Posted on 08/13/2008 12:32:54 AM PDT by joinedafterattack
Huggies wow; I'm a gymnast now! I am watching the Olympics right now and couldn't be more upset watching a sporting event. I am not mad that the country I am routing for (United States) is falling apart, not mad because the only event they are showing is gymnastics, but furious because several of the gymnasts are clearly under the 16 year old age requirement. Bella Caroli himself made a comment during the broadcast that the Chinese gymnasts were under 16 but since they had "legitimate" passports, they are allowed to compete. Aren't the Olympics supposed to be the purist form of sports? Will cheating in sports ever end?
Obviously I have absolutely no evidence or proof that any of the gymnasts in the olympics are under the age of 16. But if you are fortunate to have a set of eyes and common sense you can clearly see that the women...sorry little girls that are putting on an amazing show are barely toilet trained. Ok that may be a little harsh but look at them! Many of the Chinese girls do not come up to the shoulders of any other countries athletes. I think I saw someone on the balance beam who didn't have teeth yet. Are they midgets? Is there a national problem in China with women who have stunted growth?
These girls are unbelievable, but still little girls who have no life outside of gymnastics. They are sent by their parents as young as 3 off to train for the Olympics. Sometimes they are even able to see their parents once every other year.
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Yep, range issues are helped.
But these little girls can all bend their spine like rubber bands because they are still all kid with no progression towards adulthood.
A forensic expert said that some of them still had baby teeth and the head shape and iris/white ratios of younger children.
It’s obvious: The world sees it. China loses more (How’s THAT possible?!) credibility.
When you’re a known liar, nothing you say means anything.
Now that you mention it it, yes, it would. It had not occurred to me.
right on garandgal!!
“and to realize that NO ONE in charge is going to do anything about it, had to have been a crushing blow before they ever set foot on the competition floor.”
Those who are in charge talk a good game.
They’ll kick you out of there if you take the wrong allergy medicine.
But when china blatantly violates the rules in Athens, and now in these olympics, it as if to say “go ahead - try to stop us”
“And, spare us the “we are just not used to how young the Asians look” crap. This is elite level gymnastics; I’m sure that every other coach and team knows exactly who these children are...and exactly how old they are.”
Yes, and I know from experience - that wealthy american families who travel to china to adopt abandoned girls, are coming home and enrolling these babes in american gymnastics programs.
We see chinese girls all the time.
“I expect you will hear more about it after our athletes have finished competition and are out of China.”
one can only hope.
That is precisely the line I referred to. It apears to be a reference to Americans and Europeans believing East Asian body shapes and appearances as being illegitimate. And Americans , in fact, often see it that way- including some posters on FR.
“while China’s were either overlooked or lightly penalized for thiers.”
The first chinese floor routine was embarrassingly terrible.
She was a little kid who was walking around.
Judges are supposed to heavily deduct for unchoreographed steps even at beginning levels of gymnastics.
It is embarrassing to the sport that an olympic level athlete plodded about like that at this level - and even worse that the judges didn’t take the deduction.
Regardless of ethnicity.
” If the Chinese gymnasts were underage and had a couple more years to practice, I’m assuming the American team would have been beaten worse.”
A basic misunderstanding of the sport.
If 10-114 yr. olds are fair game, then certainly we also have a pool of pre-pubescents who can swing bars without having to break their bodyline.
Ask any gymnast this question..
Was it easier or more difficult to perform bars at age 11 or age 17?
“Female gymnasts often fail to hit puberty until they are done with the sport because of how rigorous it is. It stunts you.”
oh sure - that’s why none of our girls look like their ages.
I think that China was cheating in gymnastics as well. The whole time I was hoping they would lose because they were obviously cheating with the age requirement.
That said, the American team doesn't have the obvious dominance of the US Men's Swim Team in that no matter who the rest of the world put up against them in competition, they were going down.
If the US Women's gymnastics team performed like that, we wouldn't be having this conversation about how old the Chinese cheaters were. The age of the Chinese gymnasts didn't cause certain members of the US Women's team to stumble and blow their routine.
” I don’t know if the skills have lower difficulty levels and that’s why we don’t see them as often at the Elite level or not. “
totally different rules.
College rules are much - much easier
“Since you seem to have some knowledge about gymnastics - do you know when the uneven bars were pulled apart so that the girls can’t do some of the skills that used to be done with going from the low bar to the high, belly twirls and slams and backward flies to the high beam?”
Between the ‘84 and ‘88 olympics and then incrementally further and further apart after that.
This was when I went to college and didn’t do much with bars because I was too tall to adapt to the new skills.
American’s lost, no argument,but there is absolutely no way that one girl is a day over 13.
Frankly I’m getting tired of just seeing gymnastics, swimming and volleyball... NBC should at least be playing highlights of the other sports.. why am I sitting here watching 10 minutes of warmups for Gymnastics when dozens of events were held that day?
Granted the kids did look young, but even the 20-year-old captain of the team looked like a 12-year-old. What is needed is proof and an open investigation.
BTW, when did they set the age limit at 16. I remember in prior Olympics, they had athletes much younger than that.
“The age of the Chinese gymnasts didn’t cause certain members of the US Women’s team to stumble and blow their routine.”
no - but I’m sure there are american 11 and 12 yr. old dynamos on bars who could have made our team.
“Sounds like a bunch of sour grapes. We lost because we counldn’t compete against the 12-year-olds.”
a bunch of 16 & 17 yr. olds on bars isn’t a match for pre-pubescents on bars.
Bars are much much easier prior to puberty.
“Granted the kids did look young, but even the 20-year-old captain of the team looked like a 12-year-old.”
She had breasts and an older looking face.
She had adult teeth.
The only way to know for sure if to cut them in half at the middle and count the rings.
I agree...I haven’t seen any of the equestrian events on TV. I wanted to see some of the eventing and showjumping, but I haven’t seen anything on regarding that. Beezie Maden is an Olympic gold medalist in showjumping and I never see any profiles of her on TV.
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