“Another long interview with Chusovitina: https://t.co/RIGmirRhm9”
Translation of a nice interview with chuso:
After receiving the title of Honoured Coach of UZB she wants to open her own gym even more. The president promised to make this happen, and that it will be the best club around.
They show the silly dance she does on her Insta at the meeting of the President & UZB team and says that shows her typical daily mood - she's very a very positive & happy person
They ask whether the title makes up for the incident with the flag at the OG. She says you can't relate the two. She's not the person to hold a grudge and has let it go and moved on.
Her brother did gym and started taking her with him she she wouldn't be at home alone. For the first while she trained with the boys because she liked it better with them. When she was 8 she moved to the girls group.
It's just coincidence that she ended up in gymnastics as she doesn't have a sporty family, had never seen gym on TV or watched the OG. When people asked her as a kid what she wanted to be she would say "a policeman" as she had no concept of being a gymnastics champion
She was first noticed by the national team at the Komsomolka competition in Tashkent, a jnr comp for KMS level, she thinks in 1987. Aleksandrov was the head coach at that time. She won the AA and was invited to Round Lake for the 1st time
She actually didn't like the 1st training camp at all. It was a different regime and expectations, and she also felt the other girls weren't very nice. Now she understands that it was because it was very competitive to get on the team
When the USSR collapsed she never had any thoughts about going to compete for Russia. She came back to UZB and only thought about competing for them. Her parents were actually working and living in Russia, but she stayed in UZB
Her coach was in UZB, she had grown up as a gymnast there. She never actually wanted to compete for another country.
She's asked what kind of official privileges etc her titles have granted her and she's not sure! She says she will find out as now she has time to :) She knows that you do get a lifetime pension for titles and Olympic medals.
Toyota was the sponsor of the Bundesliga club she was competing for at the time her son was ill & provided the guarantee for him to get a place in the hospital. They needed this in case they didn't manage to raise the funds to prove that the cost of treatment would still be paid.
After she got her citizenship there was never any pressure on her to compete and win medals for Germany, it was completely up to her whether she wanted to or not.
Her coach in Germany was Zhanna Polyakova who is originally from BLR. Oksana credits her with teaching her how to get enjoyment from and love gymnastics.
She always planned on returning to UZB once her son was better. The host says many people might be surprised at this decision after having lived in Germany. She felt the opposite :) She loves Tashkent & adores UZB, it's her home.
There was no issue transferring back to competing for UZB, Germany gave the release and UZB accepted, no animosity from Germany for leaving and UZB happy to have her back!
She just knew Tokyo would be her last time competing, and not that she doesn't love gymnastics any more, just that it was time.
Oksana thanks the host for being the first to name & describe all her own elements correctly! She explains that most of them came about spontaneously, ie doing the twist in the 1st salto wasn't working so they tried it on the 2nd.
They never purposefully tried to be innovative, didn't always know if they were the 1st person to do it etc.
She is asked to explain how difficult her skills are to the layperson. She uses the HS 540 vault as an example and says there are only about 5 people in the world who do it. Asked to name them, she says Moreno, Steingruber, the Korean gymnast, Akhaimova & her.
She doesn't consider herself a legend or a hero. She's a person who does something she enjoys. Asked how she would label herself in the sports world she says "just a good person".
Her decision to finish after Tokyo felt easy until her last performance when she got the standing ovation and had tears in her eyes. Then she realised it wasn't that simple! [I'm gonna cry again 😭😭😭]
Re flag incident. Still doesn't know the reason that happened & so doesn't have much to say. Thinks if they weren't sure they shouldn't have announced it. Athletes are sensitive, take things to heart and that the officials didn't think about how much that could affect someone.
She cried a lot that night and was really upset about it. It's still very painful, and you could see it in her eyes in the interview :(
It did affect her performance. She didn't have the same fire in her eyes & same adrenaline as usual. During the OG she didn't read any media about her etc. Mentions she spoke with Nemov, Boginskaya later - they know her well enough to leave her alone at the time.
The host compliments her and says she saw all the photos of her with the RUS, USA team etc at the OG and that she looks amazing. Oksana says "I know!"
She jokes about how in warm up etc the younger gymnasts are so respectful to her, sometimes they offer for her to go ahead of them etc and it's like letting elders get on the bus first :)
Her plans now are to live a full life, open her gym and enrol kids, raise new stars, and enjoy life.
Asked about current situation with gymnastics in UZB she says they have good juniors and so it's okay. Explains its very hard to qualify a team. Doing so for 2024 isn't realistic but they will try to do so by 2028.
She will try to enrol as many kids as possible at her gym as she knows the more you start with, the better chance that some will continue to a high level.
She names upcomers in UZB as Dildora Aripova, Anastasiya Mishnichenko and also that they have new seniors next year so should have a full team at the Asian Games.
Asked what is the meaning of life. Oksana struggles to think of an answer, but decides it is to make the world a kinder place. It's not sport, that's a hobby. She knows that people are kind, just sometimes they don't know it themselves :)
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