No one can imagine that an athlete can fight on the field for thirty years, and no one can imagine that a person can participate in the Olympic Games eight times in a row.
Seventeen-year-old Chusovkina first appeared to win the world championship, and later, like many athletes, she participated in the Olympic Games to win glory for the country.
Originally, she planned to retire at the age of twenty-one, but her son's leukemia forced her to return to the battlefield at the age of twenty-seven, so she fought for her son for twenty years.
She is the "winning general" on the field and the great superhuman mother in the eyes of her son.
01
Born in the former Soviet Union in 1975, Chusovkina showed an astonishing talent for gymnastics from an early age.
Whether it is in terms of balance or leg strength, she is better than ordinary people.
So at the age of seven, she was sent by her family to learn gymnastics, and after several years of training, she won the all-around championship at the age of thirteen, so she also entered the national team.
The training in the national team is far more intense than in the gymnastics training class before, repeating the reverse control every day, the horizontal bar hanging leg, pull-up upwards around the bar... Assist in running, spinning in the air, and landing steadily.
These three movements are repeated thousands of times a day, just so that you can play to the extreme during the game.
Four years of closed training finally gave Chusovkina the opportunity to emerge.
That year was 1991, the sixteen-year-old girl gave her first chance to give up her dream, and Chusovkina won the gold medal with her difficult turning motion.
The first battle returned triumphantly, and this time the world champion also laid the foundation for her future life will not be ordinary.
Later, Chusovkina's gymnastics career was also broken, and gradually became like a day in the sky.
Just after winning the championship in 1991, Chusovykina had her first chance to participate in the Olympic Games in 1992.
At the age of seventeen, she lived up to expectations, although it was her first time to come to the Olympic arena, but she was not afraid of the field, still played smoothly, and won an Olympic gold medal for the former Soviet Union for the first time.
Later, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the training of gymnastics teams was not as good as before.
But even if she didn't have the same professional and orderly training as before, she still achieved very impressive results in the gymnastics field.
In 1996, she competed in the Olympic Games again, and without high-intensity practice, she still achieved very good results.
But it may be because the usual training intensity does not meet the requirements, and the competition is highly tense, so the Olympic gymnastics competition has just ended, Chusovykina has to suspend her career due to a foot injury.
Coupled with the fact that the twenty-one-year-old is indeed an older gymnast, retirement is also a matter of time.
02
No need to compete on the field again, Chusovkina is eager to find someone with whom she has a sharp heart.
Soon after the Olympics she met Bakdel Kepanov.
Kpanov is a wrestler, and the two met at the Olympics.
Finally, in 1997, the two entered the palace of marriage and gave birth to a son in the second year after marriage.
Originally, Chusovkina lived the life of a godson, but fate always set people problems.
The birth of the two Arish made the whole family overjoyed, but at the age of three, Arish was diagnosed with leukemia, and such bad news was a fatal blow to the family.
In order to cure her son's leukemia, Chusovkina faced huge medical expenses, and in order to save her son, Chusovykina had to return to the training ground and compete in gymnastics again.
At that time, the Uzbek government made a promise that as long as Chusovykina could win the gold medal, the government would fund a certain amount of treatment costs.
In order to treat her son, she returned to the gymnastics training ground, because after giving birth to the child, she was older and the functions of the body declined.
She had little advantage in the face of teenage competitors around her, and in order to be able to win the gold medal, she had to practice desperately.
Finally, in 2002, After four years of training, Chusovkina waited for a chance to make a comeback.
At the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, the twenty-seven-year-old "advanced" gymnastics training mobilized Chusovkina to apply to compete, although the opponents were all teenagers younger than her, and her physical function and softness had a natural advantage.
But she still broke through many obstacles, cut six generals through five levels, and won her first gold medal after her comeback.
And Chusovykina's husband Kpanov is also very understanding and considerate of his wife, his wife competed in the gymnastics field, he wholeheartedly took care of the children at home, resolutely decided to give up his career, and became his wife's strongest backing.
Under Kpanov's care, their son Arish's condition gradually stabilized.
After the Asian Games, Chusovkina received widespread public attention for winning a gold medal at the age of twenty-seven.
And her deeds of competing in the gymnastics arena again for her son have also moved countless people to tears.
In addition to being moved, her son's illness could not be delayed any longer, although the government promised her that as long as she won the gold medal, her son's illness would be saved.
But now that the honor was returned, the rescue money was still not sent to her, and for a time, Chusovkina fell into an embarrassing situation.
In desperation, she had to find the Germans who had previously aided her, when they promised that as long as Chusovkina was willing to renounce uzbekistan citizenship to join them, they would let Chusovkina's son get the best treatment.
How could a mother allow her dying son to be left alone?
03
Later, she was misunderstood and insulted by countless people, and no one could understand her actions, but Chusovkina did not explain too much about it.
In the face of her sick son, a family that is not rich, as a mother and a wife, how should she choose.
Her son's illness made the already poor family worse, and Chusovkina knew clearly that as long as she joined and agreed to the conditions proposed by Germany, her son would be able to receive very professional treatment.
What mother would want to give up her child? She could only bury her head and rush forward.
In 2006, Chusovkina represented Germany at the World Championships, and in 2008 she competed again at the Olympics.
In the final vaulting competition, the thirty-three-year-old gymnastics veteran also finished second for Germany.
Few athletes have been able to hold out for five Olympic Games, and the glory period of athletes is very short, and she is still struggling for her son, who should have retired a long time ago.
However, the advantages of gymnasts themselves are related to age, and gymnasts who generally shine on the field are most likely to be younger, and teenage years are the most common.
And Chusovkina is surviving one teammate after another, leaving only herself to stick to the field.
After 2002, Chusovkina did not fight for honor anymore, but for her son.
The iron-clad Chusovykina, the flowing gymnast, her perseverance is only for her son to be able to recover.
Fortunately, love can touch the world, miracles will eventually happen, and after the game, there is good news that her son has recovered.
If you want to say that the previous games were all for her son, then in the future, Chusovkina can finally have no worries.
Later, she finished runner-up at the Gymnastics World Championships in Japan in 2011, this time not for her son, but for herself.
After more than twenty years of fighting, the first half of his life was for his son, and the second half of his life could finally let go of the big stone in his heart and participate in the competition painfully.
But after all, Chusovkina was already in her thirties at that time, and she was a person who could retire as a coach in the gymnastics world, and her abilities were naturally inferior to those of the teenagers.
So at the 2012 London Olympics, Chusovkina had already reached the final, but she didn't get a medal.
But this is also her sixth olympic participation, even if she did not win a medal, countless spectators in the stadium still cheered for the Olympic veteran!
Although the London Olympics failed to win medals, in the following gymnastics competitions, Chusovkina won the all-around championship, a gold medal and a silver medal.
This gymnastics veteran, who is nearly forty years old, also has to bloom her own light on the field.
However, after 2014, Chusovykina did not compete until the Rio Olympics in 2016 because of a recurrence of an old injury.
At the age of forty-one, she still chose to participate in the Rio Olympic Games, not only the participants, but also countless spectators in the stadium were also boiling over because of Chusovykina's participation, which was also her seventh time standing on the Olympic field.
In the face of the reporter's interview, she said very confidently: "Since my son recovered, I feel like I have returned to eighteen years old." "
This time, Chusovkina fought on behalf of the motherland, not Germany.
After ten years, she found that familiar feeling again. Although the arena was full of young children, she was not afraid, recalling the familiar feelings of training.
She could only fight hard, and this time she finished seventh in vaulting. In seven conquests, Chusovkina was an old man.
As a middle-aged gymnastics veteran, Chusovkina has never given up, and she has used her life to express her love for gymnastics.
In 2018, she participated in the Asian Games again, and won the silver medal, facing the girl who stood on the gold medal podium thirty years younger, she could not help but sigh that she was really old.
04
Even the most tenacious veteran will eventually retire one day.
Two years later, it happened to be the next Games, and chusovkina originally wanted to participate in this Olympic Games and retired, but because of the epidemic, the Olympic Games were postponed for a year.
Although there are many reluctances in the long career, it is time to say goodbye.
On August 25, 2021, Chusovkina finally waited for her eighth olympic participation in the Olympic Games, and in the face of the children who participated in the competition were all post-00s, Chusovykina's "mother" face was indeed very eye-catching.
The gymnastics veteran who has participated in the Olympic Games for eight consecutive times, although she regretted not reaching the final this time, her deeds will always be passed on in the sports world.
Originally, Chusovkina participated in the Tokyo Olympic Games as a standard-bearer, and she trained for a long time before the games, but when the Olympic Games began, she was informed that the identity of the standard-bearer was replaced, and no one told her why.
She was angry and aggrieved, a forty-six-year-old veteran, and she just wanted to end her career perfectly.
In the final game, the age is still a hard injury that can never be crossed, and all her opponents are either in her twenties or thirty years younger than herself.
As a sports veteran, the hero is at the end of the road, the glory she created has been left yesterday, and now it is the future created by the post-00s.
Finally, in the cheers, Chusovkina ushered in the last journey of her sports career, although she did not win the gold medal in the final competition, but the miracle she created was not something that could be summed up in this Olympic Games.
Fighting for honor in the early years, fighting for the son in the middle, and fighting for herself in the later stage, in the body of Chusovkina, we see the noble soul of a great athlete, and the firm maternal love of a great mother!