Yes, and I’ve stood next to my share of Chinese women, too... Being 4 feet 6 inches, and 70 pounds and look about 15% years younger (3 years younger at age 20, 4 years younger at 30, etc) than they really are.
I’m 6 feet tall - slightly above average in the US. In most places in China I tower over everyone. Few and far between can come close to looking me in the eyes, and none really match my girth (size 64 jacket, size 46 slacks).
Pretty much most of Asia has women - and men - a lot smaller than we think, and fully developed leaves them looking a lot younger...
Are they too young? They may be! But simple looks and comparisons side-by-side are not good indicators, especially when considering the genetic differences between races.
“Are they too young? They may be! But simple looks and comparisons side-by-side are not good indicators, especially when considering the genetic differences between races.”
Then this is a recent development in chinese gymnasts.
This controversy has only arisen in Athens and Beijing.
So - 16 year old chinese competitors from the past looked like teenagers - and now they don’t.
And chinese gymnasts living in american look their age, but chinese gymnasts in china do not.
Now they have baby teeth, and have even been reported as being younger in older chinese news articles.
“I’m 6 feet tall - slightly above average in the US”
At 6 feet you’re statistically somewhat tall for the U.S., where the average height is between 5’9 and 5’10.
And the age issue isn’t simply about looks. It began with documentation (noted in China) demonstrating that they are under age.
The age issue is not simply about bar performance. It’s also about understanding and dealing with the pressure, and it’s further about flexibility of bones and ligaments and tendency toward injury, balance (being built fairly straight), and the tendency for injury, which for gymnastics increases fairly rapidly even in the teenage years.
As for the pic of Shawn Johnson, she’s clearly still underdeveloped, as you would expect from someone her age, but simply looking at her on the screen rather than in a cherry-picked photo demonstrates she nevetherless DOES have curves, as the other girls competing most assuredly have developed or are developing.
You're right about this. But the problem here is that these Chinese Olympians were cited in Chinese articles on inter-city competitions as being way younger than 16 when they won a year ago. After the articles were pointed out, the Chinese authorities removed the articles from the websites. This isn't the the Chinese coach cheating. It's the Chinese government.