Oksana Chusovitina has made her final somersault on the Olympic vault after competing for more than two decades in six Olympics. Her long and successful career has inspired other gymnasts.

The 37-year-old has won a record nine world championship medals on a single event, the vault. She finished her career in London in fifth place on her signature apparatus. She said she would spend more time with her son, whose illness had prompted her to prolong her unmatched career.

Uzbek-born Chusovitina moved to Germany after her son Alisher was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukaemia at the age of three in 2002. In the 1992 Barcelona Games, Chusovitina won team gold with the former Soviet Union’s Unified Team. She claimed silver on the vault at the Beijing Games under the German flag.