The beam queen Vasiliki Millousi has announced her retirement today on Instagram. Earlier this year she said she was not sure she’d continue until Tokyo and it seems that she was already contemplating the retirement back then. Millousi is 34 years old and was the second oldest gymnast at these World Championships. She has already retired in the past after she didn’t make the 2004 Olympics but came back strong and was the sole WAG representative for Greece at the 2012 Olympics. She also competed at the 2016 Olympics, 16 years after her first Olympic experience.
Evita translated Millousi’s Instagram post:
“It’s already been 27 years since the first time I felt this unique feeling of preparing for your first competition, in the apparatus that you love. I can recall every tear of joy, of sadness, all the agony, the pain, the happiness, every musical note in the gym, the faces of the people who stood by me for all these years. Yesterday, it was my last competition. Two things signal the beginning and the end of these 27 years, the easiness with which I decided that gymnastics is what I wanted to do every day of my life. And the difficulty with which I’m saying goodbye today to something that I love. I feel blessed to have worn our national emblem and to have represented my home-country. I feel blessed to have had the people who guided me from beginning to end. I am full of experiences, sounds, and smiles. I want to thank Kostas Sioutis, Vicky Alibranti, Valia Shaposhnikova, Diana Douteva, and Kostas Xatzizisis. I want to thank everyone who helped me, who supported me… I want to thank all the fellow athletes. Thank you mom. Thank you dad.”
Photo: Gymania, Israeli Gymnastics Magazine
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