The Age Limit Controversy in Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a unique sport; the competitors are mostly female and they are usually young. It seems there is an age related controversy that has been going on in the sport for a number of years. A lot of young girls, children even, have been seen competing in the sport for a long time. This age related controversy came to a head during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. It seems a few of the athletes of the Chinese team were underage, but they won gold at the Games and so the whole thing got a bit messy. Will there be a definite conclusion to this controversy or not, we will have to see.
In years past and Games gone by, there was no age limit on gymnasts; a lot of competitors won gold medals at the age of 14 and 15. Some of these were Nadia Comaneci, who was 14 when she made her historic perfect score in 1976, Dominique Moceanu, who was 14 at the 1996 Olympics, and Svetlana Boginskaya, who won a gold medal in Vault in 1988 when she was just 15. After the 1996 Olympic Games, the International Federation of Gymnastics, or FIG, raised the age limit for the sport from 15 to 16. Before 1996, an athlete had to turn 15 during the Olympic year, which is why some competitors were 14. The interesting debate that took place when the new age limit of 16 was introduced was that one side said that there should be no age limit because female gymnasts have a very short career and they peak in their sport between the ages of 15 and 16. If an athlete is 16 during one Olympics, then four years later she will be 20 and already past her prime. The other side of the debate thought that if there was no age limit, young children would get pressured and pushed into competing as adults and it was disturbing to their health and development.
During the Beijing Olympics in 2008, a huge controversy emerged around the Chinese gymnastics team that won gold. Three members of the team were stated to be 16 at the time of competition but documents gave conflicting ages, saying the three girls were 15 or even younger. It seems that the stakes are so high and the pressure to win is so great that many times athletes will misrepresent their ages and make themselves seem older than they actually are. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a gymnast could compete if she was born in 1992 or before, but problems occurred for He Kexin of China when documents showed that she was born in 1994. Since her passport showed she was born in 1992, she was allowed to compete, but the controversy remained. She was a favourite to win and this might have given her an unfair advantage. What is interesting here is that if the athletes’ ages were changed or altered in their documents, the young girls must have had help. A child of 14, unless very street smart and with a criminal background, does not know how to go about forging their official documents and passports. So the finger must be pointed at the team’s coaches and management for doing something dodgy to make sure their team won.
Why is this such a big issue? Well, the younger a gymnast is the easier it is for her to do some of the more difficult moves. As they are young, their bodies are more flexible and they have more energy than someone older. That is why so many gymnasts are so young when they compete. People have said that almost all athletes are young in every sport so if it is a unique requirement of gymnastics for competitors to be young, is that such a bad thing? Some argue that putting that much pressure on someone so young who will only have a very short career is not fair and it should not take place. Others are more blunt, saying that they have no desire to watch children competing in sports. The problem is that it might also be considered child labour, as forcing young girls to compete and represent their countries at an age when they should be doing normal things is almost akin to making children work. Also, it means that when such young athletes are competing, people will be focusing more on their ages than on the skills they are displaying in their sport.
This age related controversy will not go away anytime soon with the FIG looking to raise the age limit again and making it 18 this time. That will just increase the pressure on gymnasts and their teams to forge documents and make their athletes look older than they actually are. There is no clear correct solution to this issue and it seems this debate will continue for many years to come.
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