Ok, so some gymnastics coaches favor the little young girls in the gym, the ones they can "mold"....but let's open up the competitions! No minimum age requirements: more at: Olympic/World competitions minimum age requirements/restriction http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/showthread.php?p=79684#post79684 As Bela Karolyi emphatically says, Open it up!

"Liukin's Father Wants Age Limit Eliminated" [QUOTE]Nastia Liukin's father and coach, Valeri Liukin, said the international gymnastics federation would be wise to eliminate the age rule that requires gymnastics athletes to be at least 16 or turn 16 during the year they compete in the Olympics and world championships. The issue has been in the forefront of gymnastics discussion because of some evidence that three of the girls on the gold-medalist Chinese team might be too young to compete. Liukin, who turns 19 in October, just missed that cut-off for the 2004 Olympics. Athens all-around gold medalist Carly Patterson trained at the gym run by Valeri Liukin in Parker, Texas, and Rebecca Bross, a 14-year-old who also trains at the gym, was just shy of being old enough for these Games. "It's a shame Rebecca couldn't compete this year," said Valeri Liukin. While he wouldn't criticize China directly, he said gymnastics would be better off without an age limit. "Let everybody compete and be fair," he said. "That's the best way."[/QUOTE] Totally.

In the interview with Nadia Comaneci and Bela Karolyi on NBC, Bela was for the no age restrictions, like you said, but Nadia said 15 years old is a good age - she was 14 in her first Olympics.

yessss, i agree with bela " OPEN IT UP"! if they want to find a way to make sure the gymnasts are mentally ready, find a new way cause age can have little to do with it. i think either no age restrictions or minimum age 13 if they must. its not like if they change it everyone will be 12, but you will be seeing some more 14 and 15 year olds out there. many girls of this age are more mature than other 17 year olds. also, lifting the age requirement may possibly allow more gymnasts to have longer careers at the elite level, and possibly go to two or even three olympics! i for one miss the little girls of gymnastics, after all the best gymnastics is one that looks like childs play! its different for everyone when they are ready so let people go when they are ready, let age not play too big a part! c'mon, open it up!!!

Best Russian women's gymnastics team might not be going to Worlds because of age requirements: [QUOTE] The women's all-around champion in Penza, however, likely will be ineligible for the world team. 2008 Russian Cup champion Ksenia Afanasyeva and runner-up Ksenia Sgymnastics emyonova are both out with injury. Semyonova, the reigning world champion on uneven bars, and Afanasyeva went 1-2 at the 2009 European Championships in April. "The upcoming world championships will be the most difficult of the Olympic quadrennium for us," Rodionenko (head coach Andrei Rodionenko)told news agency "All Sport." "First of all... I'm talking about the age requirement, which means gymnasts born after 1993 cannot participate in senior international competitions. And as it happens our leaders right now are exactly these gymnasts. We can name 2009 Russian national champion Aliya Mustafina, Russian championships medalist Anna Dementyeva, 2009 European Youth Olympic Festival champion Viktoria Komova and Tatiana Solovyova. So it will probably turn out that, at least on the women's side, the strongest team won't be going to the world championships." [/QUOTE] via International Gymnast

According to my viewpoint, age doesn’t matter, what matters is your skills and performance. We should follow the skills not age and I think this is the best thing to gather lots of top gymnastic players both from sports center and center sports perspectives. Ain’t it?

The issue has been in the forefront of gymnastics discussion because of some evidence that three of the girls on the gold-medalist Chinese team might be too young to compete.