Gymnastics' grande dame, 33-year-old Oksana Chusovitina, a 1992 gold medalist, is beginning anew in Beijing after having competed once for the Unified Team cobbled together from the remnants of the Soviet Union and three times for her native Uzbekhistan.This will be Chusovitina's 5th Olympics--a record for a female gymnast--but her first for Germany, the country that took her in five years ago and provided medical assistance that saved her leukemia-stricken son, Alisher.Alisher is now a second-grader and a gymnast. His mother is still "the very best gymnast on the [German] team," according to German gymnastics official Gert-Peter Brueggemann.In this photo, Oksana Chusovitina of Germany celebrates after winning the women inividual all rounder competition of the German Artistic Gymnastics Championships at the Richard-Hartmann hall on June 7, 2008 in Chemnitz, Germany.Oksana Chusovitina
Gymnastics' grande dame, 33-year-old Oksana Chusovitina, a 1992 gold medalist, is beginning anew in Beijing after having competed once for the Unified Team cobbled together from the remnants of the Soviet Union and three times for her native Uzbekhistan.This will be Chusovitina's 5th Olympics--a record for a female gymnast--but her first for Germany, the country that took her in five years ago and provided medical assistance that saved her leukemia-stricken son, Alisher.Alisher is now a second-grader and a gymnast. His mother is still "the very best gymnast on the [German] team," according to German gymnastics official Gert-Peter Brueggemann.In this photo, Oksana Chusovitina of Germany celebrates after winning the women inividual all rounder competition of the German Artistic Gymnastics Championships at the Richard-Hartmann hall on June 7, 2008 in Chemnitz, Germany.
