Chinese national team gymnasts in 2007

With the Olympics in full swing now, the topic of sports and children comes to my mind.

Athletes seem to be getting younger and younger in international competition. The youth movement was so pronounced in gymnastics that their governing body had to create a rule mandating athletes be sixteen to compete in Olympic gymnastics. Even now questions abound if some nations have faked birth certificates to enter younger gymnasts. One of the Chinese girls looks all of 12.

Young bodies are still growing and the cost of training them too excessively won't show up for years. Children shouldn't be forced to lose all semblance of a normal life before their teens for athletic purposes. Sadly that's common in many sports and countries as young athletes leave home to train in other cities - with or without their parents.

In the 2004 Olympics, two very young swimmers had meltdowns at the pool - one curled up in a ball barely able to breathe and one hiding the bathroom after an embarrassing disqualification that ended his Olympics for it even started. Both are back now and in the first days of the Olympics have won medals.

The pro tennis circuit for awhile had a spat of young girls who grew up resenting their coaches and parents and burning out spectacularly. Now that too is limited with an age limit.

Golf phenom Michelle Wie skipped many junior tournaments to move up to LPGA events and then even trying PGA ones. Neither have been a success and Wie is almost out of sponsor exemptions, which allow her to play in tournaments despite not meeting qualification rules. She might even be faced with going to Q School, the qualifying school for the pro golf tours which most high level golfers skip.

Would Wie be a tougher player if allowed to play with her peers and slowed down? Who knows. Would she be happier person? Can't answer that either. But I do think young athletes need a chance to learn to win, not just be pushed ahead so often they never learn how to be victorious under pressure.

Of course many young athletes win everything they touch and moving them up levels is the only solution to give them some competition. However mental toughness is one of the things that separate out the elite athletes from the physically gifted ones. You gain mental strength the longer you compete, the more you grow up.

Those young swimmers who made the team in 2004 didn't really embarrass themselves. They acted like the teenagers they truly are - there is no shame in that. But perhaps there were other swimmers almost as fast who would have been able to actually effectively compete.

My conclusion is that the gymnastics people have it right - sixteen should be the minimum age. I wouldn't have problem with eighteen. Let kids be kids.