- Joined
- Dec 12, 2005
As everyone knows, there has been quite a bit of controversy over several members of the "Womens" Chinese gymnastic team falsifying their ages in order to compete... some speculated to be between 12 - 14. And then they won gold. When listening to the stories of all of the older gymnasts, how many of the gymnasts over the age of 16 have undergone mutliple surgeries and lost months or years of practice due to injuries? Lifting the age requirement for gymnastics is now becoming a serious issue.
I find it pretty applicable to figure skating... the same rigorous training, the more likelihood of injury as you get older and are subjected to more years of practice. Yes, I like to see skaters mature, but if ages are being falsified for the Summer Olympics... how long until the same thing starts happening in the Winter Olympics with figure skating? Now that everyone knows the age requirement is in place, how long will it be before a coach of a great skater figures out they will be slightly too young for the Olympics that they could compete in several years in the future and decides to falsify their age? If the age requirement for Mao Asada was known when she was younger, could her age have been doctored so she could have competed in the last Olympics? If the Japanese ladies team wasn't so deep, I would venture to say yes.
The only solutions I really see are either lifting all of the age restrictions in both the Summer and Winter Olympics, or having something along the lines of an "International Athlete Passport" that isn't just a passport distributed by the athlete's home country, but researched by an unbiased committee.
I find it pretty applicable to figure skating... the same rigorous training, the more likelihood of injury as you get older and are subjected to more years of practice. Yes, I like to see skaters mature, but if ages are being falsified for the Summer Olympics... how long until the same thing starts happening in the Winter Olympics with figure skating? Now that everyone knows the age requirement is in place, how long will it be before a coach of a great skater figures out they will be slightly too young for the Olympics that they could compete in several years in the future and decides to falsify their age? If the age requirement for Mao Asada was known when she was younger, could her age have been doctored so she could have competed in the last Olympics? If the Japanese ladies team wasn't so deep, I would venture to say yes.
The only solutions I really see are either lifting all of the age restrictions in both the Summer and Winter Olympics, or having something along the lines of an "International Athlete Passport" that isn't just a passport distributed by the athlete's home country, but researched by an unbiased committee.