... or at least significantly changed.
Sir Matthew Pinsent is today reporting back from China about observing the training of young gymnasts for this Olympics, and the one after. The BBC reports:
He claimed children were in pain while training, and said: "It was a pretty disturbing experience. I was really shocked by some of what was going on." ...Pinsent felt children were being pushed beyond acceptable limits in pursuit of excellence and was disappointed that it appeared to be regarded as necessary.
But I would suggest that while China might be taking this to greater extremes than you normally see in the West, the basic problem lies with the sport. This is particularly a problem in women's, or I should say "girls'", gymnastics.
These are children - usually before puberty, or with all signs of puberty disguised by huge amounts of exercise and a restricted diet - doing things that only such small lithe bodies can do. Female gymnasts are usually washed out for serious competition by the age of 18, if not 16.
And to do these things even the girls have to put in vast numbers of hours of physically hard training - and many of course will fall by the wayside with injuries before they even see the inside of a competition hall - labelled as failures as 10, or 12, or 14. And what sort of education will they have received for other careers?
Oddly enough, the men - who perform different types of routines on different apparatus - are usually in their late teens or early 20s, much like athletes in other sports.
Aside from the sexualisation of routines - girls are expected to smile pleasingly while performing the most amazing physical feats - there's a question about a sport that ensures all of its participants are washed up before the age of 18.
The answer surely is to limit the age of participation - should children of 12 really be competing in Olympics and World Championships? And should the competition really require, and be judged, on the basis of what a child's body can do? Isn't this child labour, and child abuse - not just in China, but everywhere?
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - bhw
I think that the Olympics now has a minimum age requirement for "women's" gymnastics. I think it's still young, but 12-year-olds can't compete anymore. Doesn't mean they don't lose their lives to the sport, though.
My daughter, who's 7, wanted to start taking gymnastics. I signed her up at the school near our house for an hour/week class. I was afraid I'd see a bunch of girls in their teens who were starving themselves at this place. I'm happy to say that all the adolescent and teenage girls I've seen so far look to be a healthy height and weight. So it looks like this school keeps it all in perspective.
2 - Bill Wallo
Just as an aside, I think it is difficult to compare the men's gymnastics to the women's gymnastics in that the men's events emphasize strength over flexibility (watching somebody do an iron cross is, well, very painful), whereas the women's events are all about flexibility. You'd probably have to change the events themselves, not just the age limit.
Meanwhile, gymastics are far from the only sport which sees a commitment level in the very young. Tennis, soccer, basketball, baseball, and more all see those who want to be "the best" pushing themselves (and being pushed) from an early age. They don't have lists of the best 6th grade basketball players in America for nothing; how long has Michelle Wie been out hitting golf balls, after all, or Tiger Woods before her? Ice skaters, tennis stars, and more all compete at early ages.
Ultimately, I agree with the concern about children being pushed too far, too fast. At the same time, they don't say that sport is a young person's game for nothing.
3 - JR
Does gymnastics stunt their growth? They all seem to be short when they grow up.
I wouldn't let my daughter sign up for gymnastics.
4 - Matthew T. Sussman
JR,
I'd be amazed if it made them smaller (and, building off that, flat-chested) because those are two qualities that make it easier for gymnastic ability. Probably the gals that grow too tall end up playing some other sport.
5 - Rene
Once again I see this commentary as nothing less than sexist. It's ok for boys but not ok for girls. What a bunch of bullshit!
6 - Eric Berlin
I was a little confused at first -- thought this piece was advocating banning gymnastics from being taught in school gym classes.
At any rate, I think I could support raising the minimum age to a level where the kids (teens?) would be able to train in a healthy way while still living a semi-normal life, etc.
7 - Nathaniel Winn
Raising the age for Olympic competition does not address the *many* years of grueling training that children go through in preparation for such competition.
In other words, those 20 year old competitors were running laps while I was eating cereal and watching cartoons.
For those who make it, competing and winning, I'm guessing the loss of childhood was worth it. For those who gave up normal life, only to be rejected: I know a gal who trained as an ice skater. It was rough, tell you what.
Point being, gymnastics may be more obviously twisted, but the whole show is a bit . . . no worse than high school football, I guess.
8 - bhw
Does gymnastics stunt their growth? They all seem to be short when they grow up.
My mother-in-law is over 6 feet tall. I won't mind if gymnastics knocks and inch or two off my daughter's adult height. ;-)
9 - Natalie Bennett
I think you could indeed tackle all professional sports about the issue, but women's gymnastics is probably the worst.
And as Bill said, the only real way of tackling it is to change the sport, so that it is for grown bodies, not for those of children. And since this is the case for the men's sport - I just heard a British official on the radio saying that the peak age for "women's" gymnastics was 13 to 15, while for the men it was about 20 - if you make women's gymnastics more like men's in the nature of the competition and you have at least alleviated the problem.
I should perhaps also clarify that I'm talking about the serious competition stuff - of course there's nothing wrong with kids tumbling around a gym and having fun.
10 - vikk
Well, had the same thought as Eric when I first began reading and thought this was about gymnastics in school. When I went to school gymnastics was required for jr. high. I don't think there's any more cause for alarm with this sport than any other. I lived through it; enjoyed most of it. Although I never could climb that stupid rope.
There's always extremes and if there is real abuse going on then perhaps the Olympics and others should visit the age question, but perhaps it would be better to find out the cause first. Are the kids really wanting to do all this? Or is the parents, peer pressure, coaches, etc.
The other question is that if you want to excel in any field of endeavor, it requires long hours of learning and practice. I'm not as convinced as many in this day and age that children should not be encouraged to excel.
11 - Natalie Bennett
I'm certainly not against encouraging children to excel, but there are questions of what is age-appropriate. Sure 15, 16, 17 year olds choosing to work extremely hard, but FIVE, SIX, SEVEN year-olds, which is when the gymnasts are starting?
12 - Tan The Man
In regards to China, there was an ABC special I think during the 2000 Olympics that documented China's training programs for its future Olympians. It's not just gymnasts, but almost every sport. Because of the one child policy, many of the parents go all out with their only child to be successful. In sports, that means the child enrolls in a live-in training facility away from that child's home. It goes for swimming too.
13 - LegendaryMonkey
I'm not so sure that China is taking it more seriously than anyone else... it's an extremely competitive sport with a few short years in which a girl can really shine. I have a feeling all serious gymnasts may be that way and I agree, it's very sad.
14 - Purple Tigress
I wouldn't take China, a communist country, as the norm for gymnastics training. For them, it is a means of getting out of poverty and the girls can lift their families out of poverty. This is not the case in other countries, however.
Further, the author of the original post didn't know much about sports competition, evidenced by the lack of knowledge about minimum competition age for Olympic , world and national events.
I do feel there is a bit of sexism in the post. After all, why don't we stop little girls from taking ballet at five or six?
How young do boys start in sports?
There was a drastic change in women's gymnastics, led by Romania and Nadia Comaneci. If you want to change back, you'd have to make the competition age for nationals, worlds and the Olympics.
15 - Victor Plenty
Women's gymnastics competitions creep me out now, ever since that broadcast a few years back where John Tesh droned on and on about "little girls dancing for gold" (himself seemingly oblivious to just how creepy that sounds).
There is nothing the least bit sexist about Natalie Bennett's call for reforming women's gymnastics to improve the athleticism and tone down the cryptopornography of the sport.
Only trouble is, if we stop letting the Olympics exploit little girls in the gymnastics arena, we might have to do something about the exploitation in the figure skating rinks, as well.
16 - miss zara
Washed up by 18, if not 16?! The age of participation IS limited! Honey, do your research. I can see the argument you're trying to make here but a bit of fact checking wouldn't have killed you. I suggest googling the names of these Athens 2004 participants, and then having a look at their dates of birth. I shall stick to just that Olympics and not other recent competitions with equally high numbers of participants in their 20s, or we'd be here all year.
Svetlana Khorkina, Elena Zamolodchikova, Ludmilla Ezhova (Russia)
Annia Hatch, Mohini Bhardwaj (USA)
Oksana Chusovitina (Uzbekistan)
Alona Kvasha (Ukraine)
Kate Richardson (Canada)
Allana Slater, Lisa Skinner (Australia)
Isabelle Severino (France)
Daiane Dos Santos, Daniele Hypolito (Brazil)
Sara Moro (Spain)
Leyanet Gonzalez (Cuba)
Evgenia Kuznetsova (Bulgaria).
I suspect these ladies, some of them mothers, would set you straight if you asserted to them that gymnastics makes its athletes washed up by the age of 18.
Those are just the ones I know, I'll have missed a few. Certainly there are problems within the sport but I think you might want to sort you stereotypes out. Emaciated prepubescent is rather 20 years ago. Seriously, a quick go on the search engine would have told you that no 12 year olds compete in world or Olympic competition (don't think they've ever been allowed to actually).
17 - charlotte
i agree you should of done your research before making assumptions. gymnasts are naturally small in build and even if the elite ones didn't do gymnastics i am sure that they would be of small stature anyway.Gymnastics is a sport for small people just like sumo wrestling is a sport for very obese people it's what makes them good at it. the age limit was changed to 16 in senior competitions in i think 1996, i'm not sure do not hold me to that. But even before that the age limit was 15 for quiet a long time,obviously way back it was younger but this in 1972 when nadia comenici one the all around olympic title at 14. womens gymnastics can never be like mens as the sport as we know it would be completly different the way men's and women's gymnastics is done, is different because mens body's are stronger so strength is more concentrated on as the man's body can perform strenght moves better. Womens moves are also strength just with flexibility combined into them, to make them more graceful. just as in men's gymnastics you also have to be flexible.
to change the age limit and the types of moves that are in it would be completly changing the sport from what it is, and i am sure no one would let it happen. As for child abuse in gymnastics it does happen, but the harsh training that is required for elite gymnastics is necesscery to produce the best moves. Testing and going beyond the normal limits or the human body is what gymnastics is about that's what makes it the impressive sport it is.
18 - caitlin
you guys are so stupid. gymnastics is a sport not somthing you are forced to do. if it is banned i will hurt all of you retards.
19 - caitlin
you guys -go to hell
20 - Myja
Ok, let's stop and really think about the sport for a minute... Gymnastics is all about perfection and training for perfection is difficult, more so than other sports anyway. I do not think you can begin to compare our eastern counterparts with the way we train in the U.S.
My daughter is 8 and has been in competitive gymnastics since she was 4 years old. She trains 13 hours a week and never once have I EVER seen her without a smile on her face at gymnastics. Is it painful at times, well yes but isn't baseball painful at times or football for that matter? The only difference between Gymnastics and other sports is that gymnastics is all about the pursuit of perfection so the training required is probably a lot more time intensive but I have yet to see the stereotypical starving child being pushed beyond their own capabilities. They are generally well rounded children who excel in school and have a great sense of who they are...
21 - trae
I'm amazed at the lack of understanding with regards to gymnastics. My daughter is a 9 year old level 9 gymnast. She currently works out 20 hours per week with a few extra lessons thrown in. The reason gymnasts train the way they do is because if your body is not in peak performance you can get hurt. Gymnastics requires strength and flexibility and when those are not maximized you risk your child's safety. I have never pushed my daughter in gymnastics she chooses to go. She also never misses a brownie meeting, she always meets her goals in cookie sales. She excels in school and swimming and anything else she wants to put her mind to. The reason women "peak" in gymnastics younger than men is because women hit puberty later and mature at a younger age. The reason the girls are small is it gets difficult for larger girls to stay in the sport so they through attrition the smaller girls are the ones that remain in to become elite gymnasts. My son works out for 15 hours a week in football, and there are more injuries in that sport...maybe we shouldn't allow our children to compete in athletics. Perhaps a nation of fat under-achieving children is a better solution. Oh wait, we already lead the world in that arena. Perhaps you should address the eating disorders and lack of discipline among our obese children that sit around and watch tv all day. Gymnastics, football, basketball, swimming, skateboarding, tennis, golf...it doesn't matter the sport to be the best you have to put in the time.
22 - trae
Sorry about the typos, ...women hit puberty earlier not later and ...its difficult for larger girls to stay in the sport at the higher levels and through natural attrition the larger girls often-times leave the sport and the smaller girls are the ones that remain to become elite gymnasts.
23 - duane
OK, so it's either work out 20 hours a week, learning how to perform physical "tricks" that are of absolutely no use in the real world, or sit on your butt eating chips in front of the TV. Two possibilities? That's it?
24 - Silly Acrobat
You think the Chinese gymnastics program is harsh? Have a look at the circus. There you will see girls and boys as young as seven years old forced into unnatural positions until they cry, and kept there as they continue to wail. I have seen 11 year olds required to hold handstands for as long as an hour at a time or doing hundreds of repetitions of one arm press to handstands. Furthermore, the children who fail to do their exercises properly are sure be on the receiving end of a harsh lashing.
You can get your panties in a bunch over this, or you can just recognize that this is acceptable in Chinese culture, that it has gone on for perhaps two thousand years now, and that it is extremely unlikely to change now.
25 - penelope
ok, those who were asking if gymnastics stunts your growth, well in some ways it does, but to be an olympic gymnast you dont have to be short, it may help but look at Svetlana Khorkina, she retired from national competition after the athens olympics but she was tall. those who say that gymnasts starve themselves, they dont, look at ballet dancers their more likely to starve themselves to achieve, but gymnasts dont they know what to eat and what not to eat, most of the time their going to work it all off anyway. stand an international ballet dancer next to an olympic gymnast and youll be able to see the difference yourself