Oksana Chusovitina was supposed to be one of the two flag bearers for Uzbekistan at the opening ceremony in Tokyo. Gymnasts very often skip the opening ceremony because they start competing a day or two after, but Chusovitina wanted the experience because she believes it will be her last Olympics. However, only the day before the competition, Chusovitina learned that she was replaced:
“I only learned yesterday that I wouldn’t be the flag bearer at the opening ceremony. Why did this happen? I don’t have any explanations, otherwise I would’ve told you. I was told “you won’t be the flag bearer”. And that was it, there were no more explanations. Of course, it’s really upsetting. When they originally asked me, I said that I will definitely do this because it’s my last Olympics. I really wanted to bear the flag at the opening ceremony”.
Uzbekistan’s Olympic Committee released a statement on the matter and said that they were worried about Chusovitina getting too tired to compete and that is why she and the other flag bearer boxer Bobo-Usmon Baturov were replaced:
“Participating in the ceremony takes a lot of time, it’s necessary to stand for a long time and then get back to the hotel very late. Chusovitina will compete in the qualification on July 25th and Baturov – on July 29th. That is why the decision to replace the flag bearers was made. Our flag bearers will be boxer Bakhodir Jalolov and taekwondo athlete Nigora Tursunkulova”.
You’d think that by her 8th Olympics, Oksana Chusovitina is perfectly capable of deciding whether walking the opening ceremony will make her too tired for the qualification, but the NOC apparently thinks she needs someone else to decide it for her. In any case, their reasoning doesn’t hold up, because the replacement flag bearers Tursunkulova and Jalolov compete, respectively, on July 26th (only a day after Chusovitina) and on July 29th (same day as Baturov).
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