“Their passports are issued by a Chinese government that is very, very interested in winning lots and lots of gold medals, so while they may say they’re 15 or 16, five of the six team members have the appearance of pre-pubescent children. “The little babies,” is how U.S. coach Martha Karolyi refers to the Chinese gymnasts when speaking to her team, and they certainly are little. Li Shanshan (16) is 4-foot-9, 79 pounds. Yang Yilin (15) is 4-foot-11, 77 pounds. He Kexin (16) is 4-foot-8, 73 pounds. Jiang Yuyuan (16) is 4-foot-7, 71 pounds. But the prize goes to Deng Linlin (16), who’s listed at 4-foot-6 and a strapping 68 pounds. She could take a nap in Yao Ming’s sneaker. Poor thing’s also missing a tooth. Please, someone send baby food.” (From Sports Illustrated Wednesday August 13, 2008 5:07AM)
Considering that the average height of Chinese 20 year-old women is 5′ 0.8″ and the average height of American 20 year-old women is 5′ 4.6″ – the Chinese 16 year old female gymnasts are well within what can be considered normal for Chinese 16 year-olds.
For comparison – I was 4′ 6.9″ at age 16, and at age 20 I was 5′ 5.1. I grew almost a feet between 16 and 20!
Gymnasts are supposed to be graceful. Whining, crying and perpetuating silly rumors (confirmed or not) simply because you didn’t win the gold is simply bad manners, bad form and a disgrace and quite disgraceful. The American female gymnasts and their coach give all Americans a bad name as being sore losers, and only add to the reason why Americans are thought of as arrogant and bully-some and are generally disliked out-side the US. It’s sad that they cannot just admit that the Chinese Female Gymnasts were simply better than they.
Perhaps if the Americans had started training at age 4, and kept training 8-10 hours a day 6 days a week, they would have been as good – and as small? See, it is a scientifically established fact that vigorous training like what the Chinese are doing will inhibit growth as long as the training continues to that extent. There’s nothing fishy about the Chinese women’s gymnast team – they simply paid a little more in terms of blood sweat and tears to get where they are – at the top of the world.
The Americans are simply sore, whining losers and cry-babies. Boohoo….I can’t respect that kind of sportsmanship.
How about I start a rumor that Michael Phelps is really on some performance enhancement drug, because it’s absolutely impossible to slaughter the World records, Olympic records and win all those races and not be using some illicit drug. After all, doesn’t history prove this through Marion Jones and her co-“athletes”? Or Lance Armstrong…the great American “Athlete”?
The fact is that the Chinese Gymnasts’ size and age correspond very well with their background – Chinese rural poverty and Chinese Sports Schools.
Olga Korbut, who came from a similar Soviet Union background when she competed in Munich in 1972 at age 17, was only 4′ 11″ and weighed a tiny 45 kg…There is even evidence that Korbut smoked from age 10 in order to keep her weight down. We have her own testimony that the training regiment was torturous and that it was the reason for her success.
One can rightfully criticize the training methods used in China, but the TOUGH training regiment is the reason for their success, not a falsified age. They weigh and measure exactly what can be expected under the circumstances.
Henric
Henric
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