A Year for the "Ages"

After the story of the young baseball player that was not allowed to pitch because he was too good. It re-hashed my questions about age of athletes. As we are still only slightly removed from the Olympics and we are getting to the point where it and gymnastics will fall off the interest table I figured that I should touch on the young Chinese gymnasts again, and then I guess let it go since it looks like optics and proof are 2 very different things.

The IOC asked the International Gymnastics Federation to investigate possible violations as to the ages of members of the Chinese Gymnastics team.
Throughout the Olympics questions had been raised as to the true age of these VERY YOUNG looking girls. Younger gymnasts are considered to have an advantage because they are more flexible, and are likely to have an easier time doing the tough skills the sport requires. They also aren’t as likely to have a history of injuries or fear of failure. The age restriction was introduced to protect the athletes and their bodies from abuse (I know that sounds like the cop-out from the baseball people but i believe that it is really apples and oranges). It comes as little surprise that the Chinese are at the front of this story as they are not knows for the best human rights record, youth labour and being upfront or truthful.

It does seem awfully convenient that the documents that they use to prove the age of these girls are government issued and the when they control everything the documents, you can’t figure are worth the paper they are written on.

I am just glad that the US Team have other achievements and medals to make up for the ones that they are getting screwed out of. Sure the medal haul would be more impressive and potentially make them a few more dollars in endorsements after the games but at least they aren’t coming back empty handed.

There was a hope late during the games or shortly after that there was the possibility that there was info that may prove some impropriety and could “vault” the US team to a Team Gold and give Nastia Lukin the Gold in the uneven bars which she deserved anyway since she never “lost” but tied.

That is like saying in soccer it is 0-0 but you had 3 more shots on net so you win, craziness. Although if any sport would be foolish enough to do something i bet it would be soccer