Huggies Wow; I'm a Gymnast Now; Underage Chinese Olympic Gymnasts Rant, Bella Caroli is Right

Associated Content ^ | August 12, 2008 | Michael Luchies

[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.

[Billthedrill]

OK, I'm guessing...22?

;-)

[Scotswife]

“14 is the age when I noticed the junior elites hit puberty. And they had to work that much harder to maintain their skill levels. Or they began to think about NOT going to the Olympics vs. working for a college scholarship. The young ladies who continue training at the Elite level are some real tough cookies! (not that the other gals aren’t. they keep training, but you can visibly see the stress relief when they quit worrying about pleasing the powers that be in the US gymnastics hierarchy.)”

Oh definitely!
They can begin to lead a more normal life.
They don’t have to keep testing and re-testing a gazillion times just to retain their “elite” ranking.

And what have these olympics - so far - taught anyone that is borderline?
This pushes them towards the college scholarship.

[verse1]

I am an Australia simply perusing your site yesterday when this topic took my interest. I did not realise having only just joined, with no profile information and my reply would automatically make me a “troll.” Interesting how easily we all fall into labelling people without any knowledge.

In reference to my point about patents, I was replying to ChiMark’s comment.

Don’t forget that China steals our patents.
18 posted on Wednesday, 13 August 2008 4:33:16 PM by ChiMark

I am as for intellectual rights as the next person, however, my statement was more about hypocrisy if an accuser is also a user of stolen property. At no point in my single reply did I condone this behaviour.

We are all so quick to judge, myself included.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> Interesting how easily we all fall into labelling people without any knowledge.

> We are all so quick to judge, myself included.

The judging and labeling process is greatly aided by first-time posters making obscure observations without an established context.

In your case, your apparent defense of the probably-underage ChiCom athletes coupled with a reference that seemed to validate ChiCom’s theft of IP led me to a logical conclusion — that you were possibly a troll and disruptor. We get those a fair bit on the Free Republic, and they are a jolly nuisance.

I apologize if I misjudged you. I hope that you can see that you did make it fairly easy for me to do so.

Welcome to the FRee Republic.

[ThanhPhero]

A troll only to some very hypersensitive folks who are limited in perception and vocabulary. There are many posters here. If you are interested in FR and stick around, learn to just pass off some posters as background noise. It is not necessary to take them personally. Sometimes the same people even have a bit of information that is useful or a view that makes one think a bit more.