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Oldest competitor Chusovitina eyes Beijing
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-22 11:25
BLOOD TEST
The sacrifices in the gym, and in moving to Germany, have paid off, with
Alisher, now six, much better, she said.
"Alisher is doing very well. Three times per month he must have a blood test,
otherwise he is a normal child.
"He is coming to the gym and is happily growing."
A four-time Olympian, Chusovitina was a member of the gold-medal winning
Unified Team in Barcelona, and finished 10th in the all-round competition in
1996 before she retired in 1997 and married Kurbanov in 1998.
She and Kurbanov both competed at the Sydney Olympics, where he finished
fifth in his weight class in the Greco-Roman wrestling, while she failed to
qualify for the all-round final after making a mistake on the asymmetric bars.
Alisher's diagnosis with lymphatic leukaemia in 2002 necessitated the
family's move to Germany, where the decision was made for Chusovitina to
continue competing while Kurbanov remained at home.
The 1.53-metre gymnast threw herself into the 2002 world championships in
Debrecen, Hungary, entering all four apparatus competitions, qualifying for
three finals and winning bronze in the vault.
In 2003, she won Uzbekistan's first gold medal as an independent nation when
she clinched the vault in the world championships in Anaheim and qualified for
the Athens Olympics.
VAULT TITLE
A leg injury hampered her preparations for the Athens Games and she failed to
make the final for the vault.
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