Olympic Age limits

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Keep Olympic Age Limits to Protect Young Athletes My mom and I followed the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing very carefully. As a gymnast myself, I was very interested in the gymnastics competition. I, like much of the gymnastics world, was fascinated by the controversy surrounding the age of the Chinese gymnasts. As you may recall, the age of four Chinese gymnasts was brought into question during the Olympics in Bejing. Due to how young the gymnasts looked, people were saying that these girls were under the minimum age required to compete in the Olympics. They did look young. Several of the Chinese gymnasts looked like they still had baby teeth and one of them was even missing some teeth. That got me thinking about the age requirements. There are good points on both sides, but overall, age requirements are there for the protection of the athletes and that is a good thing. Nadia Comaneci was only 14 when she won her first Olympic gold medal in 1976. Nadia’s age became an issue. People were saying that the young international gymnasts were being pushed to hard at a young age when their bodies and bones were still growing causing them permanent damage. The issue continued to be discussed for several years and in 1981, the Federation Internationale de Gymnastics (FIG), the international competitive gymnastics organization that sets the rules for international gymnastics competition, increased the age requirement from 14 to 15. The age requirement states that in order to compete at the international elite level a gymnast must have reached the set age by the end of the year that the competition is held. If they will not be the required age by the end of the year they can not compete. After the increase in the age requirement in 1981, the controversy continued and in 1997, the age requirement was again increased to 16, where it remains today. For

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