I would think that the older, bigger, and stronger physically a girl gets in gymnastics, it could produce some negative consequences also. Two or three of our girls’ performances on the mat ended with them stepping out of bounds. They build up so much speed and being bigger, momentum, that it seems they could much more easily go out of bounds. A smaller, younger, feather-lite little Chinese girl would have to work very hard to go out of bounds. That is just one thing that I noticed.
Yup, not much else to say but “I agree.”
Actually have been wondering if the chicoms made the mats on the floor exercise a little “bouncier” in order to help out their “feather-lite” athletes. Would explain some of the out-of-bounds mistakes that happened in the team comp, and then the Americans adjusted to clinch gold and silver in the later individuals (which if true is just frankly unfreaking amazing).