# Chinese female Gymnast **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 11, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546 "2008-08-11T00:12:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gravitycrash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@gravitycrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gravitycrash)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/1 "2008-08-11T00:12:13Z")
Give me a fucking break. If these girls are sixteen I will bend down and kiss my own ass. It looks like a few of them could be as young as twelve. Do they really expect us to believe this? Now, if the IOC lifts the age restriction, I have no problem at all with it. I was really beginning to respect China until this farce. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/2 "2008-08-11T00:14:36Z")
I haven’t been watching the Olympics so I haven’t seen the athletes in question… but I’ve always understood that gymnasts of that caliber keep such a low body-fat percentage that they don’t go through puberty. Makes 'em look younger than they really are. Not that I’d be surprised if China\* was \* lying about their ages. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/3 "2008-08-11T01:09:37Z")
I would peg one of those girls at being no older than 13, and another, _maybe_ fifteen. On a good day. It’s their facial structures, and total complete lack of anything like hips or breasts. The older ones at least have a hint of curve going on. It’s subtle, but it’s there. Somebody is totally lying about their ages. They’re very good, and that’s why, but that doesn’t make it acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/4 "2008-08-11T01:29:38Z")
No offense, but is it true that there is an Olympic event, women’s gymnastics, in which the older (but hardly old, or even adult) and more experienced and stronger and more thoroughly-trained competitors are at a disadvantage compared to twelve-year-old girls? I beg your pardon, but doesn’t this put womens’ gymnastics on a par with, say, “fitting into a box?” where past a certain minimum level of flexibility, smallness is the only value? I mean, rules are rules, but few competitions protect the theoretically-best-in-the-world participants from embarrassment by barring small children from competing. The Tour-de-France has no rules regarding training wheels, does it? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/5 "2008-08-11T01:48:04Z")
The intent of the rule was to prevent overtraining and, well, brutalization of children, something that resulted from the sport’s evolution from one of gracefulness to one of athleticism. The same thing happened in figure skating, too. Preteen girls are “best in the world” because the standards have evolved to make them that way. A few decades ago, the “best” gymnasts were in their twenties, but they didn’t do the same things, either. By preventing competition until a later age, the hope seems to have been that the nature of the sport could retreat from one that created an image of child abuse, with an overtone of kiddie porn. If enforced, it still could accomplish that. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/6 "2008-08-11T02:06:06Z")
[QUOTE=whiterabbit] I would peg one of those girls [/QUOTE] If you did, you’d be looking at five to twenty. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/7 "2008-08-11T02:13:14Z")
[QUOTE=Steve MB] If you did, you’d be looking at five to twenty. [/QUOTE] By coincidence, those looking at that range are precisely the ones who’d be interested in thirteen year olds. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/8 "2008-08-11T02:33:43Z")
Oh for God’s sake. Fine. I would _estimate_ that these girls are too young. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/9 "2008-08-11T02:47:29Z")
[QUOTE=whiterabbit] I would _estimate_ that these girls [/QUOTE] I just bet you would, you dirty old man. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/10 "2008-08-11T02:57:02Z")
[QUOTE=The King of Soup] No offense, but is it true that there is an Olympic event, women’s gymnastics, in which the older (but hardly old, or even adult) and more experienced and stronger and more thoroughly-trained competitors are at a disadvantage compared to twelve-year-old girls? I beg your pardon, but doesn’t this put womens’ gymnastics on a par with, say, “fitting into a box?” where past a certain minimum level of flexibility, smallness is the only value? I mean, rules are rules, but few competitions protect the theoretically-best-in-the-world participants from embarrassment by barring small children from competing. The Tour-de-France has no rules regarding training wheels, does it? [/QUOTE] They bar horses from competing in races and such until a certain age (IMHO still too young) for much the same reasons. ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/11 "2008-08-11T03:07:39Z")
Bela Karolyi agrees with you. [LINK](http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news?slug=ap-gym-karolyi-ages&prov=ap&type=lgns) > [@](#): > > “We are in the business of gymnastics and we know what a kid of 14 or 15 or 16 looks like. You don’t have to be a gymnastics coach to know what they look like at 16.” > > Karolyi, working the games for NBC, believes the international federation’s rules that gymnasts must turn at least 16 during the Olympic year are flawed. Karolyi’s complaints are nothing new. But when they come moments after the Chinese have competed at the Olympics, well, they come across more loudly than ever. > > “What kind of slap in the face is this?” he asked. “They are 12, 14 years old, max. And they line them up for the world … and having the government back them. > > “Since they forced an age limit, it has gotten worse and worse. The FIG is running away from the age problem. They set an age limit and now they can’t control it.”. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/12 "2008-08-11T03:09:22Z")
The NBC broadcasters have been spending the entire broadcast of the Chinese women’s gymnastic team on how young they look and suspicions about falsifying ages. Christ, those girls look young. ---
**Author:** ![gravitycrash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@gravitycrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gravitycrash)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/13 "2008-08-11T03:14:58Z")
Just compare the girls from the US and China. Yes they are all tiny or petite but the sixteen year old girls actually look like like they are sixteen from the US. I’m not sure why this pisses me off but it does. There is no way that some of those girls are sixteen from China. Stop Cheating China. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/14 "2008-08-11T03:16:14Z")
Holy crap! According to this [site:](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/sports/olympics/10age.html) > [@](#): > > The smallest of the six competitors is Deng Linlin, 4 feet 6 inches and 68 pounds. The team’s average size is 4-9 and 77 pounds. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/15 "2008-08-11T03:16:36Z")
[QUOTE=Derleth] I just bet you would, you dirty old man. [/QUOTE] Get it straight. She’s a dirty old _woman_! ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/16 "2008-08-11T03:21:31Z")
Lingling Deng? Are you kidding me? Thirteen at most, but she looks twelve to me. It’s not the very low bodyfat percentage, it’s their faces. They are the faces of little girls. Very young girls. ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/17 "2008-08-11T03:26:25Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] They bar horses from competing in races and such until a certain age (IMHO still too young) for much the same reasons. [/QUOTE] One more time: I’m ignorant and I want to know and I don’t wish to insult anybody. Young horses can run five-eighths of a mile faster than two-year-olds? And they’re barred from races to prevent them from winning and being hurt in the process? And this is done so that older and more resilient but often slower horses can win, and to protect the breed from losing a generation or two in the pursuit of short-term profit? I’m happy to take your word for all that. But (and I’m sorry for my stupidity) what does any of it have to do with amateur womens’ gymnastics? ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/18 "2008-08-11T03:36:52Z")
And I’m not _old_ either! ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/19 "2008-08-11T03:46:03Z")
well, I don’t own a tv, am only glancing at the olympics at work, was oblivious to all this controversy, just saw a chinese girl fall, and thought, she’s too young ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546/20 "2008-08-11T03:58:04Z")
I have to question the legitimacy of any sport where a 12 year old can compete at the same level as a 20 year old. I know that there is no precise definition of a sport, but someone that isn’t physically developed shouldn’t be as good as someone that is in any sport. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-female-gymnast/459546.md?page=2)