Exactly what were you expecting?

[moonwise]

Chinese news service reported that gold medal gymnast was 13

There's a good deal of huffiness going on in the American sports press asking why the IOC isn't doing anything about this when the rule is that gymnasts must be 16 or older. Well, the Soviets had underage gymnasts back in the old days, and so did the Romanians, and so did the North Koreans, so why would anyone expect the IOC to suddenly come to life?

Comments

[jaina.livejournal.com]

I'm also pretty damn certain I read a pre-competition article in which one of the US coaches was like "we'll kick their asses whatever age they are." Convenient timing to complain about it now.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they leave out the part where the American team was playing hurt, and then they imploded.

[emiweebee.livejournal.com]

So far, at work, the general response has been this:

"A million years ago, when Gymnast X was in it, she was 12, so the rules nowadays confuse my fragile mind."
"Why regulate it? 12 year olds are still in training."
"Well, if she broke the rules, shouldn't someone do something?" To which I replied (in my head), "What part of Olympics in China didn't you understand?"

Fah. I am over the Olympics.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

"What part of Olympics in China didn't you understand?"

Or Russia, or East Germany, or North Korea, or even Atlanta... The home team always gets a boost, natch, but fact-fudging has been part of the Olympics for a looong time.

[caoin.livejournal.com]

I thought there was a guy on the UK diving team who was 14...or do these rules only apply to gymnastics? Or maybe it was just our pathetic commentators. Really I can barely be bothered as the channel that has the (almost) exclusive Lympdics contract here is doing a really bad job of it.