A Mother And Son To Compete In The Same Olympics For The First Time

Rio de Janeiro: Nino Salukvadze of Georgia (the country that borders the Black Sea, not the U.S. state) will compete in her eighth Olympic Games this summer in Rio, which is enough of an accomplishment. Only one other woman — canoeist Josefa Idem-Guerrini, who represented both West Germany and Italy - has competed in so many Olympics.

But the three-time shooting medalist will have an added bonus for her longevity: Salukvadze’s son, Tsotne Machavariani, also has been named to Georgia’s shooting team, making the pair the first mother-son combination to ever compete together at the same Games. “I am very happy as the representative of the Georgian shooting federation but a million times happier as a mother that my son managed to do this,” Nino told the Associated Press.

There have been 70 previous instances of a parent and child competing at the same Olympics, but never mother and son. Fathers and sons have competed together 56 times, fathers and daughters 12 times and mothers and daughters twice, the last time way back in 1908 when Great Britain’s Jessie Wadworth competed alongside daughter Brenda in the archery competition.

Salukvadze, who turned 47 in February, took home two medals at the 1988 Games while competing for the Soviet Union in Seoul, winning gold in the 25-meter women’s sporting pistol and silver in the 10-meter women’s air pistol. She also won bronze for Georgia at the 2008 Beijing Games in the 10-meter women’s air pistol, afterward attracting notice for kissing a Russian shooter on the medal podium in an act of peace.