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 16:45:27 GMT -5
And didn't 4 of their ping pong players just get banned for something? ------------------------------------------------
China, Bejing and one other country I believe . ..two girls per country . . . or it could have been 4 from China . . I don't quite remember. I thought it was two girls from three different countries and the sport was badminton.
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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 16:46:21 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. I really think it has a lot to do with the pressure to win. A 15-18 year old girl is going to be able to handle a crushing blow, like what happened to Jordyn Weiber, much easier than a 12 year old who hasn't even gone through puberty yet. And I agree with others who have said this isn't surprising coming from China, but its doesn't make me feel less bad for the poor children.
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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 16:46:57 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. Is that when they wanted tiny feet on their women and their feet were bound while they grew. There were some rather odd looking feet with the toes under the foot or shaped into different ways . . . . and Japan did that also.
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beags
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I'm not a psychopath. I'm a high functioning sociopath, do your research.
Joined: Nov 29, 2012 22:24:40 GMT -5
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Post by beags on Aug 1, 2012 16:49:33 GMT -5
I feel bad for any child that has to grow up in that type of country. china isn't the only one who treats their children badly. But it just isn't some great newsflash for me. People have known about what China does to their athletes for years. There were stories about it when I went to middle school. For the record that was in the 80's.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Aug 1, 2012 16:49:40 GMT -5
Maybe, but does a 12 year old even get and understand all the pressure to win by their home country, olympic committee, party, or whatever? We let the 12-14 year olds compete in other international events, right? I don't actually know whether or not they do, but most sports have junior olympic teams with world cup style tournaments and stuff, so I'm assuming gymnastics does as well. What the hell is the difference between competing at the Pan-Asian games at 12 or 13 and competing at the Olympics at 12 or 13?
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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 16:55:57 GMT -5
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milee
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Post by milee on Aug 1, 2012 17:24:51 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. I think I read somewhere that it's so hard on them that the girls don't menstruate. Yeah, that's not just China. I'll bet the US gymnasts aren't menstruating, either. Heck, even at the high school level, many of the top female athletes - runners especially - are too lean to have their period. We live in a glass house so don't throw too many stones.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Aug 1, 2012 17:40:26 GMT -5
The one picture states that the kids are waiting for their parents to pick them up. So, there are levels of training here.
Can you provide a reliable source that says that athletes will be arrested and jailed if they quit?
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Aug 1, 2012 17:43:19 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. Is that when they wanted tiny feet on their women and their feet were bound while they grew. There were some rather odd looking feet with the toes under the foot or shaped into different ways . . . . and Japan did that also. Yep. To be fair I believe it was a status thing - for the kid, her family, and the man she eventually married. . A girl/woman with bound feet wasn't necessarily gonna be much good for doing labor on the farm or within the home. She'd need a man/family to support her - as she was mostly 'decorative' and hopefully good for producing childen. OK. I'm making generalizations. But, sacrificing a child and inflicting potentially life long pain on them for the greater good (of the family) apparently wasn't thought of as a "bad" thing. Humans are so weirdly interesting when it comes to how they decide who's more "human" or "more valuable" than who...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2012 18:55:49 GMT -5
Can you provide a reliable source that says that athletes will be arrested and jailed if they quit? It's not quite arrest or jail and yet the consequences of the system are awful. In China you need to have government approval to live in a city or the country, and to have a certain type of job. The NY Times interviewed a Chinese Olympian the last time around: “I do not want to work as an athlete, but as an athlete here I have no freedom to choose my future,” Yang said, speaking through the team’s official interpreter. “As a child, I didn’t learn anything but sport, and now what do I do? I can’t do anything else. I have my own dreams, but it is very difficult. I don’t have the foundation to make them come true.”
Officials refused to let Yang retire, even after he won Olympic gold in the C-2 500-meter race with Meng Guanliang at the Athens Games in 2004. He described how they had threatened to withhold his retirement payment if he did not compete through the Beijing Games. www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/sports/olympics/21athlete.html?pagewanted=all
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midjd
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Post by midjd on Aug 1, 2012 19:03:54 GMT -5
Neither do the Americans (or any other competitive gymnasts). Once you start your period, you're pretty much sent off to the glue factory.
Neither did the US until the early 20th century. Hello, child labor!
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Aug 1, 2012 21:35:18 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. Gabby Douglas is from Virginia Beach, Va and started gymnastics when she was 6 years old in 2002. When she was 14, Gabby and her family chose to have her move to West Des Moines, IA to train with the same gym that trained Shawn Johnson. Gabby has to go to the Karolyi Ranch in Texas is where the national team is selected and trains. It is not her home gym. There was an article in the Des Moines paper on Sunday and the owner of the gym in Virginia Beach is very bitter about Gabby leaving and the way it was handled by the Douglas family. Have no idea of how much of what she said is true.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Aug 3, 2012 12:59:07 GMT -5
So, one guy spent too much time as a athlete as a kid, and now regrets it. But, he won't quit because of money. I know plenty of people who feel forced to stay at a company, at a government job or in the military for another 2 or 3 years to get their pension.
I will say that the USA is the best place to start a new career, and you can take a sharp left turn in direction at any time in your life. That might not be the culture elsewhere. But, it doesn't sound like they keep this guy locked in a cell.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2012 13:20:43 GMT -5
There is a wide gulf between the training of Olympic athletes in what we like to call "the free world" and countries such as China. I look at my nephew (just brought home gold and silver from London) and they're a solid, down-to-earth family. Yes, he's worked hs rear end off and been gone a lot but he's got a degree in Finance and when he's home, he's a normal part of the family. Phelps' mother is always up in the stands cheering him on, and so were the parents of many US Olympians. Their kids hadn't been taken away by the state.
And when I watched them in their off-moments (at least, the ones caught on camera), the US and European athletes just seemed to be having more fun. The Chinese and sometimes the Russians looked grim.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Aug 4, 2012 15:13:06 GMT -5
I don't know if the Russians still do it, but when they were the Soviet Union they used to coach the athletes not to show any emotion or pain on the international stage. Several Chinese athletes have come out and said they're coached the same way, which makes sense considering China modeled their Olympic training program on the Soviet program in the early 80s.
I can't even imagine what if must feel like to spend basically your whole life training for that one single moment of sports glory, then have to keep a totally straight face while you're there competing and even if you win. They must be doing back flips on the inside.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2012 20:17:02 GMT -5
I look at my nephew (just brought home gold and silver from London) Congratulations to your nephew! ;D
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2012 6:42:44 GMT -5
Congratulations to your nephew! ;D Thanks! DH and I didn't spring for the trip to London- it would have been exorbitant- but the FaceBook has helped the whole family share in the excitement. But, to get back to the OT- nephew was at both my parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration in 2002 and my Dad's 80th birthday celebration in 2010 over Thanksgiving weekend. He was just hanging and watching football games on TV with everyone else, although I'm sure he was up well before the rest of us and in the pool. That's the way it should be. If a grandparent died, believe me, no one would have been able to hide it from him.
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