Nino Salukvadze set for 10th Games

Paris, July 17

Nino Salukvadze will become just the second athlete to compete at 10 Olympic Games when she steps up to the mark in Paris and the Georgian shooting great says that by reaching the milestone she will have fulfilled her father’s last request.

Salukvadze’s dream Olympics debut came as a 19-year-old at the 1988 Games in Seoul, where she won gold in the 25m pistol and silver in the 10m events for the former Soviet Union. Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London, Rio and Tokyo — she has not missed an Olympics since.

Salukvadze completed her medal set by winning 10m bronze in Beijing, this time for Georgia, and the 55-year-old will match Canadian equestrian Ian Millar’s record of 10 Olympics appearances when she competes in Paris. “Ten Olympiads — it’s my whole life,” Salukvadze said from Baku where she is in the final stages of her Olympics preparations.

“After the first Olympics, I couldn’t even imagine I’d compete in 10 Olympics. I will have to write a whole book (to explain my longevity), but the euphoria I experienced after winning forced me to train hard every day.”

That book will surely have a chapter devoted to her father Vakhtang, who coached her right from the start.

Her Rio experience, where she and Tsotne Machavariani became the first mother-son duo to compete at the same Olympics, would also feature prominently in it.

But there were times when it seemed the Tokyo Olympics would be the end of her story. “After Tokyo, I’d decided to give up,” she said. “But my father, who was 93, told me, ‘There are only three years before Paris, and maybe you try to win the quota …’ I thought my father had never asked for anything and this might be his last request. So I gathered all my strength and agreed. Today, despite the fact that my father passed away, I am happy that I fulfilled this request.”

Her son put the pressure on, too. “Also, my son threatened me: ‘If you surrender, I will also surrender …’” — Reuters