It’s so other countries can be competitive. If you have smaller teams your country needs less elite athetes to field a team. I hate it though, less athletes who get the chance.

You might want to look into aerial and circus arts. I do aerial silks, hoop, and hammock. It’s a lot of fun and similar to gymnastics, but more performance based than competitive.

“But with that muscle mass they have to stay slender as well to do those skills and not injure themselves. So I think there is a happy medium and a nutritional way to do that.”

Well, that’s pretty chilling. Thanks for sharing your insights.

Simone Biles seems (and I hope this is true) different from a lot of elite gymnasts in the sense that she seems to be fulfilling rather than fighting her genetic destiny. There’s a difference between a kid who has an amazing ability to flip around in the air, and a kid who has the need to flip around in the air. Biles…

Honestly, I have little tolerance for competitive, professional or “academic” sports because, as far as I can see, there’s no way for a person to participate at a high level without abusing themselves. A few years ago the university where I TAed was very proud because one of our long distance runners had gained some…

From seeing the American team this year, it seems that their coach has moved on from the thinking that all gymnast need to be 70 pounds. The US team not only had the extra muscle to do things the other teams couldn’t but that extra mass gives them extra momentum when they’re in the air or on the bars. Not to mention…

I used to be a competitive gymnast until I was 12. It started out as an extracurricular and quickly turned into 30+ hours of training in order to be able to compete. A few things -

I’ve actually really loved how muscular the U.S. Woman’s gymanstics team is this year. I have a very similar body type to theirs having done 20 years of dance. I’m also under 5ft tall just like Simone Biles, something I’ve been telling basically anyone who will listen. It's really nice to see athletes who in many ways…

This and ballet. I understand certain bodies have better shapes for certain sports (I.e. Jockeys) but when you are taking young women, women who are receiving criticism and shaming images from everywhere they look already and then apply the pressure of unrealistic athletic expectations- it’s scary. I am thankful my…

That’s a good theory. I didn’t remember hearing about him being abusive to her, in particular. They seemed to have a special relationship. Perhaps it also has to do with the fact that he became a coach under a communist regime that demanded such a work ethic from its athletes from a very young age.

Hear, hear. We have age of consent laws in other areas of life for a reason, and it’s crazy to me that we think a child can actually consent to entering a punishing relationship with his or her trainer. Especially in a sport like gymnastics where athletes are pressured into doing shit that thwarts the body’s natural…

My dad was at the Moscow Olympics. Hung out at the Olympic village with lots of other athletes.

I don’t think Karolyi abused Nadia. Both have often talked about how she was a natural overachiever even as a little kid; super-introverted, with this crazy ambitious streak that most kids lack at that age.

Lookit, do you wanna be a happy, healthy, well-adjusted person, or do you wanna win?

I would love to hear whether or not this sort of body-shaming is common among less competitive teams. I’ve got a kid interested in gymnastics, but maaaaybe we’ll keep her extracurriculars limited to competitive sandwich-making if the body-shaming is prevalent at all levels.

It comes up every 4 years - anyone interested in this topic should read Joan Ryan’s Little Girls in Pretty Boxes.

Karolyi is well known for being a rotten SOB.

Perhaps we should not allow people to compete at such a young age

I expect this is true about many different types of Olympic athletes and their coaches, and I would assume it is more prevalent among female athletes.