LONDON (GBR), July 25, 2012: There is no doubting that German gymnastics is enjoying a golden period at the moment. Indeed, at London 2012 Team Germany will be the only national delegation to have athletes competing in all categories of the three Olympic Gymnastics disciplines. And in doing so they will be breaking a number of records, with the oldest, one of the youngest and indeed the most experienced Olympic gymnasts all sporting German colours.
Twenty years after winning Team Gold at Barcelona 1992, 37-year-old Artistic gymnast Oksana Chusovitina will be taking part in an incredible sixth Olympic Games in London, setting a new record for Gymnastics.
The Uzbekistan-born athlete, who also claimed an individual Silver in the Vault four years ago in Beijing, had planned to retire in 2009, but since changing her mind she has gone on to add three further Silver medals in the Vault – two in the Europeans (2011 and 2012) and one at the Worlds (2011).
However, she has pledged that the 2012 Olympics really will be her swansong, and says that “helping Germany to reach the Team final in London” would be a great way to bow out, before she focuses on a coaching role with the Gymnastics team in her native Uzbekistan.
A veteran competitor she may be, but Chusovitina still won’t be the oldest gymnast at London 2012, or even, in fact, the oldest member of the German team. That honour will go to Trampolinist Anna Dogonadze, who at 39 will be the oldest competitor across any of the three disciplines.
Dogonadze, who originally hails from Georgia, has been an ever-present on the Olympic scene ever since Trampoline was first introduced at Sydney 2000. Having defied both the clock and back problems to book her ticket to London, she is confident that she can rekindle the form that saw her claim Gold at Athens 2004.
“My free programme in London won’t be as difficult as it was in 2004,” she says. With ‘time of flight’ now factored into the overall score, her routine takes 19 instead of 18.5 seconds. But she remains confident she has the recipe for success. “I don’t just train for height. And anyway, I always perform a metre higher at [official] competitions.”
Meanwhile, at the other end of the age spectrum her compatriot Jana Berezko-Marggrander is set to become the second youngest individual Rhythmic gymnast at London 2012. The 16-year-old, who claimed the Bronze medal at the Youth Olympic Games in 2010, will be looking to improve on that feat at senior level. In London, she and her team-mates will in fact become the first ever Rhythmic gymnasts to represent Germany on the Olympic stage, underlining the remarkable progress that the discipline has made in the country during the last four-year cycle.
The Men’s Artistic competition in London will have an intriguing German sub-plot with both Philipp Boy and Fabian Hambüchen rated as serious Gold medal contenders. The 23-year-old Boy, the current European All-around champion, is a consummate Horizontal Bar specialist.
Meanwhile, 24-year-old Hambüchen – voted Germany’s Sportsman of the Year in 2007 – has already established a solid Olympic pedigree, having claimed Bronze in the Horizontal Bar in Beijing; and he goes into London 2012 having hit a vein of form, with triumphs at both the recent German Championships and Olympic trials.
London 2012 represents, quite literally, a gilt-edged opportunity for German gymnastics to show just how far it has progressed over the last cycle. —- FIG/Image © FIG
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