One question about the age rule?

[Tinymavy15]

What year did the ISU create the rule that you have to be 15 to go to worlds/olympics. was it right after tara won, or right after she was injured?

 

[Mafke]

IIRC it was before she won worlds, but she was grandfathered in and was able to compete that way (or maybe I'm thinking of Sarah Hughes).

 

[skatergirl45]

Well, after Tara they made the rule that you could only go if you medaled at JW (that's how sarah went) then they chaged it again after she had a bronze medal before her 16th birthday.

 

[mskater93]

The rule was in effect before Tara with the JW loophole. Kwan took advantage of the loophole as well in 1994 thanks to her JW medal in 1993. Tara and Sara also used the loophole. The loophole was then closed.

 

[PolymerBob]

Here is Tara's Wikipedia entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Lipinski

It says she was grandfathered when the new rule went into effect because she had already competed at Worlds.

Back in the early 80's, our legislature started raising the drinking age here in Connecticut. It had been 18 for decades, but they raised it to 19, then 20, then finally 21. My sister went from too young to drink, to old enough, to too young, to old enough, back to too young, and back to old enough.