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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To believe that a 14-year-old BOY has ZERO business on a 'men's' Olympic team?

57 replies

expatinscotland · 11/08/2008 20:19

This diver is a kid.

Under immense pressure.

'Women's' gymnastics had to change the minimum age of athletes after teams started bringing 13-year-olds to the Olympics and the World championships.

Seems to me it needs to be an across the board rule for all sports - no kids under 16.

What a childhood these poor wee ones must have!

OP posts:

LuckySalem · 11/08/2008 20:22

Sorry Expat but I don't agree with you.

I think that the lad probably has a normal life apart from training. All kids have hobbies etc and if he is enjoying it then there is no reason he can't be rewarded for all his hard work.

I do however, think he has had a ridiculous amount of pressure on him and that his partner should be told what a team player is!!

paolosgirl · 11/08/2008 20:23

It depends how his parents and coaches have handled it and supported him - but if he's good enough to be there, and he wants to be there, and he's not living in a climate of fear should he not get a medal, then why not?

I suppose you could just as easily say no competitive sport until adulthood - which would be ridiculous IMO

tiredemma · 11/08/2008 20:24

He is going to be hot in few years, he is so handsome.

wish I was a teen again

paolosgirl · 11/08/2008 20:24

Oh - and agree with Lucky re his partner. Very bad form.

Original poster

expatinscotland · 11/08/2008 20:25

There are juniors competitions.

In tennis, there are now minimum ages.

And now in gymnastics.

I don't see why not across the board.

14 is not a man.

OP posts:

laweaselmys · 11/08/2008 20:26

I just saw that one the news, his partner was a total twat. I know it's a huge event and he apparently fluffed it but even if you were miffed you still have a duty to support your team not slag the other guy off.

Poor boy. I feel terrible for him, everybody having a go because he came 8th at the Olympics like that isn't something amazing in itself!!

LuckySalem · 11/08/2008 20:26

Maybe they should put a limit on the ages but I think he has a right to be on the olympic team.

Whizzz · 11/08/2008 20:27

Having heard him interviewd, I'd say he was enjoying himself & seems to be very balanced.

georgimama · 11/08/2008 20:27

tiredmama, the olympics have passed me by so I had no idea how old he was when I was idly flicking through BBC website today and I thought he was hot too. I feel very very .

beansmum · 11/08/2008 20:27

I don't think you can have a normal life and train for the olympics. Adults can choose to have no friends outside their sport, no social life and no time off but a 14yo can't. His parents should have encouraged him to have other hobbies. He could have started serious training when he was a bit older.

WilfSell · 11/08/2008 20:27

I agree.

I also feel slightly uncomfortable with the notion that we're waiting for a child to become HOT in a few years, when he's paraded virtually naked in front of the whole world.

Such body-conscious celebrity as he will now face, even if he is an adolescent, is not healthy.

laweaselmys · 11/08/2008 20:27

oh, and er, I don't think the Olympics should have a minimum age, it's different from other competitions, it's about who is the best in the world, not about how old they are.

morningpaper · 11/08/2008 20:28

BLIMEY was it me or were all of those synchronised men RAVING QUEENS?

bunchoflowers · 11/08/2008 20:28

He's not exactly down a coal mine is he?

mrsruffallo · 11/08/2008 20:29

I feel the same, expat.
Why couldn't they wait another 4 years?

Waswondering · 11/08/2008 20:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

whatdayisit · 11/08/2008 20:32

That lad is going to be a star, whether he makes it as a top diver or not. Not sure I'd say "hot", but undeniably attractive and has all the chat, will be a massive TV personality.

Presumably we didn't have anyone else as good i.e. he didn't keep a "man" out of the team and as he said all along it will be good experience for 2012. He never expected to win.

paolosgirl · 11/08/2008 20:32

Maybe HE didn't want to wait 4 years - maybe he wanted to experience things now. Who knows what the future might bring? He might lose interest in the sport, might have an injury - all sorts of things. At least he can look back at his young life and say I went to the Olympics and represented my country - how many of us can say that?

olympicsnotfederer · 11/08/2008 20:35

I agree with expat.

I will poss get slated for this, but isn't he CAMP? He certainly minces around and it makes me feel uncomfortable since he is a pubescent boy in trunks

I see problems ahead for this boy. It gives me a baaaad feeling.

barnsleybelle · 11/08/2008 20:36

I saw him being interviewed with his parents on tv. Both him and his parents are very grounded. They did not seem very pushy and are actually totally and utterly skint from going around the world to chaperone him. The parents have to fully fund themselves to go with him.

He lives for diving and i think no matter his age it's fantastic if it's what he wants to do.

nkf · 11/08/2008 20:37

A minimum age wouldn't hurt the sport. Nobody who trains for the Olympics has a "normal" life whatever that is and whatever their age. Weren't Jackson and Adlington fantastic? Lovely lovely race.

Whizzz · 11/08/2008 20:37

But the thing was he had to qualify along with everyone else....he didn't just buy a ticket. He had to prove he was good enough to be there, no matter what his age

Original poster

expatinscotland · 11/08/2008 20:39

Sorry but if my 14-year-old tells me she wants to go off and devote her life to say, modelling, and mould her entire life around there, I'm going to have to exercise my role as a parent and say no and keep it part-time or juniors until she's 16 and I no longer have the ability to make that decision for her.

Because I don't think it's healthy for a person who is 14 in the long-run. They can wait a couple of years.

OP posts:

herbietea · 11/08/2008 20:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

WilfSell · 11/08/2008 20:41

if he's good at 14 he's not gonna get worse by training for a coupla years longer is he?

A few GCSEs; fewer older women (and men) describing him as hot in Heat magazine; more options when it all goes tits up later and he's no longer good enough.

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