And Now, A Rant

[sadlikeknives]

Dear China's gymnastics program,

So you won the women's team gold medal. Congratulations. There are just a few problems I have, chief being that you won it with little girls. You say they're sixteen, their passports say they're sixteen, but I'm not buying it. Those are CHILDREN. If those are sixteen-year-olds, what the fuck are you feeding them? ARE you feeding them?

Even if they are sixteen (Bela Karolyi and I doubt it), they're sixteen-year-olds who were taken from their parents at three and put into state training. A three-year-old cannot make a choice. But an older child can, like your team's captain, who once begged her parents to let her quit and come home so she could see them more often than once a year. They made her stay. Hey, it's not like they really know her, anyway, right? You've been in charge of her since she was a toddler.

So I hope you're happy with your gold medal.

Because you're all pretty much going to hell.

Comments

[darklightluna.livejournal.com]

Why do you sound so surprised?

[juliedarling.livejournal.com]

Yep, those "state training programs" that take babies out of their homes and basically force them to be athletes should be banned by the IOC, period.

[auroura76.livejournal.com]

I can't believe how much of a non-issue this has been, and yet there have been so many random-ass "controversies" in the past.

So idiotic.

[vampychick.livejournal.com]

Like that one chick who got her medals stripped for taking a Sudafed?

The reporters are not helping. In fact they seem to be trying to put down any controversy. I think they're scared China will revoke their visas or something, but last night when Bela Karolyi referred to the Chinese as 'fourteen-year-olds' Bob Costas was real quick to say, "Now, they're sixteen! The minimum age is sixteen!"

[vampychick.livejournal.com]

Word.

And then the NBC announcers breathlessly talk about their dedication and how determined they are to be here. Like they had a choice.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Sis-in-law knows someone who used to be an Olympic gymnast for - I wanna say Poland but don't make me swear to it. Anyway, said former Olympian said that her passport was altered to age her by a few years and that adding 2-3 years is a very common practice.

Me? I say get some dental x-rays. You'd find out right quick if those girls were still carrying their baby teeth.

Sixteen my ass...

[vampychick.livejournal.com]

People keep saying that, well, Asian teenagers look younger, stop comparing them to Western teenagers, blah de bliddy blah, but...it was a Chinese newspaper that first tried to blow the whistle.

I agree. Sixteen, my ass.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Also it's not about how they look. There were documents (since taken down from the net, but NY Times find them in googlecaching) which showed the girls ID cards for previous competitions with birth years that would place them at being no older than 14, if that.

[vampychick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I looked Deng Linlin up on Wikipedia and they noted that she was previously listed with a completely different birthdate--different day, different month, different year--which in my mind at least wipes out any possibility of the "oh it was a misprint" defense.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Doesn't one of them have a birthday of 1/1? Granted people do, but that stood out to me as a very easy date to adjust.

[kopernik.livejournal.com]

adding 2-3 years is a very common practice

Yeah, I totally read that Bela did the same when he was in Romania, and he's so mad now not because the Chinese are getting away with it but because the US won't allow it.

[vampychick.livejournal.com]

Romania was pretty much a nightmare back in the day, yeah, and everybody knows it, but I kind of think that if he wanted to stick with that program he would've stayed there, because he had to know coming into the US that up with that shit they would not put.

I think I read an article before the Games, when someone first realized that oh hey these Chinese girls are two years older than they were six months ago, where he said that yeah, this was a big problem back in the day, to the point that he remembers being at a match with two supposedly fifteen-year-old Korean gymnasts with their front teeth missing. And he sounded really indignant.

I think he actually cares about the girls now. Maybe it's that he's older and has had more time to reflect; maybe some Romanian girl that system fucked up called him up and chewed him out and it was a wakeup call, who knows? But the fact that he's kind of taking a stand and saying, "I don't care what they say, those are not sixteen-year-olds," endears him to me a whole lot more than Tim, "The Romanians used to be so much better when they weren't allowed to laugh and chat! Let's go back to that!" Daggett.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Oh totally. Bela and Marta are only ranting about it because they're pissed the US won't let them do the same.

And let's not even get into how the poor US team has injuries liek woah because god forbid Marta train via a method other than overworking and abuse.