The Elateful Eight

July 26, 2021 4:27 PM

Olympic Gymnast Oksana Chusovitina has retired. This was her final vault.
posted by storybored (13 comments total)

I've been pregaming on a lot of gymnastics content over the past few months, and a few weekends ago watched pretty much Oksana Chusovitina's entire career. I only ever knew her as a vaulter, but she's a solid all around gymnast. She was doing power moves back in the era of waifish 14 year olds. Chusovitina has never been a pretty gymnast (by which I mean her actual gymnastics aren't pretty and artistic), she has been strong and tough as nails right from the start.

I also recommend finding footage of her falling off bars. It's not her best event, she has had a number of big bars falls in major competition. But where other gymnasts will take extra time to breathe and rechalk and get quick coaching pep talks, Chusovitina just scrambles back up and slams herself back on the bars and gets back to work. She's so unfussy. It's a delight to watch.
posted by phunniemee at 5:28 PM on July 26, 2021 [5 favorites]

I remember watching her 5 years ago and being amazed. Thanks for posting this. What an amazing woman!
posted by kathrynm at 5:56 PM on July 26, 2021

Barcelona was the first Games I really noticed. I was ten. She seemed so grown up!

She competed for Germany midway through her career in order to secure decent medical care for her son, who was battling acute lymphocytic leukemia. I remember she seemed so grown up!

She’s still several years my senior this Olympics, of course, but now she seems so young!

спасибо!
posted by armeowda at 6:37 PM on July 26, 2021 [5 favorites]

SAY HER NAME. This is fantastic. What an icon. Thanks for posting!
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 7:09 PM on July 26, 2021

I mean, I am a year younger than her and I pulled a muscle in my neck by turning my shoulder too quickly the other day! To have done what she has done, for so long, with such grit and grace, is just incredible. I hope she has loved every moment of this last Olympics.
posted by TheFantasticNumberFour at 7:21 PM on July 26, 2021 [4 favorites]

Real-life Wonder Woman!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:34 PM on July 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

It wasn't until I went looking for her 1992 Olympic vault that it hit me. She competed at three Olympics before the vaulting horse was redesigned into the current vaulting table. She increased the difficulty of the vaults she performed over time and adjusted to a major change in the equipment. She's amazing.
posted by creepygirl at 8:42 PM on July 26, 2021 [7 favorites]

I went down a total rabbit hole on this woman and her incredible career. She must have needed a structural engineer to build her trophy case.

She has 5 different gymnastics skills named after her! 2 on the uneven bars, which she doesn't even like!
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 12:00 AM on July 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

a truly epic achievement.

and i just heard someone call Simone Biles "old for gymnastics" because shes 24.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 6:25 AM on July 27, 2021

Mod note: Derail about name pronunciation deleted. Feel free to converse outside of this thread.
posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 8:55 AM on July 27, 2021 [5 favorites]

Do gymnasts have to compete in all events? I don’t know much about the rules/conventions, so from that place of ignorance I’m wondering why she competes in uneven bars if she doesn’t like it (but it’s worth it at least once to see her sign…).
posted by obfuscation at 9:00 AM on July 27, 2021

Do gymnasts have to compete in all events? I don’t know much about the rules/conventions, so from that place of ignorance I’m wondering why she competes in uneven bars if she doesn’t like it (but it’s worth it at least once to see her sign…).

It depends? Chuso has been a vault specialist at the last two Olympics, I think—don't quote me on it.

What evens gymnasts compete on is really complicated, and the international federation changes the Code of Points every four years (after the Olympics) so it varies. They did a really convoluted revision for the quad just ending that opened the door for more event specialists to make it to the Olympics—like Alec Yoder of the US, who is a pommel horse specialist—but they're about to change it again, so it's maybe not too worth learning about if you're not going to watch the games.

Some nice person [after looking for it—that nice person is the Olympics] on youtube put together a video with all of Chuso's Olympics routines through Rio. It's a commitment to watch—a bit over an hour—but if you start at the beginning, you're reminded that she was once a fresh-faced girl, and you're also reminded of how much gymnastics has changed over those years. Her bars routine from her first Olympics is a telling example.
posted by Orlop at 10:11 AM on July 27, 2021 [3 favorites]

And her early beam routines too.
posted by Orlop at 10:13 AM on July 27, 2021