THIS is what a 16 yr old Chinese girl looks like

[crimsonblue]

This is a picture of Corrie Lothrop, US Gymnastics alternate at Beijing, who was born in China and adopted by Americans at the age of 3.


Compare this to the Chinese team: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=8004007&mesg_id=8004007

[Diamonique]

1. I was just thinking about this.

I just watched the Chinese gymnasts, and at least 3 of them look under 16 to me --- WAY under 16.

[Demeter]

7. It Could Be Malnutrition

A borderline starvation diet will repress maturity and stunt growth. Ask any dancer.

[JI7]

13. wouldn't starvation weaken gymnasts from performing ?

aren't they usually kind of muscular ?

[ColbertWatcher]

23. Like a dancer? (see the post you replied to) n/t

[Demeter]

26. Puberty Requires Fat Stores

A female athlete or dancer can built muscle, but not fat, on a very restricted diet with a heavy exercise load. This suppresses maturation, and can lead to permanent fertility problems, it is theorized.

[Drunken Irishman]

2. Ha, I was just joking about this.

The girl I was with said they look like they were 8 and I said "Yeah, well knowing the Chinese, they probably are."

[noamnety]

3. um.

can you show us what a 16 year old American girl looks like?

You know, one that represents what all American 16 year olds look like?

[MillieJo]

29. An American like this....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26388705@N05/2643456071/in/set-72157606021068973/

Shawn Johnson looks older with make up but she is also just 16....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26388705@N05/2653717523/in/set-72157606079471441/

And with a Russian American 19 year old Nastia Luikin

[noamnety]

31. Sorry, it was rhetorical.

My point was that there is not one 16 year old that represents what all American 16 year olds look like any more than there is one Chinese girl who represents what all Chinese girls look like.

In one high school class, you can have girls who are tiny with no sign of puberty, and others who look like mature women with a lot of curves, and everything in between and beyond. Some of my kids could easily pass for adults, and others could just as easily pass for middle school students.

It's really easy to misjudge ages based on appearances. A while back I hosted an exchange student, and when I went to meet her teachers on parents night and check on her progress - I was greeted at the door by someone who wanted to know if I was waiting for my parents. I was 29 or 30 at the time. And those are people who work in a high school!

[JVS]

4. Since when are gymnasts supposed to be 16? Comaneci was 14 in 1976

[Mojorabbit]

5. That is what the announcers

are saying the minimum age requirement is. There was one in particular that did not look older than twelve. All wonderful athletes though.

[noamnety]

6. They changed the age limit after her. (nt)

[Orangeone]

8. When I was in my late 20's

people couldn't tell I was an adult, even though I already had a child myself. I'm Japanese American and Asians tend to mature slowly...

Also you have to consider that the Chinese don't eat the same high fat diet as Americans, they probably don't have the early puberty that Americans experience.

[hay rick]

11. early onset puberty

Even if the Chinese girls eat a more Western high-fat diet, puberty onset may be delayed if their mothers ate a low fat diet during pregnancy...
http://foodconsumer.org/7777/8888/C_hildren_amp_W_omen_33/061605042008_Prenatal_diet_affects_onset_of_puberty.shtml

[TahitiNut]

19. Couple that with VERY intensive athletic conditioning and puberty is even more delayed.

When you take kids beginning at ages 3 and 4 and subject them to years and years of intense athletic conditioning which would include carefully-controlled diets, I'm not at all surprised.

[silverojo]

20. Asians are, by nature, smaller people than Caucasians.

It's common in gymnastics to recruit girls who are small for their age. Smaller bodies look more graceful in motion than larger ones.

[On the Road]

9. My Girfriend Was a Pediatrician in a Beijing Hospital for Seven Years

Without explaining the context, I asked her to guess the age of the girls above (in the linked thread), and she said 14 or 15. I asked if it was possible that they were 16 and she said yes.

Falsifying ID is not unknown, and that remains a real possibility.

(cross-posted)

[JI7]

14. ok, based on some of the posts on this thread i think it is possible they can be 16

[ColbertWatcher]

24. "Falsifying ID is not unknown..."

True, it was done in Little League a few years ago.

But, who knows, they may very well be 16 (or 17) years old.

Hell, LeBron is only 23 and he's been a professional athlete since he was 18.

[blue neen]

10. This is an American girl.

I understand the point you are trying to make about the age appearance, but your post is misleading. This young lady is an American citizen.

[JI7]

12. the Chinese take care of their Olympic Athletes, they aren't some random poor girls

they are on an olympic team and China takes this very seriously.

[TXDemGal]

15. One difference...Corrie Lothrop has lived for 13 years in the U.S.

Research has shown that girls adopted from China often grow exponentially after "coming home" to Western countries, as good nutrition kicks in. Some of the girls even go into very early puberty due to the abrupt nutritional changes that their bodies undergo, like at ages well before 9 years old.

Which is not to say that I think all the Chinese female gymnasts are of "legal" age for IOC purposes. To judge by their images and other info surrounding this story, several of them may be younger than 16, possibly by a couple years. Women's gymnastics is pretty effed up, as it wants its "women" to stay as small as possible, so you've got a big thing being made of weight/diet, which messes with growth, etc.

[Caria]

16. Quite a bit has been written on the under-nourishing

of female athletes, especially gymnasts.
See for example http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2008/07/06/when_bad_things_happen_to_good_athletes/

Girls who don't eat much stay petite and enter puberty late.

BTW I know of a pair of identical twins adopted from an Asian country at different times by an American couple. In a photo showing the girls together in the orphanage before the first adoption, they are exactly the same size. The couple adopted one child and then found out about the twin. It took 1-2 years to get permission to adopt the second twin. Because of the difference in their diets as toddlers, they have never since been the same size. Genetically they are identical twins, but the one adopted first is much taller than her sister.

[SidDithers]

32. There's a great book by Joan Ryan...

called "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes" that examines the training of young elite gymnasts and figure skaters. It's a few years old, but still very relevant.

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Girls-Pretty-Boxes-Breaking/dp/0446672505

Sid

[pipoman]

17. I just watched a show on HBO

Real Sports last week about Olympic gymnasts. Dominique Moceanu, a former US gold medalist, described how she was malnourished by her trainers and how this has been a common practice around the world for World class gymnasts. Here is a synopsis of the interview.

http://olympics.fanhouse.com/2008/07/21/former-gold-medalist-talks-about-dark-side-to-olympic-gymnasti/

[johnaries]

18. NPR was talking about this on Friday morning.

The gist of the story was that China just issued all their underage gymnasts Government ID's stating they were 16. Everybody knew it, but nobody could prove it.

[MillieJo]

30. They have to say something because it is possible that

The Chinese will beat the American women and they will need to explain it other than how great the Chinese gymnasts are.
The big reason for the age restriction going up to 16, is because when it was 14 the Romanian's, Soviet's, Chinese and North Korean's were entering 12 and 13 year olds. The restriction has helped to give the gymnasts longer careers into their 20's if the want to do to a second Olympics.

[ConsAreLiars]

21. Obviously they don't have enough Bovine Growth Hormones in their diet.

Or other hormones in their water and food. Maybe they should compensate with steroids to match the US's deviant standards?

(edit trivial typo)

[Sanctified]

22. I wonder which diet includes McDonalds and which does not.

Sorry but when I am in Japan I have no way of identifying the age of any women there, girls who look like they are 12 are 18 and girls who are 30 look like they are 18.

[Hannah Bell]

25. she looks 19 to me.

[Postman]

27. Maybe all the chemicals in our food and water are "maturing" girls quicker in the US.

on edit: not that China is pollution free....

[wtmusic]

28. They're all 16. They just used CGI to make them look younger. nt