update: She gave me her cold.

It’s on the long side, but here’s an interesting study about empathy response to seeing pain reactions from men and women - and also subdivided into more attractive men, less attractive men, more attractive women and less attractive women. Less attractive men and more attractive women ranked the highest in evincing emp…

Can confirm.

I remember years ago when there was a report on the evening news that doctors (presumably male) had concluded that pain from menstrual cramps was real. My mother and I looked at each other in disbelief. Apparently they thought that all these women, separately, individually, and across tens of thousands of years in all…

This is a scientific study. You’re citing an anecdote.

Its also injuries building up. I really think Russia forced Plushenko to keep going last Olympics when his back was clearly in very poor condition and he tapped out before he finished and retired. 

I think the rotations used in jumping can screw up bone development (this is according to an article I read last winter olympics). Supposedly its more of a problem in women’s skating than mens.

Puberty is the problem. It helps male skaters, but for female skaters, they wind up with a body that doesn’t rotate as fast, with a different center of gravity. So, the message that puberty and physics is sending to girls, is:

Many young athletes quit or burn out. Nobody cares about the child’s well being. We have laws for a reason. Kids shouldn’t compete with adults. They should not be pushed so hard at a young age. Sadly, nobody cares. 

Right? Objectively, sports teach kids important things: discipline, time management, keeping healthy. But when you take it to the competitive world, where parents are paying for their kids to play in exclusive clubs, that’s when eating disorders and injuries happen, if you’re not careful. Especially with sports and…

One thing you’re ignoring here is the physical toll on these young girls developing bodies.

I’m really disappointed by this article, and surprised because I can’t recall reading something by Dvora that wasn’t good. As others have mentioned, you don’t mention the MAJOR issues of mental development and physical/sexual abuse of very young athletes. And your tone is so dismissive in some parts: “And it’s also a…

Yeah, the mental shit is no joke. I once coached a high school kid in club volleyball, and there had been some talk about her entering the Olympic development pipeline. You want to see a kid go from great prospect to total headcase? I saw it happen in about three months. There’s a big jump in pressure between the…

*slaps down list of young athletes victimized by organizations more interested in protecting the victimizers*

Yes, they need minimums because it’s already way too easy to exploit kids as performers/athletes. Giving asshole parents and national sports organizations free rein to create little gold-medal machines with tiny windows of success and then tossing them aside just creates incentives for the worst actors.

Maybe we need to think about what’s going on off the ice, instead of on it?

I’d say that the older skaters are still generally more skilled than the young girls who are doing quads. There is more to skating than the jumps and spins even if those elements are the most spectacular and most easily understood by a general audience.

You talk a lot about the physical aspects of age, but neglect anything about mental developmental.

Well if she were a Chinese gymnast, she could just add 2 years and be fine.

“Does Figure Skating Really Need Age Minimums?”