Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina marked her 50th birthday with a silver medal in the vault at the Gymnastics World Challenge Cup – 33 years after she became an Olympic champion.

Chusovitina 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 total.

Three 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 twenties.

Competing in her native country at the International Gymnastics Federation’s World Challenge Cup in Tashkent one day after her birthday, Chusovitina took vault silver behind Bulgaria’s Valentina Georgieva – who, at 18, is 32 years her junior.

Until Paris 2024, Chusovitina had competed at every summer Olympic Games since 1992.

She 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 Paris.

However, injury ruled her out of the Asian Championships, meaning she was unable to qualify.