Despite the puritanical anti-sports chat policy of TAPPED's editors, this Harvey Araton column is relevant to geopolitics, too! It deals with the Chinese Women's Gymnastics Team and the controversy surrounding their ages; you must be 16 to compete in the Olympics but documents suggest some of the Chinese team is 14. One former Chinese athlete said she competed at age 14 in the 2000 games. Watching the team perform, the charges seem very believable.
The column's headline is "Athletes only as old as China says they are." But the sentiment applies across the board: "Human rights only violated if China says they are," "Genocide only in Sudan if China says it is," etc. But beyond the leniency with which China's claims are often treated and the international community's willingness to let them slide by -- Araton compares them to the scoring scandal at the Salt Lake games -- there is also the issue of how China prepares these athletes, picking them out as young as three according to NBC broadcasts. Is this forced child labor?
Incidentally, during the synchronized diving a few days ago there was a brief segment on one of the late-teenage American divers who noted that, because of her training regimen, she hadn't attended high school and, in her own words, had no friends. While she seemed comfortable with her choice -- though one has to wonder about her parents' and coaches' influence -- the sacrifices of being a world-class athlete are immense. I hope that all the athletes at the games, American or Chinese, feel like they had a choice.
--Tim Fernholz
