Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2012 15:10:05 GMT -5
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GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl
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"How you win matters." Ender, Ender's Game
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Post by GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl on Aug 1, 2012 15:10:55 GMT -5
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Waffle
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Post by Waffle on Aug 1, 2012 15:12:49 GMT -5
That is so sad.
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GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl
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"How you win matters." Ender, Ender's Game
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Post by GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl on Aug 1, 2012 15:13:26 GMT -5
DH was joking last night that, by the time the Russian women gymnasts get home to Russia, all of their families will have been moved out of their state-owned luxury housing to uninsulated lean-tos in Siberia.
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swasat
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Post by swasat on Aug 1, 2012 15:20:40 GMT -5
Holy freaking God!! That is absolutely inhuman!!! I watched men's gymnastics and for one of the Chinese gymnasts they mentioned him seeing his family only for 17 days in the last 12 years. Apparently promising Chinese athletes are picked up when they are in elementary school and they live and train in special academies solely built for this purpose. Insane!!
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Sam_2.0
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Post by Sam_2.0 on Aug 1, 2012 15:23:04 GMT -5
There needs to be a warning on this one. I am tearing up at my desk just looking at her
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swasat
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Post by swasat on Aug 1, 2012 15:24:16 GMT -5
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Aug 1, 2012 15:25:00 GMT -5
But I thought that I was supposed to idealize and emulate Chinese culture! They raise such smart, driven kids compared to us lazy Americans!
I read an interview with Jackie Chan, he was put into one of those schools as a child because he was a promising marital artist at a young age. He was beaten if he dropped so much as a grain of rice on the floor.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2012 15:25:47 GMT -5
Sorry Sam - I'll fix it.
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kittensaver
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We cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love. - Mother Teresa
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Post by kittensaver on Aug 1, 2012 15:31:07 GMT -5
NBC interviewed a Chinese olympian last night who issued an EXTENSIVE, tearful apology to his family, friend and to the country of China for "failing them" - - because he only won THE SILVER METAL! Sheesh . . .
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Sam_2.0
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Post by Sam_2.0 on Aug 1, 2012 15:31:23 GMT -5
Now if we could just go get that poor child & save her from being tortured, I would be much happier. I can't believe people would do something like that. I would never want to put my kid in a sport, for fear he/she would be a good athlete & taken away.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Aug 1, 2012 15:34:01 GMT -5
For some familes that might be their only shot at getting ahead in life over there. Same with Russia.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Aug 1, 2012 15:34:07 GMT -5
Doesn't matter. They trained kindergarten teachers to look for physical characteristics that might indicate kids would be good athletes and report them to regional coaches so they could be sent to the training camps to interview. The article mentions kindergarten teachers specifically, but I believe all elementary school teachers over there could recommend kids to the regional coaches.
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ontrack
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Post by ontrack on Aug 1, 2012 15:35:03 GMT -5
There's an article on yahoo about a Chinese diver. Her grandparents died a year ago and her mother has breast cancer but her family didn't tell her until after her event.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Aug 1, 2012 15:40:23 GMT -5
They could say the same thing about us. Gaby Douglas lives in Texas, and her mother does not. Gaby lives and trains in a special facility built to train gymnasts, and she has since she was pretty young. Granted, she has probably seen her mom more than a few days - but only because of resources and proximity. The training at the Houston facility is much harder than you would likely be able to handle.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Aug 1, 2012 15:43:21 GMT -5
We have an Olympic training facility in Colorado Springs, which houses athletes from all over the country. I'm sure they spend ungodly long hours doing extremely grueling training in their chosen sport too.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Aug 1, 2012 15:51:05 GMT -5
And, there is NO WAY the press of another country who is losing to China would manipulate a story to make it look worse than it is. It in inconceivable that something would be blown out of proportion to make a political statement, or even to justify why our performance wasn't top notch.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Aug 1, 2012 15:55:54 GMT -5
Could be, but the Chinese swimming team for example has been plagued by doping scandals for years too. One of their top young stars isn't at the Olympics this year because a random search found enough human growth hormone in her bag to dope the entire team. They've been stripped of dozens of medals over the last few years.
Is it sour grapes on our part? Maybe. Are they sending kids as young as 5 to special training centers where they live full time, train for hours and hours a day, while receiving little to no education, while being fed special diets with incredibly high protein levels, and probably HGH and steroids? Maybe.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Aug 1, 2012 15:57:00 GMT -5
Hate to break this to you - I've watched the coaches at my daughter's gymnastics hold their legs down with their feet. Granted, no one was crying, and I don't think it was painful, or I would have put a stop to it. I've also seen them hang off rings - boys and girls - to strengthen their arms. This article does not convince me these kids are trained any differently than how we train ours, with the exception that maybe they don't give in to crying kids at this facility. I wouldn't be surprised if she is crying over something else, and they just didn't let her stop practice, and then they got that one perfect shot with which they could write the story the way they wanted.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Aug 1, 2012 15:59:38 GMT -5
There are a lot of kids smiling in other pictures, and most of the pictures of them working out look just like something you would find at any quality Gym (or pool) in the USA.
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midjd
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Post by midjd on Aug 1, 2012 16:01:07 GMT -5
My sister trained in China for about 4 weeks one summer while she was a gymnast. Other than not liking the food there, she didn't have many complaints. They trained about 5 hours in the morning, ate lunch, trained another 4 hours, did schoolwork, ate dinner, and went to bed.
Not much of a life, but not particularly abusive, either.
(Though they may have toned it down since the Americans were visiting).
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beags
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I'm not a psychopath. I'm a high functioning sociopath, do your research.
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Post by beags on Aug 1, 2012 16:10:14 GMT -5
All Olympic athletes train hard.
Let's not forget, we are talking about a country who either still does or did not that long ago, kill the second born child because parents were only allowed one child to keep the population down.
China isn't known for it's sympathy . . .it's more known as a ruthless country. So some of those pictures do not surprise me at all. Most of those pictures the kids look pretty happy in them.
I don't know what to think . . . . I believe if you ask any Olympic athlete they will say their training was grueling and many of them see their parents very little. (yes, even the ones in the United States)
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beags
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I'm not a psychopath. I'm a high functioning sociopath, do your research.
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Post by beags on Aug 1, 2012 16:18:41 GMT -5
her legs are to the side, she is bending her knees. Although it still doesn't look comfortable.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Aug 1, 2012 16:30:22 GMT -5
Doesn't surprise me. The Chineese desperately want to win in order to inspire patriotism, which will in turn deflect criticism of the communist party.
What's even sadder is despite all their efforts, the U.S is leading in medals.
And for the record, this is why I find it a bit confusing when people bash the U.S for being an "evil country." I don't think the U.S is perfect by any means, but we don't have practices anywhere near as ruthless as places like China.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2012 16:32:35 GMT -5
I believe if you ask any Olympic athlete they will say their training was grueling and many of them see their parents very little. (yes, even the ones in the United States) Even that young? And athletes in China aren't allowed to quit without government approval. I hate to think of what that training is doing to the bodies of these kids.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Aug 1, 2012 16:37:55 GMT -5
Varies by sport. Gymnastics starts very very young, which makes sense since they peak at like 14. It's not the kind of sport you can pick up at 12. I'd be willing to bet most weight lifters don't start until around and after puberty though, because you need those hormones to put on significant muscle mass and strength.
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hurley1980
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I am all that is wrong with the world....don't get too close, I'm contagious.
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Post by hurley1980 on Aug 1, 2012 16:39:03 GMT -5
I trained in gymnastics until I was about 14. I was competitive, but not olympic calliber, but there were a few girls at the gym who were striving to make the US team (they were younger, 10-13 age). One of the main differences between our training and China's training, that makes this so bad, is that our athletes WANT to be there. I think many of the Chinese athletes are never given the choice. If they look like Olympic material, they are shipped away and brutally trained before they know what even happened. At least our athletes know what they are getting themselves into, and it is worth it to them. Can you imagine being put through a torturous training schedule day after day, away from your family, at the age of 5, and not even wanting to be there??? Also, I don't think US athletes start training away from home until they are at least in their teens (although I could be wrong).
The Chinese are shady competitors, and I'm really surprised they haven't been banned from the olympics once or twice for the entire duration with the way they cheat. Does anyone remember the Chinese girls gymnastics team from Beijing? Some of them still had their baby teeth. There was no way those girls were 15+ years old!
And didn't 4 of their ping pong players just get banned for something?
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Aug 1, 2012 16:41:16 GMT -5
To be fair, I've never understood why we require them to be 16 in the first place. If the best female gymnists in the world are 12-14 let them compete.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Aug 1, 2012 16:41:17 GMT -5
Anyone remember footbinding? Was quite the trendy thing for 'wealthy' or 'wealthy wanna be' girls in China for more than 500 years... A little suffering for status and money is a good thing.
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beags
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I'm not a psychopath. I'm a high functioning sociopath, do your research.
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Post by beags on Aug 1, 2012 16:42:31 GMT -5
China is always over the top with their children. I don't believe they even look at them as children.
The children are hand picked at young ages for many different things and trained to do that one thing. It doesn't matter if it Olympics or not.
China has never been known to be a nurturing country. As I stated earlier . . . they are ruthless and I don't see that ever changing.
I don't know why people are always so shocked about how China treats it's people. . .. . . . have you not paid attention over the years?
Yes, the United States starts training many of their athletes young . . . . as some of the swimmers what age they were when they started training . . I believe Phelps was age 10. Granted that girl doesn't look much older than age 5 or 7.
If you don't think the United States isn't obsessed with winning .. go to any childs sporting event .. you will see at least one parent who will act like a jackazz screaming at their child because he/she isn't performing better than everyone else. Or just watch any beauty pageant . . .some of those girls are no older than 3 years old . .. . and those mother's are insane.
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