Oksana Chusovitina is unstoppable and she proved it again today by winning silver on vault at the Asian Games.
She won her first medal at the Asian Games 24 years ago, in 1994, it was a bronze on vault. Since then, she won quite a few more Asian Games medals (and it would’ve been even more but for a few years when she represented Germany, she competed in Europe instead) and it looks like she will just keep going.
She told RIA Novosti today that while her main goal right now is to get to Tokyo, she’s not sure she’ll retire after 2020:
“The main thing right now is to prepare for the qualification for the Olympic Games and to qualify. My dream is to get to the Games in Tokyo and then we’ll see”.
Chusovitina is training all-around (she might need it for the Olympic qualification) but she’s mostly competing on vault and beam:
“At Worlds in Qatar, I don’t know yet whether I’ll do four events. I have to save my strength but I’ll definitely do two events – beam and vault. I’m preparing, I’m training”.
Chusovitina isn’t doing her hardest vaults right now and today her difficulty was not enough for the gold which went to Yeo Seo-jeong of South Korea but Chusovitina was behind the first place only by 0.1 and she was one of the few gymnasts in that final who didn’t have a fall or major mistakes.
She said:
“I have the most positive emotions now. Even though it’s the second place, I had to seriously fight for it, too. There’s always a chance for gold but I did everything I was ready for today. That’s why I’ll keep striving, training and achieving success in the future. I’m happy and I want to thank all my fans who supported me and cheered for me”.
Photo: AP
