Wow, where are the parents? I mean bad parents here and there I expect, but enough to fuel an international industry is a surprise...
Women’s gymnastics is legal child abuse
11–20 of 91 posts
Re: Women’s gymnastics is legal child abuse
#12Tough training is kind of an abuse. Why brings sex in the table when they can talk about training abuse on both sex?
As pointed out in the article, 14- to 16-year-old girls often win gymnastics championships (and in fact nobody over the age of 20 has won the olympic all-around since 1972), whereas no man under the age of 20 has ever won an olympic all-around. Being a grown adult is a huge advantage in men's gymnastics and a massive disadvantage in women's. (I have a kid of each gender in local gymnastics programs and I have to care…
It sounds like you might have the experience required to explain what is different about men's gymnastics that causes it to not have this same youth bias?
Re: Women’s gymnastics is legal child abuse
#13Tough training is kind of an abuse. Why brings sex in the table when they can talk about training abuse on both sex?
As pointed out in the article, 14- to 16-year-old girls often win gymnastics championships (and in fact nobody over the age of 20 has won the olympic all-around since 1972), whereas no man under the age of 20 has ever won an olympic all-around. Being a grown adult is a huge advantage in men's gymnastics and a massive disadvantage in women's. (I have a kid of each gender in local gymnastics programs and I have to care…
The last part is great.
My children always liked sport but I told them that this is for their fun and not a medal for the organization (they were never interested in the competition part).
They switched sports either when it was getting boring or they felt that the competition part was over the fun one.
This does not mean that they abondonned early, but for instance both stopped karate after their black belt, to do rock climbing or ping pong. Because the fun was gone.
Re: Women’s gymnastics is legal child abuse
#14Re: Women’s gymnastics is legal child abuse
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
As pointed out in the article, 14- to 16-year-old girls often win gymnastics championships (and in fact nobody over the age of 20 has won the olympic all-around since 1972), whereas no man under the age of 20 has ever won an olympic all-around. Being a grown adult is a huge advantage in men's gymnastics and a massive disadvantage in women's. (I have a kid of each gender in local gymnastics programs and I have to care…
It sounds like you might have the experience required to explain what is different about men's gymnastics that causes it to not have this same youth bias?
No amount of verbal abuse is going to make a 15-year-old boy as strong as a 25-year-old man.
Re: Women’s gymnastics is legal child abuse
#16Wow, where are the parents? I mean bad parents here and there I expect, but enough to fuel an international industry is a surprise...
> where are the parents?
Sometimes the kids hide the abuse from their parents.
Re: Women’s gymnastics is legal child abuse
#17Reading this reminds me of the article on a 17-year-old girl who joined Nike: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/opinion/nike-running-mary...
HN discussion on that one:
Re: Women’s gymnastics is legal child abuse
#18It's not gynmastics that is child abuse, it is the bad behavior of coaches that is child abuse.
Let's not confuse the issues and terms, please.
Re: Women’s gymnastics is legal child abuse
#19It seems like a good first step would be to set the minimum age to compete at world championships or the olympics at 16 or 17 or maybe even 20. Then delaying puberty wouldn't be a thing because everyone will have passed it.
There have been multiple accusations of age falsification. If winning simply becomes a matter of faking a passport, several countries would be happy to do so.
Is it possible to reliably and non-invasively determine someone's age ± 1 year?
Athlete's do doping checks all the time. Might as well do a single-time age check as well.
Re: Women’s gymnastics is legal child abuse
#20Tough training is kind of an abuse. Why brings sex in the table when they can talk about training abuse on both sex?
As pointed out in the article, 14- to 16-year-old girls often win gymnastics championships (and in fact nobody over the age of 20 has won the olympic all-around since 1972), whereas no man under the age of 20 has ever won an olympic all-around. Being a grown adult is a huge advantage in men's gymnastics and a massive disadvantage in women's. (I have a kid of each gender in local gymnastics programs and I have to care…
I'm the same. My son struggled with his motor skills when he was little so we got him interested in gymnastics and he loves it and it's really helped. I'd like to do the same for my daughter when she's old enough but I'd hope she doesn't want go into competition. She also likes dance so that might be a better option.