Olympics: Gymnastics Age Debate

[Jack Flak]

Yiang Jing Jang or whatever she's called (far right) has to be at LEAST 22.

 

[EffEmDoubleyou]

I say cut 'em in half and count the rings. Cheating bastards.

 

[CzeCze]

16. *cough cough*
She's 16.
*cough*

Yes. Sure. So obviously 16.

OMG.

I'm sorry, just for purely selfish reasons I was on the side of the Chinese for this (even though the Chinese audience such poor sportsman during the Archery finals) but OMG.

And - hilarious laughter at the way the American gymanst is staring daggers at her.

All that said -- why is there even if an age minimum? I mean, honestly, do people think it's *easier* for an 11 year old to win a gold medal than a 16 year old?

I'm sure others have already speculated and even posted articles or quoted studies, but I think the age minimum was more for the protection of children and to stop truly Dickensian methods of exploiting kids to win national pride than to stop any 'unfair advantage' and under 16 year old might have. And put some kind of sane curb on the grueling push for child athletes to get a medal before their merciless retirement age of 22 kicks in.

In terms of athletic ability and performance, the youngin' deserves the gold.

For the sake of keeping children from being exploited and made miserable to live out Olympic dreams, perhaps the EOC or IOC or whatever it's called -- can try harder to enforce its rules.

I don't think that highly of the Olympic organization at all so no surprised.

 

[Jack Flak]

OMG......

Are you in the know as to what transpired before this podium scene? Liukin had the same score as Hexin but was placed 2nd due to a really silly tiebreaking rule. She should have had a higher score to begin with. /subjective

And it's not that the rule makes sense, I don't even agree with it, but IT IS IN PLACE and the Americans follow it but the Chinese do not.

 

[EffEmDoubleyou]

Are you in the know as to what transpired before this podium scene? Liukin had the same score as Hexin but was placed 2nd due to a really silly tiebreaking rule. She should have had a higher score to begin with. /subjective

And it's not that the rule makes sense, I don't even agree with it, but IT IS IN PLACE and the Americans follow it but the Chinese do not.

Not to mention the home cookin' the Chinese girl got when she wasn't marked off for mistakes she made. Not that I'm an expert, but the TV commentator almost had a stroke.

And true...a rule is a rule is a rule. I'm shocked at how this has been soft-pedaled as not to offend the Chinese hosts.

 

[Jae Rae]

Once you get weight in the hips, it's a lot harder to swing your weight over your head. Obviously easier for a girl under the age of 11 than one of 16. The point is, it's not a level field. The US, GB, France and Germany all could find talented gymnasts under 16 to win with that advantage.

Don't know what happened in archery, but the US vs. China baseball game was really nasty. A beanball was thrown at a US player's head and six other players were hit by balls. Two Chinese players and two coaches were ejected.

 

[VanillaCat]

Is there a video of her reaction?

 

[Jack Flak]

Try the NBC link I posted. The event was uneven bars, final. She was noticeably perturbed.

 

[Samuel De Mazarin]

What's wrong at laughing at Olympic athletes?

If you are good enough to be one, you should be able to handle getting laughed at.

If you aren't old enough to handle being laughed at, you shouldn't be allowed to compete.

Nothing's wrong with laughing.

But how they did it and in what context to me showed them to be real assholes. I probably wouldn't be very impressed with how they treat the women in their lives... at least, if they have any other females in their lives other than the canine variety.

Or the kids. These guys were total pr*cks.

They laughed at her because she was Chinese... it was dehumanizing jingoism (from what you're telling me) at its worst.

And - hilarious laughter at the way the American gymanst is staring daggers at her.

. . . .

All that said -- why is there even if an age minimum? I mean, honestly, do people think it's *easier* for an 11 year old to win a gold medal than a 16 year old?

. . . .

Firstly, Nastia won the gold, so probably doesn't care enough to stare daggers at the other girls. She's probably thinking what most of us are thinking: "16? Yeah flipping right."

Secondly, children that young are exposed to psychological and physical traumas that may irreparably damage them if they're not mature enough to handle high-level competition. It's easy to see a 13-year old whooping everyone's ass in a competition and say, why not? But we don't see the years before and after... particularly since China essentially recruits young girls and boys, locks them up in training facilities for their whole lives, and then dumps the ones who don't work out. They're left unfit for life in the real world.

 

[Totenkindly]

...In terms of athletic ability and performance, the youngin' deserves the gold.

Well, I will agree that obviously she's highly talented. Especially to suffer a fall off the bars under international scrutiny and still remain competitive later enough to win a gold. That takes such an amazing amount of self-control especially at that age. (Which is might or might not be good psychologically. I had to be tough for my age at that time too... but it caused a lot of problems later in life.)

The audacity of the lies are what annoy me. Let's just call a spade a spade.

Firstly, Nastia won the gold, so probably doesn't care enough to stare daggers at the other girls. She's probably thinking what most of us are thinking: "16? Yeah flipping right."

Nastia won the gold in the all-around competition. She lost the gold to He Kexin on the balance beam (?), which is what we are discussing here... due to the way the tie-breaker was settled. (But like others say, yes, the rules were agreed on up-front, so... meh.)

I didn't examine everything she said, but N seemed pretty classy overall in her reactions to things. And she won the all-around gold, so that probably helped salve things a bit.

 

[bluebell]

I'm sure others have already speculated and even posted articles or quoted studies, but I think the age minimum was more for the protection of children and to stop truly Dickensian methods of exploiting kids to win national pride than to stop any 'unfair advantage' and under 16 year old might have.

That was my impression as well for the age requirement and I thought that was why people were making a fuss about it.

I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that the professional tennis circuit also has (or had) lower age limits to protect the younger players.

 

[Samuel De Mazarin]

Nastia won the gold in the all-around competition. She lost the gold to He Kexin on the balance beam (?), which is what we are discussing here... due to the way the tie-breaker was settled. (But like others say, yes, the rules were agreed on up-front, so... meh.)

I didn't examine everything she said, but N seemed pretty classy overall in her reactions to things. And she won the all-around gold, so that probably helped salve things a bit.

my bad... didn't realize the universe of discourse.... but regardless... Nastia (sounds like a good pornstar name) can hold her head up high...

Of course, the humane concerns end up overriding this... but it would still be interesting to see what Nastia actually thought about He.... if Nastia's really a sportswoman at heart, she probably feels miffed about the lies and fraud, but also a deep respect for the athlete who beat her...

 

[Totenkindly]

my bad... didn't realize the universe of discourse.... but regardless... Nastia (sounds like a good pornstar name) can hold her head up high...

Nastia --
Nastia Girls!
*doo doo doo doo-DOO*

Of course, the humane concerns end up overriding this... but it would still be interesting to see what Nastia actually thought about He.... if Nastia's really a sportswoman at heart, she probably feels miffed about the lies and fraud, but also a deep respect for the athlete who beat her...

N seems authentic enough, especially for 16.

At any level, even a decent person would feel cheated. But yes, they'd also see things from more than that perspective and be able to be supportive of others in their successes. I guess that's one way we tell the difference between mature and immature.

She also accomplished her personal goals with her victories, so that helped her too.

 

[Jack Flak]

She's 18.

 

[Totenkindly]

She's 18.

Is that in dog years?

(Oh, wait, you meant Nastia? Sorry.)

 

[spirilis]

How about this-

Slashdot | Hacker Uncovers Chinese Olympic Fraud

Link to the actual article: Stryde Hax

I'll have a helping of "OWNED" with that, thank you.

 

[Jae Rae]

The audacity of the lies are what annoy me. Let's just call a spade a spade.

Nastia won the gold in the all-around competition. She lost the gold to He Kexin on the balance beam (?), which is what we are discussing here... due to the way the tie-breaker was settled. (But like others say, yes, the rules were agreed on up-front, so... meh.)

I didn't examine everything she said, but N seemed pretty classy overall in her reactions to things. And she won the all-around gold, so that probably helped salve things a bit.

She lost to Shawn Johnson on the balance beam. We saw it last night; both Americans were superb. The Chinese girl got a bronze; again the scoring for her having bobbled was generous. The other two made no mistakes.

More outrageous judging on the vault where the Chinese gymnast fell on her knees, went out of bounds and made other mistakes and still knocked Alicia Sacramone (she needs a blessing) off the podium.

 

[MacGuffin]

Gymnastics, like most performance arts, is susceptible to fraud in a way real sports aren't.

 

[Domino]

How about this-

Slashdot | Hacker Uncovers Chinese Olympic Fraud

Link to the actual article: Stryde Hax

I'll have a helping of "OWNED" with that, thank you.

Wow. That guy is amazing.

 

[Tallulah]

LOL, I love that the guy thought to have everyone else to a screenshot on their own searches, too. I doubt China will have to answer for this, though.