# Is it wrong of me to be amazed/mesmerized by the female gymnasts? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 17, 2004, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-of-me-to-be-amazed-mesmerized-by-the-female-gymnasts/260217 "2004-08-17T09:50:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-of-me-to-be-amazed-mesmerized-by-the-female-gymnasts/260217/41 "2004-08-20T17:45:25Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > So far I’ve held back but now I just have to say it… Drunk. :smack: :rolleyes: :eek: :dubious: ☹ I was dreading coming on to the boards today. Sooo not what I wanted to do. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-of-me-to-be-amazed-mesmerized-by-the-female-gymnasts/260217/42 "2004-08-20T17:49:39Z")
> [@Tiramisu](#): > > Why not just lust after the one your age, Svetlana, she’s probably the most unique. She looks very tall compared to all the others and she has legs up to there. I don’t lust after them. And Svetlana is kinda ugly. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-of-me-to-be-amazed-mesmerized-by-the-female-gymnasts/260217/43 "2004-08-20T17:50:32Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Drunk. :smack: :rolleyes: :eek: :dubious: ☹ :eek: Well, then, ahem, harrumph… _Obviously_ disregard my last statement re: your post. Heh. :rolleyes: _In vino veritas_, my ass… ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-of-me-to-be-amazed-mesmerized-by-the-female-gymnasts/260217/44 "2004-08-20T18:05:21Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > :eek: > Well, then, ahem, harrumph… _Obviously_ disregard my last statement re: your post. Heh. :rolleyes: > > _In vino veritas_, my ass… No need to. I re-read the post and I didn’t say anything that I don’t mean\*. I’m surprisingly articulate when I am drunk. \*But … if that’s true then why did I have to be drunk to post it?? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-of-me-to-be-amazed-mesmerized-by-the-female-gymnasts/260217/45 "2004-08-20T18:19:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Yeah, but IIRC, there was a recent law (perhaps it was just proposed, the “Anti-Sex Tourist” Law) passed making it illegal for US citizens to have sex on foreign soil with people less than 18. I think you are right. However the OP was talking about random thoughts. I don’t think that is covered in any law. In no way is he suggesting anything other than being “mesmerized”. Certainly not enough to be accused of criminal behavior like the line that I quoted from an earlier post. (Well I was supposed to quote it, I know I just copied it and forgot the quotes like I do half the time) I hate the thought police. And I did agree it was creepy but not quite as much for someone in their early twenties as it would be for someone my age. ---
**Author:** ![nonpolar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3da27b/32.png) [@nonpolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonpolar)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-of-me-to-be-amazed-mesmerized-by-the-female-gymnasts/260217/46 "2004-08-20T19:00:53Z")
> [@Tiramisu](#): > > Still I’ve noticed that most of the American girls all seem to have the same body shape. Short and somewhat stocky, not fat but highly muscular, especially the legs. Then you see other countries gymnasts, like China, and they are just small and proportional. And then you see someone like Svetlana Khorkina who is tall (in comparison) and thin, yet being almost 10 years older than some of them she can still keep up. But she’s a rarity. So it does make you wonder why the American girls seem so different. They can’t be taking steroids because they test for that, so is it just the training or what? * * * I think all the hormones in meat ,milk and in the environment in generall have huge impact on young girls physiology .In Europe food is more naturall than in USA so girls look more like girls suppose to look. ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-of-me-to-be-amazed-mesmerized-by-the-female-gymnasts/260217/47 "2004-08-20T19:20:31Z")
> [@Tiramisu](#): > > Still I’ve noticed that most of the American girls all seem to have the same body shape. Short and somewhat stocky, not fat but highly muscular, especially the legs. Then you see other countries gymnasts, like China, and they are just small and proportional. And then you see someone like Svetlana Khorkina who is tall (in comparison) and thin, yet being almost 10 years older than some of them she can still keep up. But she’s a rarity. So it does make you wonder why the American girls seem so different. They can’t be taking steroids because they test for that, so is it just the training or what? I think the poverty level in the other countries have everything to do with this. Our girls are completely pampered compared to the other countries where the gymnasts are treated like a commodity. It makes me sad to hear about the Romanian girls posing nude, and even Svetlana. I really doubt they do it for kicks. If the American team had to go through such hardship, I’m sure they wouldn’t have the healthy look they do. (This is just my theory, but I think it’s pretty valid.) ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-of-me-to-be-amazed-mesmerized-by-the-female-gymnasts/260217/48 "2004-08-20T20:02:59Z")
If you look at the progression of American female gymnasts, they started going shorter and stockier once Bela Karoly began coaching the team. Given his emphasis on strength training, that makes a certain sense. The Romanians, even though their team comes from the same tradition that created Bela as a coach, don’t necessarily have the food resources that the American team would have, whereas the Chinese tradition of tumbling acrobats is going to emphase more litheness and grace in their female acrobats. Re: Svetlana and her scary looks… there was one point in the evening of Women’s Allaround when the camera went to a shot of Svetlana sitting in a chair, with the seats next to her having some of the other acrobats’ stuff on it, and I thought, “She _ate them!_” They went in for a closeup and that was a very, very believable thought… ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2004, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-of-me-to-be-amazed-mesmerized-by-the-female-gymnasts/260217/49 "2004-08-21T02:41:42Z")
I don’t think stunting their growth was quite the right phrase. I think the trends in women’s gymnastics has been for a certain type of body and look. Females at this level of competition have been training for many many years. For most of them, constnt weight training along with every calorie being carefully considered have produced the compact muscular bodies we see today. This to the point they don’t have normal female cycles from having too low percentage of fat to muscle. This low body fat percentage also keeps them from having much in the way of breasts or hips. They are unnaturally kept on a state of early puberty in pursuit of their sport and while I am in awe of the feats they can perform, I am also in despair of the way they are treating their bodies ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-of-me-to-be-amazed-mesmerized-by-the-female-gymnasts/260217/50 "2004-08-21T16:26:20Z")
- - - Once on the stile website (no linking allowed) they found a website that had slow-motion videos of a few former Soviet republic gymnasts performing–_totally naked_. The source claimed they were national-level gymnasts; I don’t know if that was true but they _were_ doing pretty much the exact, same things the Olympic ones on TV do. None of them looked very much younger than 18, if any–but it was still a fairly awesome sight, my testosterone must say. It beats _the Man Show’s_ “girls on trampolines” bit by several dozen miles. These videos are floating free on the net now, if you look. ~ ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-of-me-to-be-amazed-mesmerized-by-the-female-gymnasts/260217/51 "2004-08-22T02:23:28Z")
Yeah, a lot of those gymnasts are really attractive, especially Carly Patterson. Svetlana just scares me, because her cheeks look really gaunt and sunken. Actually, Carly Patterson (along with Michael Phelps) inspired me to start running seriously, so I might have a chance to get in some races. It’d be cool to see her in Beijing (or wherever the 2008 Olympics are), but I’m not really counting on it. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-of-me-to-be-amazed-mesmerized-by-the-female-gymnasts/260217/52 "2004-08-22T02:44:13Z")
> [@DougC](#): > > - > - > - Once on the stile website (no linking allowed) they found a website that had slow-motion videos of a few former Soviet republic gymnasts performing–_totally naked_. The source claimed they were national-level gymnasts; I don’t know if that was true but they _were_ doing pretty much the exact, same things the Olympic ones on TV do. None of them looked very much younger than 18, if any–but it was still a fairly awesome sight, my testosterone must say. It beats _the Man Show’s_ “girls on trampolines” bit by several dozen miles. These videos are floating free on the net now, if you look. > ~ In another newsgroup links were posted to mpegs of gymnasts perfotming nude. The gymnasts were easily over 18 (by the look of them - over 22) and were’nt being all that gymnastic. their performances were nothiing like that of current gymnastic qualifiers, [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-of-me-to-be-amazed-mesmerized-by-the-female-gymnasts/260217.md?page=2)