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BBC News
a day ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Olympic great Chusovitina, 50, wins World Challenge Cup silver
Uzbekistan's Oksana Chusovitina marked her 50th birthday with a silver medal at the Gymnastics World Challenge Cup - 33 years after she became an Olympic was part of a Unified Team of athletes from post-Soviet nations that won the team all-around gold at the 1992 Barcelona Games, and has competed at eight Olympics in decades later the Uzbek, who is also a three-time world champion, is still winning medals in a sport in which most retire in their in her native country at the International Gymnastics Federation's World Challenge Cup in Tashkent one day after her birthday, Chusovitina took silver behind Bulgaria's Valentina Georgieva - who, at 18, is 32 years her Paris 2024, Chusovitina had competed at every summer Olympic Games since was looking to equal the record - set by Georgian shooter Nino Salukvadze, who is the only Olympian to have competed in nine consecutive Games - for most Olympic appearances in a row last year in injury ruled her out of the Asian Championships, meaning she was unable to qualify. 'I just decided to save myself for the competition' Chusovitina was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2017, and eight years later she remains the only member to still be competing after their had made it clear in February that she was targeting her home World Cup. "In June, on my 50th birthday, we will have a competition here in Tashkent. It will be a World Challenge Cup, and I really want to compete there so I'm keeping my fingers crossed," she said. Earlier this month she withdrew from the Asian Championships during the final of the vault in order to ensure she could compete in Tashkent. 'Why should I leave the sport if it brings me joy?' After her team gold in Barcelona, she represented Uzbekistan at the next three Games but, after moving to Germany when her son was diagnosed with leukaemia, she gained citizenship and switched second Olympic medal was a silver in the vault while representing Germany at the 2008 Beijing represented Germany at the 2012 Games in London then switched back to Uzbekistan for the 2016 Rio Olympics - and qualified for the delayed Games in Tokyo in did briefly retire after the Tokyo Games, but returned to the sport just 67 days about the decision in 2023, she said: "I just realised, I felt that I can do this. Why should I leave the sport if it brings me joy?".Previously this season she had won gold at the Baku World Cup and bronze at the Cottbus World the time athletes head out to the United States for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, Chusovitina will be 53 years of age, but she has not ruled out a ninth trip to the Olympics."My number one goal is to get to Los Angeles," she said before this week's competition. "But there is so much time before then, so I'm not thinking that far ahead. I go step by step, from one competition to the next. If it happens, it happens. If not, then no. But I will try, and I will give it everything I've got."
BBC News
27-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
US gymnastics legend Mary Lou Retton arrested for drink driving
Legendary US Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton is facing charges of driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs after she was arrested in her West Virginia hometown earlier this month. According to court records, Retton was arrested in Fairmount in Marion County on 17 May. She was released the same day after paying a $1,500 bond (£1,100) and has not yet entered a plea. Retton, 57, shot to global fame after becoming the first American woman to win the all-around gold for gymnastics at the Los Angeles Olympics in arrest come almost two years after she survived a rare form of pneumonia. Retton refused to take a breathalyzer test or blood test after her Texas-registered Porsche was pulled over by police, according to the criminal complaint. She allegedly failed a sobriety test and was slurring her words. Officers say they observed a container of wine in the car and she smelled of BBC has contacted the lawyer listed as her representative in the court documents for comment. Retton is from the city of Fairmount and there is a street there named after her in the northern West Virginia winning multiple medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Retton was nicknamed "America's Sweetheart". She appeared on Wheaties cereal boxes and was named Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportswoman of the was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2022, former gymnast spent nearly two weeks in hospital intensive care after a rare form of pneumonia left the her fighting for her the time, her daughter posted in an online fundraiser that Retton did not have health insurance and needed money to fund her treatment. More than $500,000 was raised, leading many to question why the famous athlete was uninsured. In an NBC interview last year, Retton said she was struggling financially after a divorce in 2018 and the Covid-19 pandemic. She said she was still using supplemental oxygen to breath.
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Olympic champion Mary Lou Retton arrested for DUI in West Virginia
Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton was arrested for DUI earlier this month, according to records on the West Virginia Judiciary website. The 57-year-old was charged with 'driving under influence of alcohol, controlled substances, or drugs' after her arrest on 17 May in Marion county, West Virginia, according to the records. She was released after posting a $1,500 bond. Retton became a household name in the US after she won five medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, including a gold in the all-around competition – the first individual Olympic gymnastics medal ever won by an American – scoring a perfect 10 on the vault in the final rotation. The West Virginia native's performance landed her on the front of Wheaties boxes and keyed the sport's explosion in popularity in the United States. After her gymnastics career, Retton remained active in the media, appearing in a number of films and TV shows. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997 and was the first woman to be selected into the Houston Sports Hall of Fame in 2020. Retton also served on the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports under US president George W Bush. In 2023, she fell seriously ill with pneumonia and was in ICU for a number of weeks. At the time her daughter Kelley said her mother was 'fighting for her life' and started a fundraiser to cover medical costs for Retton, who did not have medical insurance. Donations to the fundraiser ended up totaling nearly $500,000. Retton recovered but said she had 'faced death in the eyes' during her illness.
