Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2008 12:35:59 GMT -5
Read closely: 1) They should be able to beat 14-year-olds or 2) if 14-year-olds are the best athletes in your sport, there is something wrong with your sport.
Thank you for your attention.
|
|
|
Post by BearClause on Aug 22, 2008 12:41:58 GMT -5
The fact it's a rule doesn't change the fact this is whining. So anyone who complains about steroid use is whining? I put falsifying a legal document to circumvent a rule in the same catagory. Also note that there are a number of countries out there who have "under-age" gymnasts (including the USA) who could have helped their teams. Those girls were not allowed to compete. Cheating is cheating. Given that the Olympics occur in four-year cycles, it's kind of an accident of birth to hit the "sweet spot". There seems to be an ideal age window where a competitor is old enough to qualify yet young enough to avoid the weight/growth spurt that hinders the ability to perform.
|
|
|
Post by tenniscraze on Aug 22, 2008 13:13:17 GMT -5
Read closely: 1) They should be able to beat 14-year-olds or 2) if 14-year-olds are the best athletes in your sport, there is something wrong with your sport. Thank you for your attention. It's not about beating or losing to 14 year olds. It's about fair play for every team, because other countries could have fielded gymnasts below 16 that are just as talented or even better than the underaged Chinese girls.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2008 13:25:03 GMT -5
No, that's another issue. This is about whining and about the two points I made.
If this is true (and I doubt it), it reinforces point 2.
For the record, I doubt 1) other countries could field under 16 gymnasts better than their 16 and over gymnasts and 2) IF they could that they would be better than China's.
|
|
|
Post by NoAlt on Aug 22, 2008 13:39:21 GMT -5
There isn't much difference between 14 year girl and 16 year girl. Even if they are 14, I bet they still look the same in 2 years. Michelle Wie was 6 ft tall when she was 13 and she looks the same 5 years later.
Those people that pick on their looks are racists.
|
|
|
Post by bownlovingfreak on Aug 22, 2008 13:39:51 GMT -5
Well in gymnastics there has been a history of 14-15 year old prodigies that peak at that time. Sometimes they don't make it as the mental pressure, injuries, etc hamper their development.
I know at the 1995 Worlds in gymnastics, Dominique Moceanu was 13 I believe and did extremely well.
Rules are rules, and if there wasn't an age limit USA's team (and probably others) would've have looked a lot different. In fact, one of China's medalists in 2000 from Sydney just revealed she was actually underaged.
These age limits are put in for a reason, and the FIG believes its to protect children from the stresses of competition and expectation. However, they allow the Olympic gold medalists to cheat. I see the future of gymnastics, which is a great sport, being even more corrupt unless something is done.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2008 13:53:25 GMT -5
If it is such a great sport, why are 14-year-olds better than 16-year-olds? I'm serious. Don't you think there is something fundamentally wrong when this is the case? It's not that I don't appreciate gymnastics and the skills involved. But why are 14 years old better and why do they need to be protected? Answer those questions and you'll start to get at the real problem.
Of course, cheating is cheating. But there's a bigger problem.
And they are still whining.
|
|
|
Post by TheSantaBarbarian on Aug 22, 2008 13:55:29 GMT -5
To quote a former coach, "Women's gymnastics is a race against puberty". A name for the ages, Nadia Comaneci was 14. It is a sport where younger is better for two reasons. First because they often start very young. Shawn Johnson started at age 6, the Chinese start many of their girls at age 3. The sport is so hard on the athletes that by age 16-20 they often have multiple recurring/chronic injuries. Two, at puberty, the women start to add weight, but unlike men do not add muscle mass at the same time. Therefore all the flying around they do becomes more difficult as they add that weight and their flexibility starts to decline as well. Of course, there are always exceptions, but this is the rule.
Bottom line (R)uffda!, if you want to declare the sport broken because 14 year olds can beat 16 year olds, fine. But the fact is that this sport is a young girls sport, whether you want to admit it or not.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2008 14:08:54 GMT -5
OK, it's a girls' sport. Then make it a girls' sport, one that does not destroy their bodies. Then make the women's sport more age appropriate. It doesn't seem like it would be that hard: just require additional strength, as in some of the men's exercises.
They can't have it both ways. The want to ban 14-year-olds while still running a sport that requires 18-year-olds (or whatever) to maintain the bodies of 14-year-olds (or younger).
Why was Shawn Johnson penalized so often when competing against the Chinese (and others)? Because she's STRONG and _relatively_ stocky. So they mark her down!
There is something fundamentally rotten in gymnastics' Denmark...
|
|
|
Post by Wolfgang on Aug 22, 2008 15:21:22 GMT -5
What I don't get is, why did NBC show exhibition gymnastics instead of some real and genuine Olympic competition? This happens in the Winter Olympics, too, where they show exhibition figure skating at the expense of the lower profile sports. God, I hate mainstream TV!!!!!!
|
|
|
Post by pogoball on Aug 22, 2008 15:34:19 GMT -5
What I don't get is, why did NBC show exhibition gymnastics instead of some real and genuine Olympic competition? This happens in the Winter Olympics, too, where they show exhibition figure skating at the expense of the lower profile sports. God, I hate mainstream TV!!!!!! Did they do this again??!!! AAUUGH I HATE^3 this. They do this every Olympics. There are athletes competing for their once-in-a-lifetime gold medals and they show a gymnastics exhibition instead. This is why the CBC is better TV during the Olys.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2008 15:42:13 GMT -5
The worst thing they do is show the competition live. There is SO MUCH DOWN TIME in gymnastics. I don't want to listen to Al Trautwig musing about Shawn Johnson's emotional state. I really don't. Hell, I don't want to listen to Al _at all_.
If ever a sport was made for taping (and editing down to 10 minutes of "action"), it's gymnastics.
|
|
|
Post by Vball818 on Aug 22, 2008 17:13:49 GMT -5
I suspect the USA men gymnasts are girls. I know Tim Dagget is Tim Dagget...are you sure?
|
|
|
Post by BearClause on Aug 23, 2008 19:10:16 GMT -5
No, that's another issue. This is about whining and about the two points I made. If this is true (and I doubt it), it reinforces point 2. For the record, I doubt 1) other countries could field under 16 gymnasts better than their 16 and over gymnasts and 2) IF they could that they would be better than China's. Perhaps an overstatement. I checked out a few message boards on the subject, and one opinion was that there were certainly American gymnasts under the required age for the Olympics who were "known quantities". Many were generally thought to be better gymnasts than some members of the team as assembled but couldn't compete in the Olympics because of their age. Same goes for other countries. The "race against puberty" comment was dead on. Remember the movie "War of the Roses" where Kathleen Turner's character started off as a college gymnast? She noted that her tumbling ability was hampered by her size after a growth spurt, but she still did well in the "strength moves".
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2008 19:16:25 GMT -5
I actually liked the rhythmic gymnastics finals today. Some pretty cool stuff.
|
|