To find watching the gymnastics utterly depressing?

[GandalfsWrinklyHat]

Watching the olympics - gymnastics on right now. Think it's the team competition bit. I know nothing about gymnastics at all, and am in awe of all those girls doing what they're doing, but they are SO YOUNG. And I cannot imagine that they could have had much of a childhood at all. I just find it so depressng. And they must surely know pain? You cannot train to do what they're doing and not experience a lot of pain. Somebody set me straight. I actually feel quite guilty for watching... Am I wrong?

I'm with you Gandalf. Friend's DD is a competitive gymnast. I thought the level of commitment and the hours and intensity of training were pushing it (7-8 years old, 3 hours everyday after school), but WA utterly gob smacked when friend told me that the children were not allowed to eat on the day they competed until after the podium ceremony, so they didn't look bloated in photos.

There is a lot of grey area between doing it for the sheer joy of it and being 'forced'.

All you have to do is praise a kid only when they do a certain activity and sure enough they will do it...a lot...even if they hate it.

I'm pretty sure both my siblings did inappropriate degrees for their actual talents in part because they saw how praised I was for doing what I chose from supposedly free will.

And thats if you might have serious life chances doing anything else. IF sport is your way out of poverty (and for your family too) then how much free choice is that?

Anyone see the male gymnast break his leg on vault a couple of days ago? You could hear the snap as it broke. And then the paramedics dropped the stretcher when loading it into the ambulance!

"
They aren't being forced to compete, you know."

How do you know? Families are different and countries are different.

Do their ages show on TV or are you just presuming they're very young. Gymnastics can delay development, so maybe they look younger than they are.

Also - why do the women have to do floor to music and wear glittery costumes when the men get to treat like any other sport?

I'm very much coming down on the side of exploitation of minors here.

they now have to be at least 16, since 1997,
they may Look young but they are over 16.

Yes, Ice.
On TV they were saying earlier that one of the Chinese girls funded medical treatment for her visually impaired brother through her gymnastics.

It's not something I would necessarily want my DD to do competitively (for fun and exercise, yes) but I think there are some real positives. I was watching them earlier and thinking how focussed and motivated they must be (something I sometimes lack!), and imagine that will serve them well elsewhere in their life.

Also - why do the women have to do floor to music and wear glittery costumes when the men get to treat like any other sport?

Are you talking about the rhythmic gymnastic floor routines because the men usually wear a bit of glitter and snazzier costumes for that too. Otherwise it's team leotards for both in 'normal' floor routines.

Anyone read the interview with Simone Biles in last weeks Saturday TImes - coach complaining that she didn't wear a bow in her hair and wanted to have a day off to go shopping? Then casually throw in that the Indian gymnast's high tariff vault leaves you with a serious risk of spinal injury if you ever misland it (Biles refuses to even try it and is then labelled too independent?) My dds went to a school that was gym obsessed and you got girls as young as 8 plastered in make up that would be best suited to a red light district wiggling their hips like jail bait on the basis that that type of choreography wins competitions. DH went to one show and point blank refused to let them go back.

I tried to watch a programme once about the Chinese training of gymnasts. I had to switch it off, it was so distressing. Children were taken from their parents at around 4 if they "showed potential" at school and put in a training centre where they lived. I watched about 15 minutes of it but couldmt take anymore. It was child cruelty.

I actually love watching the powerful, muscular women and girls tonight. Those poor Chinese girls though. They barely looked in double figures.

This is an interesting read about the ages of people in different events. www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics/2016/08/09/10-olympics-facts-which-will-make-you-feel-horribly-old/

"they may Look young but they are over 16"
How on earth can anyone really prove the girls are over 16? There's no way the Chinese girls are that age.

This is true Meck but in the gymnastics tonight the women were doing floor routine to music. They were wearing team leotards but they were all sparkly, all had make up on and many had glitter in their hair.

ExBF from years ago competed nationally and it really was just brutal (& that was here, at Lilleshall(?sp?) not in China or USSR.

Remember the awful, but very factual, stories of very young (12-14, just hit puberty which always delayed in female gymnasts) being 'made pregnant' - aka child abuse - to up their hormones and then forced abortions. Made me want to weep. I pray all is different now though?

How would that work though, Empty. You are saying that puberty is delayed but then they are made pregnant? That doesn't add up.

I have two young DDs who do gym, one is in a development squad and the other probably will be soon. They love their once weekly sessions and often practice at home. They stretch, but never cry! They enjoy it and also have fantastic role models in the squad members who care what their bodies can do and not how they look, and who are happily committed to their sport.

how about other sports,
why is gymnastics making you feel depressed?
surely all Olympians have had to train incredibly hard, from a young age, to get where they are?

This is interesting about the background of the very thin chinese gymnast 16-233.tumblr.com/post/132196119794/delta1088-the-story-of-shang-chunsong-a-girls

op yabu. These are athletes at the pinnacle of their sport. Many other sports have competitors in their late teens/twenties. Most competitors at the Olympics is going to have dedicated large parts of their teen years to training.
Gym is awesome. Being able to do such amazing stuff with your body is amazing. I did a related sport as a teen and trained about 15 hours a week. I absolutely loved it, it kept me out of trouble, kept me fit and most of my social life came from the club. I have a good body image and relationship with food that I think comes from being fit and able to eat what I liked as a teen.
Even now I'm slim and find it easier to tone up, I'm sure that's from being so fit when I was younger.
Also competing (and losing) is great for mental resilience I think.
For me the benefits at the time and afterwards far outweigh any knocks and injuries (I had to stop due to injury sadly). I would love it if one of my children wanted to do sport at that kind of level.
Sorry, I know it's kind of a smug post but I think those women are doing something incredible and should be very proud of themselves :)

You may have a point. The 'dance' element is supposedly why the women have music but I often find it jarring and not necessary.