Jordan Jovtchev of Bulgaria during the menâs gymnastics qualification on Saturday. He is 39, and his specialty puts him at high risk for injuries.  LONDON — From a distance, Oksana Chusovitina blends in with the other Olympic gymnasts. Like the rest, she is tiny — about 5 feet and 100 pounds — and nimble, flying through the air during her powerful vault as if shot from a cannon.  Oksana Chusovitina is 37 and has a teenage son, but she is a medal contender for Germany as she competes in her sixth Olympic Games.  But in a sport known to prize the curveless bodies and the fearlessness of prepubescence — it has a recurring problem with under-age athletes competing for countries trying to gain an edge — Chusovitina is the exception to the rule.  At 37, she is about two decades older than most of her competitors. The average age of the United States team is just over 16, the age of eligibility for gymnasts at the Summer Games. Chusovitina’s son is only three years younger.  Nearly 90 percent of her fellow competitors had not been born when she won the junior national championship in the Soviet Union in 1988. About two-thirds of them had not been born when she became a two-time world champion in 1991.  With the former Soviet Union, she won a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Sixteen years later, competing for Germany, she won a silver medal on vault at the Beijing Games, a span of success unheard-of in the sport.  Now, for reasons she cannot explain, Chusovitina is at her sixth Olympics, setting a record for women after countless hours of pounding on joints not meant to endure so much wear and tear. She has not only survived, but also thrived in a sport that devours athletes through injuries.  In London, she is challenging convention as a favorite to win another Olympic medal on vault.  “Am I old? I don’t feel old,” Chusovitina said in Russian, through a translator, as if answering a ridiculous question. “I’m not doing anything amazing. I’m just like everybody else here.”  A closer look at Chusovitina, though, reveals faint lines on her face and callused, weathered hands. Her short haircut also sets her apart from her younger counterparts. Training with her team last Thursday, she was the only one without a bouncy ponytail kept in place by a sparkly yellow scrunchy. In a sea of gymnasts wearing mascara and eye shadow, her face was bare.  On the men’s side, Bulgaria’s Jordan Jovtchev will turn 40 in February. In a sport dominated by youth, he and Chusovitina make a striking pair. Jovtchev, a six-time Olympian and four-time medalist, has receding gray hair. On Saturday, he was one of eight to qualify for the still rings final.  “The only time there could have been two gymnasts this old at the Olympics was in the mid-1900s, when gymnastics wasn’t as grueling,” said John Roethlisberger, a three-time Olympian for the United States. “I think it’s amazing. They are genetic freaks that found the level to train at that keeps them from getting injured.”  Peter Pidcoe, a biomechanics expert and gymnastics coach who teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University, said it was surprising that gymnasts could compete at the Olympics into their late 30s because tendons and ligaments stiffen with age. Bodies need to be flexible to absorb force across the joints, he said, and inflexibility invites injury.  The force with which gymnasts’ hands hit the vaulting table produces “very, very high impulse loads,” he said, which, coupled with inflexibility, can result in tissue damage. That is why gymnasts usually cannot remain in the sport for decades.  “More force equates to more potential damage,” Pidcoe said. “Once bones reach their ultimate load point, they break, and that point decreases with age.”  He added, “If you vault on joints that don’t bend, it’s going to knock your fillings out.”  Rings specialists like Jovtchev are also at high risk for injuries, Pidcoe said. They tear shoulders, rotator cuffs and biceps because nearly every move on the apparatus, especially swinging, places great stress on the joints.  Jovtchev’s shoulders and biceps are so damaged that he now trains only 90 minutes a week. He is also competing with a bulging, broken right wrist.
Gymnastics is dominated by youth, but Oksana Chusovitina, 37, and Jordan Jovtchev, 39, are competing in their sixth Olympics.