Uzbekistan's Chusovitina not ready to call it quits

Uzbekistan's 41-year-old Oksana Chusovitina still enjoys competitive gymnastics and is even eyeing the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which would be her eighth Games.

After finishing seventh in the vault final in Rio on Sunday, she received a message from her teenage son.

"He said he was proud of me," said Chusovitina, who has kept prolonging her career in order to provide for her son and herself.

"I just love this sport. I still like to train and compete. That's why I still go on," she said before the competition.

"My biggest goal here in Rio is to make it to the vault final."

Competing with much younger athletes didn't bother her and she managed to reach the vault final as the fifth qualifier.

"If they gave a few more marks for age, it would have been great," she said.

"Otherwise, we're all equal and we just have to compete with each other as equals."

Chusovitina said she didn't feel any pain after the final.

She said she has decided to try to prolong her career for another four years in order to compete at the Tokyo Games, but she has not yet told her son.

"He always says, 'Mom, don't do complicated things. Be careful. Don't jump. Sleep well'."

Chusovitina felt she was both mentally and physically fit to compete in Rio.

In Sunday's final, she even managed to perform a routine with the highest degree of difficulty score of 7.0 points.

"In general, I like to try new things so that's why I decided to try competing on the vault," she said.

(China Daily 08/16/2016 page5)