So, everything I hear about this Simone Biles chick says she might the the greatest American gymnast of all time. She's already won more world championship golds than any other American woman, including back-to-back all-around titles. Right today, she's far and away better than everyone else in the world.

She didn't compete on the 2012 team because she wasn't old enough. There's a very good chance that she'll fall off a bit before the Rio games, either because of injury or because of body changes. If that happens, no big endorsements, no Wheaties box, no Lifetime movie.

http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/files/2014/02/Biles.jpg

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=21&topic_id=64276&mesg_id=64276&page=5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

=======================================

.

a few of the women from the Magnificent 7 were 19 and had been competing from a young age.

like 14 when she was in the olympics?

Too many girls will peak in off years, and it virtually guarantees that if you're injured or just miss the team, you have no chance at the next olympics.

Olympics

smaller girls were able to do moves that the bigger girls couldn't. so they were taking 12-14 year olds who would already naturally be smaller than 16-18 year olds, and basically starving them so that they were these little pixies who could do crazy flips and shit but couldn't get their period.

there was an expose book called Little Girls in Pretty Boxes or something like that.

They made the age limit 16 to try and minimize the damage.

14 would be a reasonable minimum. Tennis players go pro at 14

if you were 12-13 and a potential olympian next year, they'd have you on the anorexia shit to keep you tiny so you can do the extra shit, and it can fuck you up for life.

if you were 12-13 and the age minimum is 16, they work on developing you more, because you still have 3-4 years before you're eligible.

If the minimum was 14, they'd have to kick the training into highest gear when the girls are only 12-13 as opposed to 14-15, which is a big development gap.

athletically built gymnasts used to be penalized for being less "artistic" than those with the ballerina build. Nowadays, athletic gymnasts have an advantage because of their ability to do high degree of difficulty power moves.


I do think ages should be sport-specific, because maintaining a little girl body is definitely still beneficial in other sports like diving trampolining and maybe synchronized swimming.

the youngest girls competing were now 16, so they could do the power moves that a 14 year old couldn't.

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2014/09/justin-gatlin-runs-9-7719-71-pull-greatest-single-day-100200-double-history/

If dude can set personal bests at 32, imagine what he could done at 26 in Beijing if he hadnt been banned during in his prime

>If dude can set personal bests at 32, imagine what he could
>done at 26 in Beijing if he hadnt been banned during in his
>prime

“Those (9.77 and 19.71 on the same day) are incredible performances. Not many people have run that fast separately, ever. To do it on a damp Friday night? I couldn’t believe those times.

“It shows one of two things: either he’s still taking performance-enhancing drugs to get the best out of him at his advanced age, or the ones he did take are still doing a fantastic job.

“Because there is no way he can still be running that well at this late point in his career.”

- British 400-meter hurdler Dai Greene talking about Justin Gatlin to the BBC.

He was banned because he really, really liked taking performance enhancing drugs. The vast majority of track fans (and the not-small amount of meet directors who aren't inviting him) seem to assume that enthusiasm hasn't changed, only his ability to avoid detection.

Hence the subject

But I cant bring myself to judge beyond who tests clean and who tests dirty

If he's passing tests, then I go by that

>But I cant bring myself to judge beyond who tests clean and
>who tests dirty
>
>If he's passing tests, then I go by that

Well put. It's not our job do the governing body's dirty work.

Gatlin... makes it tough though. He's even coached by Dennis "boldest excuse for a positive test ever" Mitchell. I didn't really realize how much I also kind of wanted athletes to talk the "I'm clean" talk until I saw how little he gave a shit what we thought.

Still, you have the most sensible viewpoint.

edit: and i *totally* missed your subject line. apologies.

dude has had like 8 of his runners get popped for PEDs

but track and cycling are sports that are heavily based on the principle of "cheat to win"

no point in accusing. if they are dumb enough to get caught doping then they were doping. thats all i can really spare for inherently dirty sports

as Gatlin peaking

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5023b9dc/turbine/la-sp-on-victor-conte-boxing-20120809-001/600

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/ac/50/1c/ac501c087f35b69ae3215c284fee1d7a.jpg

Just sayin'!

And if she tanks next year, no wheaties box, no big time endorsements.

Because if it's the latter, fuck it. I still get to go, rep my country, and take part in the OV extracurriculars?

I will take a 20th place finish, TYVM.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

=======================================

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at