This just drives me bananas - gymnastics division

[blublood]

See this article from the Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/sp...ewanted=1&_r=1

I mean, the Chinese teams have been cheating this way for years, but the fact that it's still blatantly going on when China is hosting the Olympics and tooting their own horn about how great and "progressive" they are and nobody is willing or able to do anything about it just make me want to punch somebody.

I actually remember that kid in 1991 (who was from North Korea) and it was comical. She was literally too short to reach the low bar on the uneven bars. She looked like she should be watching Sesame Street, not competing in a senior event.

Grrrrrrrrrr... hate these stupid, farcical Olympics!!

[BCGroup]

On a related note, Paul Hamm won't be going to the Olympics. Whether you like the Olympics or not, this is sad--probably the last Olympics for him (or it would have been).

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...x.html?cnn=yes

[bird]

What are the cleanest sports?

You hear of very little cheating in many team sports (putting aside American football and baseball). Soccer, field hockey, basketball, and the like, seem clean.

You hear a of cheating in individual sports. Track and field, maybe a bit in swimming, bicycling, now a bit in gymnastics.

[hughgs]

What are the cleanest sports?

You hear of very little cheating in many team sports (putting aside American football and baseball). Soccer, field hockey, basketball, and the like, seem clean.

You hear a of cheating in individual sports. Track and field, maybe a bit in swimming, bicycling, now a bit in gymnastics.

Operation Puerto, the big cycling drug bust in Europe the past couple of years, supposedly implicated a larger number of soccer players than cyclist. And, for the record, road cycling is a team sport.

I would suggest that team handball is probably the cleanest sport .

[blublood]

On a related note, Paul Hamm won't be going to the Olympics. Whether you like the Olympics or not, this is sad--probably the last Olympics for him (or it would have been).

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...x.html?cnn=yes

And he really deserves a lot of credit for stepping aside, especially after all the garbage he took in Sydney. There's no doubt he could have pumped his body full of steroids (non-anabolic) (hopefully) and painkillers, wrapped everything up tight, and competed. Gymnasts do it all the time. But, as he said in his press conference, he is presently not the gymnast that can give the U.S. team the best chance of winning a medal.

This probably means that that other dude, Sasha, I think, will be up on deck because they've got to have somebody strong on rings.

[Mal]

Beyond the age-faking controversy here: any athletic endeavor in which 14-year-olds have a distinct advantage over vastly more mature (both physically and mentally) 20-year-olds, needs to rethink itself. That just shouldn't be the case. Think of barely teenaged kids competing against college students in baseball or hockey. It would be a joke.

Incidentally, this is a bit of a problem with me for tennis, as well, though not as extreme. There, at least for most players, the point at which their physical abilities (stamina, especially) hit their peak coincides with some level of mental maturity. Also, learning to play the game craftily can compensate for the deterioration of those physical skills, at least for awhile, whereas in gymnastics there's no "opponent" in a traditional sense, so the game management and psychological skills that come with age and experience don't count for nearly as much. Also, with strength becoming a bigger part of the game, it's less and less likely we'll see 15-year-olds winning Slams anymore. Nonetheless, it bothers me to always see these talents bursting onto the scene at age 18, and by the time they figure out how to play the game at the highest level, their performance starts to deteriorate because they're too "old" at age 24.

Maybe this is just me getting old myself.

[dukemomLA]

If the Chinese gymnasts (...despite their "passports") are not eliminated, I'll be bereft and-- actually surprised.

I LOVE the games, but worry that the Olympics are on their way out as one of the most anticipated sporting events of the world. Woe is me. Woe are them. Granting these games to Beijing has been a disaster from start to finish.

The IOC is a joke. Shame on you all.

That said, I can't wait for the games to begin -- although this might be the last time in my lifetime I want to say that.

[Lavabe]

If the Chinese gymnasts (...despite their "passports") are not eliminated, I'll be bereft and-- actually surprised.

I LOVE the games, but worry that the Olympics are on their way out as one of the most anticipated sporting events of the world. Woe is me. Woe are them. Granting these games to Beijing has been a disaster from start to finish.

The IOC is a joke. Shame on you all.

That said, I can't wait for the games to begin -- although this might be the last time in my lifetime I want to say that.

...you could wait another four years for them to be in LONDON.

That would be AWESOME!!

Cheers,
Lavabe

[blublood]

Maybe this is just me getting old myself.

No, it's a huge problem. I posted about this a couple of days ago so I won't repeat myself, but you just should not have 14-year-olds traveling on world tennis tours (remember Jennifer Capriati?); likewise there is something wrong when tenth-graders are carrying the hopes and dreams of an entire country on their shoulders, and have traded away most of their childhoods to do so.

As far as gymnastics are concerned, I fear the problem is only going to get worse. They recently (well, I mean within the last 3 years or so) implemented this new scoring system where there is no cap - there is no more perfect 10. Sounds good in principle, but what's actually ended up happening is that there's this push for higher and higher scores, pack in more twists, more rotations, do more dangerous and complex vaults. And that would be o.k. if you were talking about college athletes, but the kids who are being trained on these things are 11, 12, 13 years old. They're pushing their bodies to the breaking point, as is evidenced by the fact that every single girl on that team has broken this or broken that or had surgery to repair a torn/ruptured/fractured whatever.