Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina qualified for her seventh Olympics on Sunday at age 40, setting her up to become the oldest Olympic female gymnast in history.
Chusovitina earned a place in her (gymnastics record) seventh Olympics at a last-chance qualifying event at the Rio Olympic venue.
She previously competed internationally for the Soviet Union, Unified Team, Uzbekistan and Germany before switching back to Uzbekistan.
She earned team gold for the Unified Team at her first Olympics at Barcelona 1992 and vault silver as a German at Beijing 2008.
Chusovitina is still talented enough to make the eight-woman vault final in Rio.
She was fifth in the event at the 2012 Olympics and 2013 World Championships.
She owns 11 Worlds medals, the last podium finish in 2011. She had said she’d retire after the London Games.
Chusovitina would have to compete at the 2024 Olympics to break the overall Olympic gymnastics age record, according to sports-reference.com.
