The Body of a Gymnast | Golden Skate

The Body of a Gymnast

RealtorGal

RealtorGal

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
I found the differences in the bodies of the various gymnasts to be interesting. Particularly, I noticed that the female Romanian gymnasts retained that waiflike look that used to be the norm in the sport, while the Americans were all bulky and muscular--basically more healthy looking.
 
I found the ladies in Beach Volley ball regardless of what country had incredibly beautiful female bodies, and they were over 5'.

Joe
 
Joesitz said:
I found the ladies in Beach Volley ball regardless of what country had incredibly beautiful female bodies, and they were over 5'.
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Hey! Are you saying the under-5' bodies cannot be beautiful?!!! :eek: (Just kidding, of course; I am 4'10" myself)
 
5'8'' here :D . I noticed this in the Chinese too. The difference in body type, is it due to better (or different) training, better nutrition, genetics, or a combination? Does it effect performance? The Romanians and Americans performed equally well IMO. The difference being the Romanians didn't .01 themselves like the Americans. Is this because of better discipline? Do all of them living together create a better sense of team? Would Amereican gymnists benefit from this....does anyone know if any improvements in performance came out of Marta's training camp prior to the Olympics?

This is an excellent topic for an RGirl consult. RGal where is your twin?
 
She was over at "Le Cafe" last night! Let's see if we can get her over here for this discussion! :D
 
My main criticism of the Americans is the big bulky body. I think it really detracts from the beauty of gymnastics. However the Russians, Romanians and the Chinese always had strong gymnasts who had beautiful bodies. I think the main difference is that the Russians have ballet training and the Americans do not. Also I think the Americans focus mainly on strength moves verses grace. As for healthy looking Americans, just b/c you're chunky doesn't make you healthy. Anna Pavlova and the Ukrainian women have beautiful bodies that have nice line and womanly attributes (the breasts and hips) plus they have the difficulty. I am particularly fond of the Russian gymnasts as that team (even when USSR) b/c they always had a diverse group of bodies. You had taller girls (Bogi and Khorky and Kolesnikova), short and blocky ( Shushunova and Chusovitina, whom incidently still had more polish to their bodies than the Americans), short and waify (Gutsu, Omelianchik) and the in between girls like Pavlova. The Romanians always look the same though I was really surprised to see that little tank on the floor exercise in the team event (was is Oana Ban or something?). Russian gymnasts also have diverse styles as well, unlike the Americans and Romanians who seem to be doing the same routines as their teammates.
 
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I thought Anna Pavlova was just as 'chunky' as Carly Patterson.

The Chinese girls were tiny, but I suspect many of them are very much underage.

Svetlana Khorkina was absolutely skeletal. She looked as if her body was slowly digesting itself. And she was not up to her usual standard because she seemed unable to control her body (bad dismounts, wobbles on the BB, falling off the UB).

Gymnastics is NOT ballet. All of the apparati require tremendous strength in the legs, backs and arms. It makes no sense to say it is "better" for women gymnasts to be as thin as a ballerina because it 'looks better'. Ballerinas suffer from injuries and often go on to develop osteoporosis due to dieting to maintain their extreme thinness, and they don't have to swing from high bars and do somersaults over tables.
 
Ptichka said:
Hey! Are you saying the under-5' bodies cannot be beautiful?!!! :eek: (Just kidding, of course; I am 4'10" myself)
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Of course, I'm joking. I have to be. I am only 5'7" and much to short to be a leading man. :o

Joe
 
Strength and power can also be beautiful. I think the Chinese and some of the Romanians actualy look prepubescent more so than the Americans and Russians. Here in the U.S. puberty occurs earlier with each generation it seems. Does anyone know if this is different in other parts of the world? Another observation, the American gymnists body types,heavier above the waist, some almost barrell chested, with flat hips is very similar to the body type for a lot of adult female diabetics.
 
There have been tons of comments on Sveta's body. I agree that she was positively emaciated looking. However I think it's pure speculation on our part whether her thinness made her weak and hurt her gymnastics. We don't know how Sveta's weight affected her gymnastics when she was heavier. The unfortunate aspect of gymnastics is that the moves are high impact and perhaps the extra weight was too much for her joints to handle. Perhaps being a lighter weight kept her healthier in the long run in terms of injury prevention than trying to do these maneuvers at a heavier weight.

Anna Pavlova is not chunky like Carly. For one thing, Carly isn't even fully developed and she's going to have a hard time keeping her weight down when she's done with the maturation process. From her shape, most of her weight is going to go to the center. Anna has already completed the maturation process and she has "boobs and hips" and still has a beautiful body line.

In terms of gymnastics and ballet: gymnastics is supposed to be graceful and beautiful. It was only when the Soviets stopped producing top notch teams that you see the trend going to bulky, unoriginal gymnastics. In fact , I've never been a fan of the cookie cutter Romanians , however in this Olympics, they were the only consistent, graceful team and they really stood out from the pack. I am nostalgic for this grace and beauty and I was so happy that the Romanians won the team gold.

In terms of body, I think the Eastern Europeans and Chinese select for proportion while American select for strength (or since there is no selection process, the kid who has the easiest time doing the maneuvers).
 
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The Chinese girls are not underaged. All of them are over 16. They just look so young. I guess the coaches look around and just like to select small girls to the national team. I think they should select girls a litttle taller and have more power.
Personally I do like Romanian and Chinese gymnasts. They have the right body shape and look beautiful. Many of them could be very good skaters.
 
Joesitz said:
Of course, I'm joking. I have to be. I am only 5'7" and much to short to be a leading man. :o

Joe
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Joe, Hollywood would just stand you up on a box. :)
 
Jesslilly:
How do you know the Chinese girls are over 16? You only know what the federation gives to the IOC as their ages. North Korea had lied about a gymnast's age before. I wouldn't be surprised if perhaps China went with underage girls in this Olympics just to give them experience for the next Olympics which will be held in China. I've been watching gymnastics for years and I've never seen such small, young looking Chinese gymnasts (esp the girl who did beam who looks like she's 10).
 
Oriental girls often look very young because they are so small. They could be 16. Remember how tiny Tara Lipinski looked in 1996. She looked like she was 9 years old when she was 13. Even in Nagano, at age 15 she looked more like 13. I would not doubt the ages of the Chinese girls unless there was some evidence.
 
Soogar,
If there is a possiblility that the associations lie about their gymnasts' ages, it could happen in any country. People in this earth have common ground. It's not like Chinese and Korean have some special human features. The truth is that oriental kids, especially between the age of12 and 25 mostly look 5 to 7 years younger than their real age.
 
Keep it simple....

Piel The difference being the Romanians didn't .01 themselves like the Americans. Is this because of better discipline? Do all of them living together create a better sense of team? Would Amereican gymnists benefit from this....does anyone know if any improvements in performance came out of Marta's training camp prior to the Olympics?[/QUOTE said:
One of the commentators mentioned that the Romanian coach has repeatedly said that his team instead of continually trying to add more and more difficulty to their routines, they take what they can already do well and then make it perfect. That makes sense when you see how rock solid they all are one the beam...and all those stuck landings, too !!

I think the Romanians and Chinese have so much grace and beautiful lines. On the beam, they don't use as many sharp choppy gestures as the Americans...they are more fluid and simple. Sometimes less is more. That goes for floor exercise as well. I thought the music for all of the American routines were dreadful, especially Carly's.

I'm not un-American, but I would just love to see this team develop a more smooth, beautiful line...and more stuck landings.

However, on the uneven paralell bars, we rock !!
Click to expand...
 
I have been trying to find out more about different body types in different cultures and why. So far what I have found is that Asian girls reach puberty later than caucasian girls from western countries. African American and Latino girls go through puberty earliest. So a 16 year old Chinese could have a body more like a 12 to 13 year old caucasian, while a 12 to 13 year old African American or Latino could have the body of a 16 year old caucasian. One report said that girls with more body fat reached puberty earlier.
 
Gymnasts as a group go through puberty later than everyone else. The study you are referring to is just Asians compared to Caucasions. This group of Chinese gymnasts are underage. Just b/c they are Asian does not automatically mean that they will be smaller than all the other gymnasts b/c 16 year old gymnasts across all races will have comparable body fat percentages and training. Chinese gymnasts have ALWAYS been small, but not smaller than Russians and Romanians of similar ages and builds. There were gymnasts on this team who had bodies of 11 year olds. On one forum (having the same conversation on two forums), someone brought up Tara Lipinski. However when Tara won gold, she was going through growth spurts and her legs were longer and her body was assuming the proportions of a 15 year old. These Chinese gymnasts (not all but the very small ones) aren't even exhibiting the initial signs of a growth spurt. They are small and tiny all over. Gutsu was 69 pounds when she won gold in 1992 at 16 and even though she was small at 4'10, you could see that her body was beginning the initial process of change.

Gutsu in 1992
http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Base/2632/Tatiana/gutsu_new5.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Base/2632/Tatiana/gutsu_new3.gif
Mo Huilan 1990's (scroll down)
http://www.math.psu.edu/tseng/gallery.html
 
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