“The Chinese state, to put it bluntly, is far more capable of finding freaks of nature and molding them for a specific purpose.
This is not to say the Chinese aren’t cheating. They are perfectly capable of doing that and certainly will if given a low-risk opportunity.”
So now the argument isn’t that these girls are typical teens and we americans just don’t understand asians?
Now the argument is that these girls are freaks of nature?
That still does not explain the lack of maturity in their dance on floor. If they truly had been receiving dance training for many years to compete at the olympic level, the first chinese girl up on floor would not have looked so pitiful.
Does you “freak of nature” theory also apply to baby teeth?
It isn’t only Beijing - but in Athens as well that the baby teeth were noted by other countries.
No girl who gets to this level of gymnastics is in any way typical - or any other athlete at the Olympics for that matter.
The US system selects for very specific physical types just as the Chinese do - they just have a MUCH bigger pool to choose from (by several orders of magnitude), because of genetics, population size and state sports system.
As for the dance, I expect thats a matter of aesthetics. Thats a very intangible issue that the Chinese won’t fix - to match the largely western aesthetic standards - until they train a new generation of coaches. Our concepts of grace and dance just didn’t exist there.