Do you think we should support child Olympians?

It used to be that any age could compete, but now I believe an athlete has to be 15 to be on the team. I don't think that is a child in the sense that the athletes are old enough to choose to continue.

I watched the US trials and it seemed tame compared to years' past. The team is quite well rounded with Laurie Fernandez at 16 and up to Ali Raizman who is 23. The youngest, Reagan Smith is an alternate and won't likely see any floor time. She is 15. 

Parents are also way more involved now than in years past. I think they have more say now than back in the 80’s and 90’s. 

Tim Dagget also mentioned the girls have a mentor and a chaperone.

Don't kid yourself. Those little girls that are competing at this level made the choice to do it themselves. They are seriously into it. If they didn't want to be there, and all that it entails, then they wouldn't be. At least in this country, the girls are given the choice to move up/go to competitions every step of the way.

True. Some parents are living vicariously through their kids. I get that the pressure to compete and be the best can be extreme. However, if a kid really really didn't want to do it anymore, they could simply flub their routines. Done. You mess up enough and you're out. And hey all know it.

The qualifying age has actually been pushed up. The age was 14 when Nadia Comaneci (I know I probably massacred her last name). They could even compete as 13 yrs i=in the senior division if they were turning 14 that year.

I think it was around 1997 when the age was pushed up to 16. I only remember because dd was born in 1997 and there was a lot of coverage on the training these girls do. Dh turned to me and said "no gymnastics for her." I can laugh now because she trains full time in ballet. You can't do a schedule like that if you do not love what you are doing. It is all consuming.

The nature of the sport. Female gymnasts are at their best when they are young and small. After puberty, most grow out of the sport. I think the change happened because of Nadia. Before that, gymnast were older and bigger, but they did less physical movements. More emphasis was placed on grace. Now, it is all about tumbling and strength. My biggest surprise watching the sport evolve was when they started doing full swings on the bars! Wow! Figure skating is similar. The smaller girls can spin faster.

When my dd was in gymnastics there was the take it or leave it attitude at her gym (wh8ch is not producing elite athletes). Meaning that if they didn't conform to advancement, increase hours at the gym, etc. They were ousted for all intents and purposes. And the girls left behind were not looked upon highly. They worked more to get to the next level, not for love of sport but because of peer pressure. At age 8 they get into a little bubble of people pushing and don't know anything else.

I think that parents play a huge role in this. And I think no matter the child very few of them want to dedicate their entire lives evenings, weekends, etc. At the sacrifice of all else. They do it because it's expected.

I think the true passion is more rare than not.

New show to replace dance moms.... Olympic moms! Yes, there are stage mothers everywhere. This kids are not pushed by us, but by the parents

I'm ambivalent about these type of sports. I know these girls really train hard and can appreciate that but the pressure on these girls is immense. You can see it their faces. It makes me uncomfortable.

To be honest I don't care for gymnastics, ice skating and even diving. Maybe because I don't like sports with judging involved. As we have seen in the past it can be rigged and I don't think every judge can be truly objective. I also find it weird that pretty much the winners, or at least the top three, always seemed to be determined before the event even takes place. That kind of takes the excitement out of it for me.

gymnastics is a young person's sport due to the nature of the tumbling, movements, etc.  i feel like you're comparing this to child beauty pagents where there really is a perverted machine driving tiny kids to compete.  

Actually, this group of girls has changed the age dynamic completely. Simone just missed the last Olympics age cut off. It was widely accepted at that time that she would be too old to go to Rio. But the sheer athleticism that is now de rigeur on the American team favors the girls who are a little bit older and more physically developed. The fact that Gaby, Aly and Simone are all on the team speaks to the change. It's also created a wide disparity in the rest of the world which continued to focus on different elements of gymnastics (think of the more ballet driven, graceful gymnasts) who can no longer generate the same kinds of scores that Simone gets just from the starting value of her routines.

DD's gym doesn't train at the elite level but there are numerous Level 10s (the highest you can train without going elite) and NCAA Div 1 scholarship gymnasts. Every single one of them chose this sport and time commitment consciously. I used to think it was insane but these kids are more savvy about what they are giving up and what they are choosing than we give them credit for. So many girls quit when they reach a certain level or a certain age (when they understand that the training schedule means no Friday night dances and no marching band, etc.) so the girls who stick with it definitely understand what they are choosing.

ETA: So our gym is just down the road from Abby Lee and the original Dance Moms studio.  We joke all the time about Gym Moms (except in our case, we would probably call it Gym Dads.)  I can't speak for the dynamic at any other gym but at DD's gym, there is no parental involvement.  It's just not the culture.  We drop them off in the parking lot and pick them up when it's over.  I can't find the right words to express how negative the head coach's reaction would be to the kind of over involved, over invested helicopter parenting that I see in my son's chosen sport of soccer, just as an example.  And if the coaches even smell a whiff of a girl not being as interested or into it as she used to be, they will let the parent know. At least in our gym, the bedrock rule is that the gymnast has to want to be there and demonstrate that with her attitude, conduct and work ethic.