Shannon Miller on Age Falsification

Though Bela and others are still ranting, a consensus is forming — I think — that the age rule restriction must be eliminated.

First we should ask those athletes affected by Age Falsification in the past. Shannon Miller, for one:

… This is not a new phenomenon in gymnastics. One scandal affected me.

It started at the 1991 World Championships with a North Korean gymnast. Her coaches claimed she was 15 years old on documents for three consecutive years. She then competed at the 1992 Olympics with no front teeth while claiming to be 17 years old.

While she got to keep her medals, North Korea was punished by having to sit out the 1993 Worlds. One of those medals was a gold on uneven bars at the 1991 World Championships; also my first World competition. I got silver.

In retrospect, I don’t think about her age as much as I remember what a truly outstanding athlete she was. She won that gold medal with a 10.0 and earned every tenth. She was absolutely the best bar worker in that competition.

However, I strongly agree that once the rules are set you must abide by them. My hope is that one day they will do away with any type of an age limit.

I was 15 years old at my first Olympics. If I had to go by the current rules I would not have been eligible to compete in Barcelona. In fact, half our team would have been ineligible.

And if you had told me I was too young to compete I would have looked at you like you were crazy. That year I brought home five Olympic medals. Because of our experience at those Games, Kerri Strug, Dominique Dawes and I were able to lead the 1996 team to gold.

So everyone must play by the rules or “competition” is meaningless. My feelings are this:

1. It doesn’t matter if it is doping or age falsification, if competition is supposed to mean something then the International governing bodies need to investigate and make sure that everyone is playing by the rules.

2. I hope one day soon the governing bodies will revisit whether or not the minimum age limit rule makes sense. Girls with a dream will not stop training simply because they were born on January 1st instead of December 31st. It simply adds another four years to their journey.

Olympic Gold Medalist says “let them play”

I’ve yet to hear an athlete who was underage at the time of her Olympics who said she should not have been allowed to compete.

I dare you to walk up to Nadia and tell her she shouldn’t have been allowed to compete in 1976?

She was age-14.

If age could be confirmed, we could put a minimum age requirement in place that could be enforced. But what age should that be?

related: Karolyi says age limit would rob gymnasts of golden opportunity – ESPN