Tbilisi: The Rio Olympics will be the eighth Games for Georgian shooter Nino Salukvadze, but it will be the first time when she will be joined by a very special teammate — her own son.
It is believed to be the first such case in Olympic history when a mother and her son will compete side by side.
“I am very happy and very proud that I will be competing alongside my son. We will do our best to perform well,” Salukvadze, 47, told Reuters.
Salukvadze was 19 when she won a gold medal in the women’s 25-metre sporting pistol competition and silver in the women’s 10-metre air pistol competition at the 1988 Seoul Olympics when she represented the team of the now defunct Soviet Union.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics she won a bronze medal for Georgia in a 10-metre air pistol event.
Salukvadze’s 18-year-old son Tsotne Machavariani shot a personal best in the 10-metre air pistol at the European Championship in February to get an Olympic qualifying spot.
“It’s a double joy for me, because I will participate in the Olympics for the first time in my life and because I will compete in Rio alongside my mother,” Machavariani said.
Salukvadze said she believed that family relations do not matter in sports and should not cool sport ardour.
“But, frankly speaking, I am a mother after all and will be a fan of my son in Rio,” she said.
