Good article:
… FIG raised the minimum age from 14 to 15 in 1981. In 1997, it went to 16. Boosting the minimum age was supposed to encourage coaches to go easier on younger athletes.
U.S. Olympic gold-medalist Bart Conner has his doubts.
“In many ways it was a knee-jerk reaction from the gymnastics federation to remind coaches to not push so hard,†Conner said. “But I’m not sure that’s really worked. I’m not sure if, in the gym, that causes a coach to back off a little. Maybe it does. …
I think the age rule has had some overall influence. Some coaches do more long-term career planning. But the “cheating” problem, outweighs the benefits in my opinion.
Read the whole article:
Tom Daley’s age hasn’t been an issue. The British Olympic diver is 14 and his youth—his braces were only recently removed—makes his story compelling.
Nor has anyone made a fuss about Antoinette Joyce Guedia Mouafo. At 12, the swimmer from Cameroon is the youngest athlete in the Beijing Olympics and had never swum in a 50-meter pool.
…
Age rules at the Olympics are set by the federations that run the sports, and many don’t have any limits. …
Arne Ljungqvist, head of the IOC medical commission, said age-manipulation is a problem that’s tough to detect. Ljungqvist runs the IOC’s effort against doping and concedes age manipulation is another form of cheating.
“This is a problem when you have an age limit that there is a temptation for manipulation,†Ljungqvist said. “How to prove that is very difficult. There are ways and means of establishing the age, or the supposed age of a person, but it isn’t absolutely scientifically accurate—nor a legally accurate way of doing it.â€
Antoinette Joyce Guedia Mouafo – Reuters
Gymnastics Coaching.com 