Oksana Chusovitina, legendary gymnast of Uzbekistan of 48-years of age has withdrawn her name from the Paris Olympic Games 2024. She announced on Thursday that due to injury during podium training for the Asian Gymnastics Championships held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan she made herself out of the game. In order to earn quota to appear in her ninth Olympics, she needed to compete and finish as the highest eligible athlete in the all-around standings.
Chusovitina wrote on Instagram that, “My dear friends, fans and everyone who loves Gymnastics! Unfortunately, I have some sad news for you. Yesterday, while training on the podium of the Asian Championships, which is taking place in Tashkent and is a qualifying event for the Olympic Games in Paris, I was injured during the floor exercise. I will not be able to take part and I am very upset as I have been preparing for this competition for a long time. She continued, “I started doing all-around and I wanted to perform in our country, in front of our fans. But, unfortunately, tomorrow you will not see me among the participants. I would like to express my gratitude to all of you, but you can come and support our girls. That’s what I’m going to do tomorrow!”
She has faced difficulty in obtaining a quota for the Olympics but never backed down as said by the Olympic gold medalist. Chusovitina has participated in every Olympic Games dating back to 1992 when Barcelona hosted the event. At this event, she won gold medal as a member of the Unified Team and later on win her second Olympic silver medal of her career at Beijing 2008.