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Uzbekistan|sport|August 15, 2016 / 11:19 AM
Rio 2016: 41yo Uzbek Gymnast surprises with her seventh Olympics

AKIPRESS.COM - MTZSPDEC71NOKN02_1536x864Uzbek gymnast Oksana Chusovitina declared on Sunday she would be back to compete in Tokyo in 2020 at the age of 45, Eurosport reports.

Minutes after taking part in the vault against gymnasts younger than her 17-year-old son Alisher, Chusovitina breezily announced she would keep going.

"Of course I'm not entirely happy with today's performance, but what are you going to do? So we are going to move forward," she said.

Over the course of an extraordinary career, the diminutive Chusovitina has competed for the Soviet Union, Germany - where she lived for a period while Alisher was receiving successful treatment for leukaemia - and Uzbekistan.

Her first Olympic appearance was at Barcelona in 1992 where she won a team gold with the Unified Team of athletes from the former USSR.

She flirted with the idea of retiring after each of the last two Games, but there was no hesitation when she was asked if she would be back in Tokyo for Olympics number eight.

"Definitely," she replied. "I've already taken this decision... I just woke up in the morning and decided.

"I'd like carry out an experiment to see how long it will take before I've had enough."

Her gymnastics lifespan almost defies belief, as the next oldest competitor in Rio after her is 32-year-old Vasiliki Millousi from Greece.

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