Anyway, she has hurt herself, but she just keeps going. I think her son must be 18 now, maybe 19.

Should 44 year old be putting their feet up and knitting instead?

I'll take that as being lighthearted .....

I love watching these! There is even a gymnast from Indonesia. I don't think I've ever seen a gymnast from Indonesia before. Plenty of other places in southeast Asia, but not this one. There was an 11-year-old ballerina from Indonesia who won a dance award internationally and she was featured the other week. Anyway, I'm enjoying watching these.

She's incredible! I still miss Svetlana Khorkina though-she was an absolute joy to watch compete

I think it's because she doesn't attempt to do everything and every competition. As she has got older, she has pared down the number of events she competes in and specialises in vaulting.

There's a good interview I read last year with her, in the Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/05/23/vault-of-death-gymnast-scoffs-at-retirement-at-age-42/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2346d20b07f8

Delight, I know. I really miss watching from Atlanta competing. I think she has children now. And thank you for sharing that article Nutella. Sorry I'm using dictation, and it cannot pronounce Svetlana. Oh yes! It's just got it

She had the benefit of fantastic soviet basics, the push towards specialists st the right time and bloody amazing attitude.
I love her, she and Boginskaya were sat in front of me at worlds the other year, was so happy.

Ha ha, it looks like she is the same old spent Lana. I remember one Olympics she shouted a really loudly before she vaulted. I don't know why. But she always had a bit of an attitude didn't see.

Very lovely to watch though. Her gymnastics I mean

deadspin.com/russian-gymnastics-legend-svetlana-khorkina-gets-pissy-1828563967

From memory, she was from the former soviet union, then she competed for Uzbekistan where she was from in the fsu. Her DS was diagnosed with leukemia and she competed for Germany, where they moved to, to earn money. I think it was that.

Jay, how lucky! What is this in Glasgow? I wanted to go so badly. But I had just gotten back from Uganda and I was exhausted.

There are some Olympic horse riders who are older

She is unbelievable.

The weirdest thing is that I remember watching her in the 1993 world championships (my fandom goes back that far). When she fell off the bars in the all around I thought 'that's a shame because she's almost over the hill and won't get many more chances'.

She was 17 then. Predicting the future is clearly not my forte.

There are some Olympic horse riders who are older

True, but this is gymnastics. Where 18 is considered a reasonable age to retire.

She is amazing. You can not compare horse riding to being an international gymnast.

I just read that the other two medalists are younger than her son

She's amazing - and you know she's going to try to land that Produnova before she finally does retire, she's still training it.
She'll definitely try for 2020, she's a sure thing for the Uzbek team if she doesn't get injured. I think that's basically the key to her longevity - she's had comparatively few injuries and her body type suits the new code with its move towards 'skills' over artistry. She can still generate a lot of power so she can pull off the high value moves without damaging herself. Roll on Worlds, will be very interesting to see how she's does and if she can get her tenth vault medal.

Check out Jeannie Longo.

She is a one off, but women are continuing longer into their 20s which is a positive thing. There is a top level Greek gymnast who is 34 and Simone Biles is now 21.

A lot of perfecting the difficult moves in gymnastics is repetition. I guess that Chuso has the repitition numbers that others have to put hours into. I think she probably trains intelligently in shorter bursts. There are lots of other women in their 40s who are very fit and have great endurance.

I just think it's a shame that more gymnasts don't continue for longer, but I realise it's not an easy, or normal, life to lead.

If you're interested in 'golden age' gymnastics, there's an FB page for fans of the 70-80s gymnastics 'Gymnastics - a golden era'.

Also check out the Youtube channel of the Dobre twins. Their mother is former Romanian World Champion Aurelia Dobre. They post lots of videos of their Mum. She still looks to be in amazing shape and well able to perform lots of her old skills!

hellokitty I don't think this is your point though, is it - posting her interview where she gets cross with the interviewer talking politics not sport? As others have said, she benefited from the old regime and saw its downfall. She's an old Soviet.

She's amazing to do those gymnastics (horseriders back off - we all know about Nick Skelton at 58) but she's clearly kept hugely fit and as others have said chooses her routines carefully.