Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 18, 2021: Celebrated gymnast Oksana Chusovitina and boxer Bobo-Usmon Baturov will be the flag-bearers for Uzbekistan at the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games on July 23.
The National Olympic Committee of Uzbekistan named its pair of flag-bearers – the IOC promoting gender equality has requested each country to have one male and one female - for the July 23-August 8 Tokyo Games and the legendary Chusovitina will become the first woman to be a flag bearer for Uzbekistan at a Summer Olympic Games.
It will be a record eighth successive appearance at the Olympic Games for the 46-year-old Chusovitina, whose first Olympics was back in 1992 in Barcelona where she won a gold medal in the team event as a member of the Unified Team.
Her trophy cabinet now holds no less than two Olympic medals (a silver medal in vault at Beijing 2008), 11 World Championship medals (three gold, four silver and four bronze), eight Asian Games medals (two gold, four silver and two bronze), two World Cup medals (one gold and a bronze), four Asian Championship medals and four European Championship medals.
Boxer Baturov won gold in the welterweight division at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang and is also a two-time Asian Championship gold medallist.
Uzbekistan will be represented by 71 athletes in 17 sports in Tokyo. This is a record for the country at the Olympics in terms of the number of sports. Another milestone for Uzbekistan is the number of female athletes – 30 – taking part.
