On the 2023 Cottbus World Cup Oksana Chusovitina received a bronze medal on vault at 47 years previous. This was truly a milestone achievement in Chusovitina’s legendary profession. For readers of this text questioning why Oksana profitable World Cup medals at 47 years previous in 2023 is any completely different from when she received World Cup medals in 2022 on the age of 46, the historic significance is who she competed in opposition to.
-1st place went to 16 yr previous Manila Esposito (Italy)
-2nd place went to fifteen yr previous Ruby Evans (Nice Britain)
-4th place went to 16 yr previous Laia Font (Spain)
The mixed ages of those three gymnasts (16 + 15 + 16) is 47 which suggests Oksana Chusovitina received a medal in an occasion the place she was the COMBINED age of the three highest scoring rivals. It additionally must be famous that the following highest scoring competitor was Alice Vlkova (Czech Republic) who met the minimal age standards by solely two days and was simply six weeks previous her fifteenth birthday. In the meantime Laia Font celebrated her sixteenth birthday the day earlier than she arrived on the Cottbus World Cup.
| Identify | Date of Beginning | Age at Cottbus |
| Manila Esposito | November 2, 2006 | 16 and 3 months |
| Ruby Evans | March 17, 2007 | 15 and 11 months |
| Oksana Chusovitina | June 19, 1975 | 47 and eight months |
| Laia Font | February 20, 2007 | 16 and 4 days |
| Alice Vlkova | December 30, 2007 | 15 and 1 month |
| Laura Casabuena | December 26, 2005 | 17 and 1 month |
| Agata Vostruchovaite | December 2, 2000 | 22 and a pair of months |
| Dildora Aripova | January 29, 2004 | 19 and 1 month |
In a profession marked with legendary longevity, vault finals on the 2023 Cottbus World Cup may need been probably the most lopsided age hole in Chusovitina’s complete profession. It’s much more spectacular when contemplating this didn’t occur at some casual meet the place juniors and seniors are allowed to compete collectively, however at an FIG affiliated World Cup.
It’s particularly ironic that Chusovitina did this at Cottbus of all locations. This specific competitors has a particular place in Chusovitina’s gymnastics legacy. It was at Cottbus all the way in which again in 1989 {that a} younger, 13 yr previous Chusovitina made her first look in a serious, televised competitors. Earlier than Cottbus-1989 Oksana Chusovitina was a whole unknown to the gymnastics group. Her solely outcomes previous to Cottbus-1989 are a sequence of obscure Soviet home competitions with little file preservation related to them. For anybody trying to monitor the profession of Oksana Chusovitina, Cottbus-1989 is basically the place her story begins.
Identical to Cottbus-2023, Oksana Chusovitina additionally received a medal at Cottbus-1989. Though again then Chusovitina was a standout gymnast on flooring, moderately than the vaulting prowess she is understood for in fashionable occasions. At Cottbus-1989 Chusovitina received a silver medal on flooring train and completed ninth within the All-Round. Between her ends in 1989 and 2023, Chusovitina has medals at Cottbus that had been received 34 years other than one another.
To place “34 years” into context, the star of Cottbus-1989 was Brandy Johnson who received a gold medal on all 5 occasions. Brandy Johnson now has a daughter named Sydney Johnson-Scharpf who additionally turned a member of the American nationwide group and an NCAA gymnast. Sydney Johnson-Scharpf, the daughter of Chusovitina’s prime competitor from Cottbus-1989 is older than all the gymnasts who competed in opposition to Oksana in vault finals at Cottbus-2023.
The 2 oldest gymnasts in vault finals at Cottbus-2023 had been 19 yr previous Dildora Aripova (Uzbekistan) and 22 yr previous Agata Vostruchovaite (Lithuania). When their two ages are mixed, their mixed age (41) continues to be six years youthful than Chusovitina.
Chusovitina’s private historical past with Cottbus goes again to date in time, that when she made her first look at this competitors the trendy World Cup format that might finally take in Cottbus hadn’t but been created. Again then semi-major occasions just like the Cottbus Worldwide had been impartial. Like Chusovitina, the Cottbus Worldwide survived into the trendy age. Even whereas the overwhelming majority of its up to date competitions (American Cup, Moscow Information, Riga Worldwide and Chunichi Cup) not exist.
In 1989 the Cottbus Worldwide was the premier competitors of East Germany, a rustic that not exists. When Oksana Chusovitina competed in 1989, she did so whereas representing the Soviet Union, a rustic that additionally not exists. Chusovitina is so previous, that she as soon as competed at Cottbus at an age that was youthful than any of the Cottbus-2023 rivals she now dwarfs in age.
Again within the 1989 it was frequent for gymnasts as younger as 13 years previous to compete instantly in opposition to Olympians in competitions that had been prestigious sufficient to be televised and coated by worldwide sports activities media. At 13 years previous Chusovitina was a teenager, however she was in no way the youngest gymnast to ever be inserted into such a contest. Typically the ages would go as younger as 10, 11, or 12 years previous. The tactic peaked in reputation proper across the time Chusovitina first appeared in Cottbus-1989.
In 1988 Annia Hatch who was representing Cuba and solely 10 years previous on the time managed to compete instantly in opposition to a number of gymnasts who competed on the 1988 Olympics. The following yr in 1989 a now 11 yr previous Annia Hatch visited each China and the Soviet Union to compete of their prime competitions. As for the US, in 1988 Shannon Miller was solely three months previous her eleventh birthday when she appeared within the Junior Pan American Gymnastics Championships. North Korea’s Kim Gwang Suk who was caught up in an age falsification scandal on the 1991 World Championships, had truly competed at Cottbus all the way in which again in 1988. Kim Gwang Suk’s age is unknown, however she was most definitely across the identical age as Annia Hatch and Shannon Miller, if not youthful than that in her Cottbus look.
Oksana Chusovitina was the kid gymnast who got here of age in an period the place statistically the typical age of the game was at its absolute youngest. She overcame an period the place gymnasts had been inspired to retire younger and went on to have the longest profession within the historical past of high-level gymnastics. Cottbus has at all times been a core a part of Chusovitina’s story. Oksana has competed at Cottbus as each a 13 yr previous and a 47 yr previous. In Chusovitina’s lengthy profession she has competed at Cottbus a minimal of 21 occasions and it was Cottbus the place her high-level worldwide profession began. Oksana Chusovitina is now greater than 3 times her personal age from her first look to her most up-to-date look at Cottbus.
As for Cottbus, all the pieces about it’s now completely different. From its incorporation into the World Cup, to the All-Round being dropped from the format, or its now strict age necessities that might by no means permit a 13 yr previous to compete, the one factor that continues to be the identical is “Cottbus.” It’s a competitors that has stood the check of time, however has been pressured to utterly remodel itself with a view to preserve its place in an ever-changing world.
Maybe there isn’t any irony about it. Cottbus and Chusovitina have been round for therefore lengthy, they now symbolize the identical cussed refusal to fade into obscurity. Their symbolism has now develop into interchangeable.
