Gymnasts as abused pygmies? Say what, TJ?

PHILADELPHIA -- So T.J. Simers seems to think (female only) gymnasts are some sort of abused, artificially shortened mutants being used as unwitting pawns in their parents' evil plan to create tiny, glory-hounds who are sent away from home as babies until they win an Olympic medal. Then apparently they are unchained and allowed to grow to normal size, have menstrual cycles and be physically (for some) and emotionally stunted adults.

Just FYI, Shawn Johnson's parents Doug and Teri are no more than an inch or two (or maybe three for Doug)  taller than their 4-foot-9 daughter. Who goes to her local high school, lives at home, went to prom and makes one trip a month to a U.S. training camp in Houston.

Samantha Peszek's mother Luann was a gymnast and the former USA director of public relations. It's probably not an upset nor any more "abusive" that Sam is a gymnast than if her mother had been a doctor and Sam went to medical school or if her father had been a vet and Sam volunteered at an animal shelter for a few hours a week.

If T.J. would like to move into the 21st century of gymnastics observations, he would notice

that of the top 12 female gymnasts, only one has moved away from home for training.

He might at least note that top-level male basketball players are playing for traveling AAU teams in the seventh and eighth grade. Kevin Love and O.J. Mayo are no more or less driven than Shawn Johnson or Nastia Liukin but if you want to suggest which of those four spent more time in academic pursuits and less time on the road in pursuit of sporting excellence, I'll take an (educated) guess -- Johnson and Liukin.

My niece (my husband's sister's daughter) was an 18-year-old platform diver at the 1996 Olympics. Her name is Becky Ruehl and once she got the first taste of the dangerous thrill of hurling off that 30-foot platform, there was no stopping her. The drive to be great, the commitment to twice-daily practices, the willingness to accept some pain, did not come from her parents. But they couldn't stop it either. Becky will say to anyone who listens that going to the Olympics was a life-affirming opportunity. She's now married and has advanced degrees in art and architecture and will soon be teaching in college.

Becky started out in gymnastics. I guess she was lucky to escape with her height and soul intact.

    -- Diane Pucin

Editor's note: Diane Pucin has covered elite gymnastics, among many other sports, since 1992, when she covered the Barcelona Olympics.

Photo: Shawn Johson, left, may be shorter than Nastia Liukin, right, but Johnson has the best chance for individual gold in Beijing. Credit: Stew Milne / US Presswire

Comments

[Who Cares]

Olympics? Pleh! Who cares...

It's rigged with pros..look at the teams with "pros" on them...Basketball, Hockey, Tennis, bleh!

Where is the amateur in international amateur sports???

As far as gymnastics, get the little Britteny teens out of women's gymnastics, and put real "women" there until the kiddies grow up to actually be women ! How many 14 year olds you see in the other sports?? None, Olympics are for adults...kiddie Olympics have thier place and it's not with the adults.

[Meg]

Both this article, and the one it argues against, suffer from too much subjectivity, against very few facts. To be fair, this article presents at least a bit of anecdotal evidence, while the offending one is pretty empty of anything except the writer's bile.

However, you haven't convinced me of anything other than TJ Simers was unprofessional.

Are gymnasts abused, with winning in mind? I'd be interested to know. My feeling is that yes, they are. Genetics hardly explains their height, except maybe in one or two cases. And I've read articles about several retired gymnasts who, upon reaching maturity, claimed that they were physically abused as children. Apparently, the main complaint is being given shoddy medical care, which only stops the pain, but not the cause, and being told to perform even when the coach knew the long-term risk to their health. Several Romanian gymnasts have publicly blown the whistle on this in the past 2 years (sorry, the references are only in Romanian).

[South OC Fan]

Have to admit, I hated myself initially for clicking on this blog from the LAT home page because I read Simer's inane comment - I thought I had gotten past the weird repulsion/fascination of reading what passes for reasoned thought from his frontal lobe. But, it appears I owe Simer an apology - if only because it allowed me to read Diane Pucin's logical and appropriate defense of athletes that I only pay attention to every four years - the gymnasts. And as far as parents as drill instructors and wanna-be Dina Lohan's goes - I don't recall too many Olympic athletes (particularly gymnasts), getting into drugs/alcohol/reality TV and making a career of getting their picture taken sans underwear. I guess they are there because they want to be and the hard work to get there didn't stop them. What a concept.

Diane: Never having wanted to do cartwheels or play on monkey bars myself - I preferred baseball - I have to say that for sheer all-around physical and mental strength, I consider the gymnasts to be among the best athletes in sport. I assume this point will not be conceded by Simers until one of them wins Dancing with the Stars.

With regards to their size, the same physics laws are at work against them as are for anyone else. I will say that I believe some of the subjective judging that has occurred over the last two decades has encouraged the trend towards discouraging taller girls from competing against shorter ones. I believe your niece had to accomplish incredible athletic turns and twists after balancing on one inch of the end of a platform. Congratulations to Becky by the way - on her quality of her athletic accomplishments, but more importantly, on the quality of her academic and familial accomplishments.

Thanks Diane - I look forward to following your blog as we go towards the Olympics.

[Rawles]

"Genetics hardly explains their height, except maybe in one or two cases."

Yes, gymnastics makes people short. Just like basketball makes people tall, right?

Smaller people excel in the sport due to having a lower center of gravity. As such, people who naturally grow too tall to be world-class competitors usually either quit the sport or stay at low levels. Either way they aren't the ones you see at the Olympics.

It's called natural selection.

Logic please.

[Diane Pucin]

This is Diane Pucin responding a couple of the posters.
For Who Cares, two of the women who will most likely be on the gymnastics team -- Chellsie Memmel and Alicia Sacramone -- are 20. One definite member is 18. I think the 20-year-olds have reached womanhood. There are no 14-years-olds on the team. If you are saying only "women" should be in the Olympics how'd you feel when Kobe Bryant was drafted by the Lakers? Kobe was 17 when he was picked. Was he a man? Man-child? Child? Manly? Mannish? I don't get it, really. Nastia Liukin is too unwomanish at 18 to be an Olympian? So is Russell Westbrook at 19 not enough of a man to be an NBA player? My head would hurt having so many reasons to not watch athletes at the Olympics or any sports. So good luck with that.
For Meg, I have seen little evidence that American gymnasts are physically abused or receive anything but the best medical care. I can't speak for Romanian gymnasts.
I can't say with certainty that no gymnast has received bad medical treatment or been pushed by a parent or told by a coach to take the donuts out of the diet and add a carrott or two.
Girls driven enough who want to be Olympians can also be driven perfectionists who fall into eating disorders.

And to OC Reader, thanks! It might be time for T.J. to take a genetic refersher coach -- a smaller-than-average mom and a smaller-than-average father might produce a small-than-average daughter. There's books written on this stuff and everything. So unless one would advocate short people have no reason to tumble, what's the problem with gymnastics?
Honestly the gymnasts don't have their feet bound and they aren't given some anti-growth potion or HUH -- Human Ungrown Hormone (I'm making that up). But short people like sports too.

[Gym mom]

Here is a parental point of view. My pygmie son became a gymnast because he is SHORT...very short, wears thick glasses, and was made fun of and beat up by the football, baseball and basketball playing jocks in his grammar school. He is also extremely athletic, has great spatial reference, and is a team player. He has freely spent 5 nights a week in the gym for 7 years because he loves it and feels part of something great..... Not because anyone makes him do it.

[shender]

South OC Fan: I assume this point will not be conceded by Simers until one of them wins Dancing with the Stars.

I'm sure Simer will be pleased to hear that Ukrainian Olympic gold medallist, Lilia Podkopyaeva (sp?) won the Ukraine's version of 'Dancing With the Stars' and has gone on to represent the Ukraine in the Eurodance contest - the dance version of Eurovision.

[Erin R]

Just a clarification for Who Cares. There will be no 14 year old gymnists at the olympics the rules state they must be 16 (I forget by what date but well before the olympics). As stated before our team is going to comprise mostly of 18 and 20 year olds.

[Gym mom #2]

There are tall gymnasts, but they are a rarity at the elite level. Taller elites like Svetlana Bouginskaya, who was 5'6", exist, but not often. the bodies of taller girls just are not built for the sport. Liken her to Mugsy Bogues, whose body also was not built for his sport, and there is your cross-sport comparison.

A tall girl will quit gymnastics at a young age because she is not learning skills as quickly as her shorter peers and will become discouraged. She will take up something like ballet, or basketball, or volleyball, which are more accommodating to her body.

And as to the abuse comment, no sport is perfect and those who went through especially bad experiences are much more likely to speak out them long after the fact. Martha Karolyi has done a fabulous job with the USA Gymnastics program. The girls train at home, under their own coaches and near their own families, but everything is overseen by the national program. All the girls are happy, love gymnastics, and the national team are all close friends. When the national team program is not what a girl wants, she can quit at any time.

Ashley Priess was an elite gymnast in contention for the Olympics this year. She quit the elite program right before Nationals, which was a surprise to everybody, but she realized national elite gymnastics was not what she wanted. She has since signed with and will be going to the University of Alabama with a full-ride gymnastics scholarship. Her path is much more typical of a gymnast. Most girls and guys who do gymnastics may have far off Olympic dreams, but realistically most of them are aiming for a college scholarship, something very much within reach.

Gymnastics is a demanding sport, but the rewards are more than worth it. Gymnasts excel in school because gymnastics has instilled in them discipline, hard work, determination, time management, and a host of other qualities. Amy Chow, a member of the 1996 Olympic team, went on to compete at Stanford and is now finishing up at Stanford Medical School.

And I don't think anybody has noted this yet, but the days of 14 year olds competing in the Olympics are long gone. An athlete must turn 16 before the end of the Olympic year to compete. However, before this rule, 14 year olds were found not just in gymnastics, but in other sports too. Swimming and diving, especially, come to mind.