At 55, Georgia’s Nino Salukvadze will compete in her tenth Olympics when she takes part in tomorrow’s 10m air pistol women qualification at Chateauroux, thus matching the current record for Games appearances held by Canada’s equestrian athlete Ian Millar.
Uniquely, Salukvadze’s Olympic appearances will be consecutive as Millar, who made his first Games appearance at Munich in 1972 and his last at London in 2012, was unable to compete in the 1980 Moscow Games due to Canada being among the countries who boycotted those Olympics following the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.
Ahead of her appearance at the Tokyo 2020 Games, where she became the first female athlete to take part in nine Olympics, Salukvadze was chosen as one of her country’s flag-bearers at the Opening Ceremony. It was the second time she had been honoured in this way.
Salukvadze became the first female in the history of the Games to qualify for 10 consecutive editions after earning an Olympic quota place by finishing fourth in the women's 25m pistol event at 2023 European Games Kraków-Małopolska in Wroclaw.
In the course of her Olympic career she has earned gold silver and bronze medals in pistol shooting events.
Salukvadze was also involved in another piece of Olympic history at the Rio 2016 Games, where she became the first mother to compete on the same team as her son.
Coached by Salukvadze, Tsotne Machavariani, who was 18 at the time of those Games in Brazil, had begun the year by finishing sixth in the 10m air pistol men at the European Championships and is still competing in ISSF competitions.
Four years earlier shooting sport had provided a similar family feature at the London Olympics, where Kuwaiti father and son Abdullah Alrashidi and Talal Alrashidi competed in trap and skeet events.
Salukvadze’s Olympic record began at the 1988 Seoul Games where, representing the Soviet Union, she won gold in the 25m pistol, setting a world record, and took silver in the 10m air pistol.
She has maintained a record of competing in both pistol events in her subsequent eight Games, at which she represented the Unified Team in 1992 and Georgia thereafter.
At the Beijing 2008 Games she completed her medal set aged 39 when she won bronze in the 10m air pistol women. Georgia and Russia were at war during these Games, and Salukvadze shared the podium with Russia’s silver medallist Natalia Paderina. The two athletes shared a hug and shook hands in what was widely seen as a peaceful sporting gesture.