WP4 Rough Draft

In August 2021, Tokyo Olympics, Chinese athlete Quan Hongchan wins the Women’s 10-meter platform event. Of her 5 dives in the event, 2 earned straight scores of 10 from all seven judges; her perfect performance totaled to an overall score of 466.20, which smashed the previous Olympic record of 447.70 (Hernandez). But what’s even more amazing than her impeccable, record-breaking performance is that Quan was only 14 years old when she won the title of Olympic champion, which is the minimum age requirement for this Olympic event. What’s more, her 2 teammates from the Chinese women’s diving team, Chen Yuxi and Zhang Jiaqi, the winners of women’s synchronized 10-meter platform, are only 16 and 17 as well. Not only diving, some other women’s competitive sports like gymnastics are showing this similar “younger-age trend” in China. Young girls start training as athletes in early childhood, competing in the adult category in their teenage years, and retire in their early 20s or even late teenage, as younger athletes enter the competition. Well, you might think younger athletes are not much of a problem as long as they meet the minimum competing age requirement and are capable of winning the medal; however, this trend in China reveals issues with serious implications from the individual level to the national level, and actions against it are necessary.

To understand why the “younger-age trend” is likely problematic, we must understand what causes this trend among certain female sports. As you take a closer look at the sport events that demonstrate the younger-age trend, it is pretty obvious why these athletes are becoming younger and younger. Unlike most other sports that pursue “higher, faster, stronger” as established in the Olympic motto, sports like diving or gymnastics demands a keen sense of kinesthetics and physical agility. Athletes have to demonstrate excellent control of their body to accomplish the sophisticated flips and twists in the air without seeing the actual setting. This is where the younger age comes as an advantage. During puberty, it is normal and necessary for girls to gain weight in order to support the growth and proper functioning of their body. They gain more body fat for developing fuller thighs, wider hips, and stomach and breasts development. In fact, the lean body mass in girls increases in amount but diminishes from approximately 80% to 75% by the end of puberty, as the percentage of body fat increases; in comparison, the percentage of lean muscle mass in boys increases from 80% to 90 % by maturity (Neinstein, 16). This explains why the younger-age trend mostly affects female sport; and as the natural law of the female’s physiological development results in significant weight gain during puberty, the younger, prepubertal athletes are shorter and much lighter in weight, consequently making them advantageous in sports that demands flexibility and agility. Thus, the younger age automatically becomes a trend in these sport events.

Although “being younger” seems quite subtle, it can cause life-long negative impacts for athletes involved in it. In order to achieve elite level sooner to be able to participate in national and international competitions during the few years with best athletic performances, girls would have to start professional training very early. They had to undergo extremely intense training in their early childhood that can be unreasonable and unbearable for a child, which leads to “higher rates of injury, increased psychological stress, and quitting sports at a young age”(Jayanthi et al. 251). At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, women’s balance beam(a subsection of artistic gymnastics) champion Guan Chenchen was right above the minimum age requirement of 16 when she won the gold medal. She started her gymnastics career at only 6, entered the national team at 13 with intensive year-round closed training, and according to an interview with her mom, Guan Chenchen hasn’t seen her father for 5 years because of the busy schedule. The harsh training from day to day and long, high expectations from their coach, and long separation from parents not only makes these young girls more vulnerable to sport injury, but also more mentally suppressed(?) or sensitive, which together lead to shorter careers and earlier retirement. By extension, since they are training full-time in sports schools from a very young age, they receive very few elementary education compared to their peers. As a result, they retire in their early 20s with no other skills that enable them to reintegrate into society. Therefore, the younger-age trend among these sports do generate serious problems in China.

The problems of the younger-age trend in sport events is not limited to China at all. In fact, when a country is overwhelmingly dominant in a sport and this sport itself prefers younger athletes, the problem will only get worse with endless involution from generations of athletes. Russia’s women’s figure skating demonstrates negative impacts that go even beyond. Russian female figure skaters are notoriously(?) known as “Russian Dolls”(“俄萝”) among Chinese fans, which emphasizes their extremely young age. In the 2018 Winter Olympics, the 18 year-old Evgenia Medvedeva who was leading the entire season merely won a silver medal, as her teammate, 15 year-old Alina Zagitova, won the Olympic gold medal right after her senior debut. Moreover, in the recent 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, both Alina and Evgenia come to Beijing as reporters, since their younger teammates Anna, Alexandra, and Kamila are leading the game with the new quad-jump techniques — — something neither Alina nor Evgenia from the “triple-jump era” can do. There’s still dozens of young Russian girls with quad-jump techniques who are just waiting to reach the senior age limit. Their coach, Eteri Tutberidze, is also accused of creating this “factory” with a steady stream of young skaters. As Kiira Korpi, Finnish figure skater now a psychology student comments, “I know many athletes who are emotionally and physically broken because the system doesn’t care how much goes to waste as long as there are a few who make it”(Korpi), individual athletes are not valued under this factory culture because someone among them will eventually win the medal. This led to the consequence that few measures were taken to extend athletes’ careers, because it was easier to just use better and younger players. Considering all the training and effort each individual athlete spent in pursuit of “some” achievement, this can be a cruel reality, especially for younger athletes.

To put it another way, the younger-age trend in Russia’s women’s figure skating is a serious matter since they are facing unbearable pressure for their age. As Korpi says, “there can be serious emotional abuse in training and coaching…if their coaching is emotionally abusive it can have very drastic consequences”(Korpi). Since it is commonly known puberty can vastly change a skater’s performance, skaters would be required by their coach to restrict food, take measures to postpone puberty in order to compete in lighter weight, or even doping. Many lessons from the past has proven how detrimental it can be: Yulia Lipnitskaya who was crucial to Russian team’s gold in the 2014 winter Olympics was quickly discarded as her body began to develop, followed by long-term suffering from anorexia; Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old figure skating wonder, tested positive for banned drugs after winning her team’s gold medal (Macur and Keh). These extreme cases from Russia can be the future of China’s diving or other similar sports, and the serious consequences also proves how urgent it is to find solutions toward this issue.

Given all the negative effects of the younger-age trend across the world, it’s not that there hasn’t been an attempt to address the problem. measures have been taken in the hope of reducing child abuse in the training process, by raising the age limit for senior level competitions. Specifically, the minimum age for gymnasts to compete in the Olympics was 14 in 1971, then rose to 15 in 1981 and 16 in 1997; the International Skating Union (ISU) has also been considering raising the age limit from 15 to 17 recently. But does it really solve the problem? Indeed, you’ll never see 13 year-olds on the Olympic podium, but banning young athletes for age would mean we miss spectacular performances like Chinese diver Fu Mingxia’s gold in the 10-meter platform diving at age 13. By extension, solely raising the age limit will hardly be effective, as explained by Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Recreation Management from University of Manitoba Sarah Teetzel, “youth who are ineligible to compete at the Olympics can still train the same number of hours as their older, eligible competitors”(Teetzel). The problem is likely to get more intense as more athletes try to survive through puberty and train even harder. It is not enough to merely raise the age limit, because this is not the core of the matter. The real focus should be to mitigate the negative impact that the training process has on younger athletes who are more vulnerable than their adult counterparts. Sports should be enjoyable rather than depressing or painful, and athletes should be internally motivated to train instead of training under coaches’ abuse and coercion.

Despite how promising and simple it may sound to “mitigate the negative impact”, it is the historical and cultural context of China’s sport development that makes this issue really difficult to deal with. In the globalizing society, international influence has become increasingly necessary for a country’s development. As a newly established country, “China’s participation and interest in modern sport were, to a large extent, initially motivated by nationalism… China established a state-run sport regime in the 1960s, with the primary goal of seeking international recognition on the global stage” (Xu and Kreshel, 3). To put it another way, the Chinese government provides financial and political assistance to train state athletes for international competitions as a way to secure international position and influence. Accordingly, many children are purposely selected to practice diving, for instance, with the ultimate goal to compete for China, regardless of whether they truly like this sport or not. This planted the value of nationalism and collectivism instead of individualism in the root of China’s sport system; since the well-being of the group, or in other words, the nation’s success in international sport competitions, trumps individual interest, the well-being of each individual athlete is naturally less emphasized. Furthermore, under this state-athlete selection system, many sports do not have a commercialized system and lack professional markets for career development, so few people would practice professional sports at a young age until they are financially obliged to do so. The Champion diver Quan Hongchan as introduced in the beginning is from a poor family in rural China, with 2 of her siblings also training in diving to help relieve the family’s financial burden. This national environment automatically leads to a stereotype that only poor people train to become state athletes at a young age, which eventually forms a vicious cycle as decreasing public interests will further hinder the development of the sport.

It is important to understand these underlying reasons behind the younger-age trend problem in China, because it will shed new light on tackling the specific issue. Actually, the development of women’s gymnastics in the United States has shown signs that the younger-age trend is starting to reverse. While it was believed that 14 to 18 is the optimal time for competing, the average age of the U.S. women’s team was 21.25 at the Tokyo Games; and according to the research of David Tilley, whose work in sports medicine and strength training focuses on gymnastics, the so-called peak age of performance actually might be between 22 and 28 years old. This evolution is due to the United States’ completely different approach to gymnastics development than China. Gymnastics is a very popular sport in the United States: there are more than 120,000 athletes and professionals who are members of USA Gymnastics. (usagymparents.com). Many families will send their daughters to practice gymnastics from an early age, not necessarily to make any professional achievements, but just as a hobby or exercise. Other than international competitions, there are more than 4,000 gymnastics competitions and events sanctioned annually throughout the U.S, and many colleges have scholarships for gymnastics. Girls with basic gymnastics skills can also participate in the cheerleading team from middle school to college, which also makes it a skill to be proud of. This level of popularity and commercialization of gymnastics in the U.S. provides athletes many opportunities and professional outlets, ensuring that they can achieve something through gymnastics without the mere goal in the Olympics. Consequently, more people would like to participate in this sport and individual athletes can have more control over their training and career decisions. We are unable to alter the nature of some sports that prefer younger athletes, yet through institutional changes, it is possible to take a step forward in improving the situation faced by young athletes.

Regarding how gymnastics are developed in the U.S, a revolution towards China’s sport training and selection system are in need of alleviating the negative effects of the younger-age trend in China’s athletic world. By this I’m not saying that China should copy exactly how sport systems are constructed in the U.S. — — even Rome wasn’t built in one day; what I mean is that China can learn from America’s approach and find potential solutions based on its own cultural context. Specifically, the Chinese government should promote the commercialization and professionalization of these sports by establishing a more comprehensive training and selection system. For instance, more clubs should be constructed including interest-oriented clubs and also professional ones, along with commercial competitions and events across children to young adults. This approach enables the nation to nurture an environment that actually solves many concerns regarding young athletes and supports the long-term development of these sports.

With a more comprehensive club system, young athletes can start their training in a more professional and caring environment. State athletes usually receive uniform training in the national team, where coaches can be harsh and abusive in order to train their techniques as soon as possible, so it is very likely to lead to physical injuries or mental struggles for young athletes. On the contrary, the club system allows athletes to choose their coaches and training environments. Therefore, the well-being and personal development of each individual athlete will be more concerned, instead of continuing to replace previous athletes with younger ones for the medal. This can effectively alleviate the concern of child abuse and extend career in younger athletes’ training.

By extension, the commercialization of a sport is crucial for mitigating the younger-age trend and expanding its popularity. Take diving as an example, although China is dominating international competitions, diving is still a minority sport in China: there are only a few athletes training for it and their goal is basically to win the Olympics gold. Divers, especially female divers competing in the 10-meter platform event, are “updated” very frequently. There are new, younger divers every year and older divers would have to slowly exit the competition and retire as they’re no longer the top 2 divers in China (There are a maximum of two entries per country for Olympics). However, if there are more professional commercial competitions and events in China, athletes are no longer confined to the sole purpose of winning the Olympic medal and can therefore be less concerned about their future. They can compete in national competitions, enjoy a longer professional career, and even become a coach after retirement. Moreover, the commercialization of diving in China can attract more people to participate in this sport, which expands the market of audiences and amateurs. With a broader popularity among the masses, diving will have a more advanced level of commercialization, which ultimately promotes a virtuous circle for the long-term development of diving. As a result, it relieves the concerns of athletes’ future and the long-term positive development of the sport. In conclusion, the younger-age trend among these sports can be less of an issue by promoting the commercialization of the sport.

Ultimately, as we go back to the younger-age trend problem itself, it is an issue closely linked to the nature of certain sports. Different sports have their own peak age of performance, this is determined by the natural laws of growth and gender difference. For certain types of competitive sports, like women’s diving, gymnastics, or figure skating, older athletes are destined to lose their advantage in competing. We do not have to deconstruct these physiological differences because it is plainly unsolvable. On the other hand, recognizing how the trend becomes a problem in China and solving those problems is what we can do. Nationalism is deeply entrenched in China’s sport system and it was a tragedy of globalization. It has caused many young athletes in China to retire early with no noticeable achievement but only pain and regrets, and we need to focus on how to reduce these situations from an institutional level. In a globalizing world, there are countries like the U.S. that show a direction of revolution: promoting commercialization is the ideal path for a sport to truly develop in the long term, and it can effectively mitigate the impact of the younger-age trend. It will be a long process considering the different historical and cultural background, yet only if China learns from the global approach and takes a step towards reform can the trend reverse to a brighter future.

Works Cited

Giambalvo, Emily. “Olympic Women’s Gymnastics Once Was Mostly for Teens. That’s Changing.” The Washington Post, 4 Aug. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/sports/ olympics/2021/08/04/olympic-womens-gymnastics-age/.

Hernandez, Joe. “She’s 14 Years Old and Just Scored 2 Perfect 10s to Win a Gold Medal in Diving.” NPR, 5 Aug. 2021, www.npr.org/sections/tokyo-olympics-live-updates/2021/08 /05/1025065060/14-year-old-diver-quan-hongchan-perfect-10s-gold-medal-tokyo-olympics.

Jayanthi, Neeru et al. “Sports Specialization in Young Athletes: Evidence-Based Recommendations.” Sports Health, vol. 5, no. 3, 2013, pp. 251–57.

Macur, Juliet, and Andrew Keh. “Star Russian Figure Skater Tested Positive for Banned Drug.” The New York Times, 11 Feb. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/sports/olympics/ kamila-valieva-trimetazidine.html.

Neinstein, Lawrence S, et al. Adolescent Health Care: A Practical Guide. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007, pp. 3–26.

O’Callaghan, Eoin. “The Russian Dolls Have Transformed Figure Skating. but at What Cost?” The Guardian, 26 Mar. 2020, www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/mar/26/the-russian- dolls-have-transformed-figure-skating-but-at-what-cost.

Teetzel, Sarah. Would Adding a Minimum Age Limit for the Olympic Games Protect Youth Athletes from Doping? The Conversation, 3 Mar. 2022, theconversation.com/would- adding-a-minimum-age-limit-for-the-olympic-games-protect-youth-athletes-from-doping-177432

Xu, Qingru, and Peggy J. Kreshel. “State vs. Professional: A Case Study of How Chinese New Media Construct Elite Female Athletes.” International Journal of Sport Communication, vol. 14, no. 1, 2021, pp. 2–38.