Juniors in bold.
Andy Thornton’s “Dream Team” if only ability is taken into consideration:
Jordyn Wieber
McKayla Maroney
Alicia Sacramone
Katelyn Ohashi
Kyla Ross
Lexie PriessmanAlternates
Aly Raisman
Mackenzie Caquatto
This is well worth a read – American Gymnast – The Numbers Might Surprise You: The Real USA Dream Team?
One of the many specious reasons for the FIG age requirement is the fear that unethical coaches will push young girls too hard.
But is it ethical to ban Katelyn Ohashi from World Championships when on a good day she’s better than any of the Seniors in Tokyo on that apparatus?
7 comments ↓
I’d wager 90 % of what is behind the FIG age limit for WAG is the FIG throwing a bone to the general public who would otherwise be throwing tantrums about women’s gymnastics being “child abuse”.
It’s probably as much about marketing as it is about protecting kids. Grandi wants to “rebrand” WAG by raising the age limit further.
If so, it’s not working. Gymnastics isn’t any more popular now than it was when the age limit was 14.
Messing with the rules to cater to people who won’t watch the sport more than every 4 years anyway while denying Ohashi the chance to go to Worlds so she can compete and the fans can see her there is silly and unfair.
If the age limit is wrong, it’s not wrong just because Ohashi and whatever other jr. wunderkind can’t compete.
I have personally always felt that since the current age restriction has been in place since 1996, coaches should know not to peak their gymnasts until they are old enough to compete as seniors.
It is all very well training Ohashi to have the hardest beam routine in the world, but is it worth it when she cannot go to the Olympics for another 5 years, and will she still be capable of it then after so much difficulty so young?
Whether the age restriction is right or wrong is a very complicated issue, but I think it should be taken by coaches as simple fact, and the gymnasts careers and coaching should be planned with it in mind. I cannot see the point of training gymnasts to do extreme difficulty and then complaining that they cannot attend the Olympics because of their age, when they knew all along that the wouldn’t be able to attend it.
“is it ethical to ban Katelyn Ohashi from World Championships” is a tad sensationalistic… Has FIG banned her? No, there is an age limit that discriminates equally. The age limit existed probably before she started in the sport.
To encourage older athletes to compete successfully the code’s incentives needs to change, not the age limit. Injuries to the high profile athletes underscore this, and should be a wake up call to FIG. I think with the current movement toward younger athletes it will only be a matter of time before their injury rate increases as they try the harder and harder skills even before turning Senior. In fact it may be the case already, they are just not in the big spotlights to get noticed.
There are many different coaching philosphies out there…
1 – Teach difficult skills quickly while the athletes are young and their bodies can handle the volume. Once they reach a high level of difficulty, don’t learn new skills, but rather maintain and become very consistant with these skills. Seems to be the way WOGA develops the kids. Nastia was essentially doing the same routines from her last year as a junior to the Olympics. As was Carly, Hollie, and looks to be the path of Katelyn as well.
2. Slowly progress the difficulty. Focus highly on consistancy and only add new difficult skills as they master the previous routines. New skills are added throughout career.
There are plenty of opinions on both sides, but just IMO I like the idea of the current age limit. I think it encourages the best athletes to continue to compete and in doing so, I also think more money will be drawn into the sport so that older elite athletes can actually make something of a living from it. Otherwise, it seems more like a turnstile of young teenagers qualifying for a World’s or Olympic team, then poof, gone. If Ohashi is so great now, why wouldn’t she be great later on as an eligible senior? Or, is it a concern that she should be presented on the world stage now before she inevitably is injured?
Following MostepanoovaFan, Ohashi was born in 1997 after the rule had been made. Personally I feel smart coaches will be following philosophy 1 in the gym, but competing at philosophy 2. Yes, your gymnast should progress there skills when they are ready. But there is no need to take them out of the soft, (more) forgiving training situations and put them out on the competition floor at such a young age.
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