Gymnasts retire before their twenties, and go to the Olympics only once in their career?

Question

I didn't know much about artistic gymnastics, but watching Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin this year got me very interested in the sport. Now that I understand all the events (but still don't understand any bit of the scoring), I was wondering what is the peak age for gymnasts in their career. I read somewhere that most female gymnasts retire in their early twenties, and don't go to more than one Olympic games in their career. This sounds ridiculous; do female gymnasts really have that short of a career? And for that matter, are Johnson and Liukin not going to London in 2012

Answer 1

They could go to the circus...

Answer 2

There's a 33 year old who medaled in the vault i think.  but she's a huge exception

Answer 3

Liukin is done after Beijing, she's almost 19 and will be attending SMU in the fall, Shawn Johnson might have one more olympics in her, if she stays as small as she is now....but you're right, most gymnasts only get one go around for the olympics, and they are at their peak at the minimum age of 16, early 20's is considered old by that sports' standards....which is why the 10 year old Chinese girls did as well as they did this year....too bad it wasn't within the rules, but hey....rules are only for Americans to follow, apparently it's ok for everyone else to cheat.  

Answer 4

In some countries yes

Shawn Johnson should be around for the next Olympic, is she makes the team.  The US team is not easy to make

Nastia, at 23, could be to old for the next Olympic, but in some country she would be there

Answer 5

Well I'm 20 now and a retired gymnast. When I was 16 I was nationally ranked high enough to go to Athens but at the qualifying for the Australian national Athens gymnastic olympic team at the National meet I had a really bad Achilles injury that prevented me from placing high enough to qualify. I retired promptly because my physio recommended that I don't play the sport for a year, and I decided to focus on studying.

Most top female gymnasts compete in more than one olympics(though it's not uncommon for gymnasts to only go to one), Carly Patterson an American who won the all around gold at Athens caused a pretty big stir because she was retiring after her first olympics(due to injury), retiring early.

Most gymnast's primes are actually when they are around 13 years old, due to flexibility and lack of puberty (though they can't really compete on an elite level) and after the sport just becomes too demanding and have pretty short careers.

I have no idea if Johnson and Liukin are going to go to London, it seems very likely that Shawn will go though, Liukin probably won't though, she might have it in her though.