I had no idea gymnastics had become so polarized and violent...sad really...

Are those girls like 12 years old or some shit??!!!??


Don't you have to be 15 to be in the Olympics? What kind of shit is China pulling?

that reminds me, i wanted to start a thread about white trash women who lacquer their hair to their scalp and put it in a ponytail.

well. the american girl probably would've done better if she were ripped from her family at the age of three to train for the Olympics. Oh and if she were 3 years younger. it kind of got out that one of the chinese girls was 13 years old.

magnificentsynthesizer said:

The one in the middle can't possibly be 15 years old.


Even Prince was bigger than that at 15.

magnificentsynthesizer said:

and if they had shot her make-up artist

horatio said:

horatio!

Imago said:

shenanigans!

Imago said:

You have to be 16 but it's common knowledge that some of the girls are 14 with forged documents.

horatio said:

she has some serious forehead too.

horatio said:

In England we call that a "Croydon facelift"
In English slang, a Croydon facelift (sometimes council house facelift[1], Essex facelift[2], on Merseyside Scrawped, or in Northern Ireland a Millie Facelift) is a particular hairstyle worn by young women. The hair is pulled back tight and tied in a bun or ponytail at the back. The supposed result is that the skin of the forehead and face are pulled up and back, producing the effects of a facelift. Traction alopecia can result from this hairstyle.

This hairstyle is frequently worn by certain young women in the United Kingdom, and is portrayed in the media as belonging to young women from the lower social classes, particularly the so-called chav (ned in Scotland) culture. Hence the term is considered derogatory because it portrays people from Croydon as being lower class. Croydon can be replaced by the name of any unfashionable residential area.

The Croydon Guardian newspaper, however, speculates that the originator of this style may have been the Ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, based on a Channel 4 documentary

mdiver said:

Just


I love Brits

JustErin said:

Team GB have a 14yo diver however i stand corrected on other sports

The International Federation of Gymnastics has a requirement of an athlete turning 16 years old in the Olympic year to compete. Figure skating has an age requirement of turning 15 by July 1 of the year before the Winter Olympics to compete. Other than that, there are no age requirements.
[Edited 8/18/08 8:27am]

mdiver said:

I googled female chav:



croydon facelift:

mdiver said:

For gymnastics you have to be 16. We are talking about the gymnasts, are we not?

"NO BUT.....NO BUT....."


http://www.youtube.com/wa...tfi1nvvHxg

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

"don't give me evils!"

JustErin said:

gymnasts/elves

pardonme4livin said:

Doesn't this belong in the camel toe thread?

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

OMG! I LOVE Vicky Pollard!!!! I like when she has her kids all lined up in a row and is going to work at the phone sex place and tells her kids, "don't be giving me baby evils!"

pardonme4livin said:

i just noticed the black and blue marks on the thighs of the american gymnast..
what a rough sport

magnificentsynthesizer said:

Please. Liukins parents were both world champions. Mum probably squeezed her out on the beam between backflips.

shanti0608 said:

That first pic. is Lady Sovereign. Don't know why she's hated so much there.

When did they change the age requirement to 16?

noonblueapples said:

Why don't you have a seat over there?
















Sorry, I had to.

AnckSuNamun said:

Because she is shit

i look young too, it's possible.

Janfriend said:

Currently, as per the 1997 regulation, gymnasts must be at least 16 years of age, or turning 16 within the calendar year, to compete in senior-level events. For the current Olympic cycle, in order to compete in the 2008 Olympics, a gymnast must have a birth date before January 1, 1993.




\
[Edited 8/19/08 5:15am]

Mach said:

Thanks! I remember when Dominique Moceanu was on the team in 1996 and she was 14

Controversy over age of Chinese gymnasts isn't going to evaporate

By ANN KILLION / San Jose Mercury News

Published: August 14th, 2008 11:43 PM
Last Modified: August 14th, 2008 11:48 PM

BEIJING - Birthday-Gate erupted again Friday, overshadowing the glamour event of gymnastic, the women's all-around.

A new report by Associated Press provided further evidence that the Chinese gymnasts aren't what their government says they are: eligible.
This story isn't going away. It has all the components for a perfect Olympic storm, such as:

-The Chinese government is accused of manipulating reality, a charge that fits easily into all the fears and concerns about these Olympic Games.

-The International Olympic Committee comes off - as usual - as more concerned about protecting the host and the sponsors than the safety of the athletes or the integrity of the Games.

-The outrage is fueled by the idea that the Americans were cheated out of the team gold medal by Chinese cheating. That always makes for an epic Olympic scandal.


I'm not saying that I completely agree with all those perceptions, particularly the last one, since the U.S. women didn't do well enough to win the team gold medal. But I can spot an Olympic controversy that won't go away quietly. And with four more days of gymnastics competition - all occurring in prime time in the United States - this is qualifies.


While NBC and other mainstream American media are all over this story - and Bela Kd "this little girl" as 13. AP found the report on Xinhua's Web site Thursday morning; by the afternoon it was no longer accessible.

This is just the latest evidence from Chinese sources. A 2006 biography from the local sports bureau where He was registered gave her birthdate as Jan, 1, 1994. It is now listed as 1992 on her official bio. A story earlier this year in the China Daily, the country's largest English-language newspaper, also reported she is 14.

Another local-level competition roll lists the birthdate of team member Jiang Yuyuan as Oct. 1, 1993 (it is now listed as Nov. 1, 1991). And from 2004 to 2006, the biographical data for Yang Yilan on the State General Administration of Sport's Web site listed her date of birth as Aug. 26, 1993 (now listed as 1992).
These girls are younger than Hannah Montana. How hard can it be to keep track of their birthdates?

But the Chinese official line - brought to you by the same people who say the smog is "mist" - is that this isn't an issue.

Zhang Hongliang, a Chinese gymnastics official, said there were just mistakes made earlier. Asked whether the federation had changed the girls' ages, Zhang said:

"We are a sports department. How would we have the ability to do that?

"We already explained this very clearly. There's no need to discuss this thing again."

Au contraire. Apparently, Zhang has never met Karolyi.

This isn't the first time these accusations have been raised about China's gymnastics team. A Chinese gymnast who was on the bronze-medal winning team at the Sydney Olympics admitted on state run television that she was only 14 at the time. The United States finished fourth that year, out of medal contention.

In Karolyi's mind, we wuz robbed.

But don't forget Karolyi is one of the people who gave gymnastics a black eye, with training methods that could only be considered abusive. After years of scrutiny - and a damning book by journalist Joan Ryan - the sport instituted reform, including new age limits.

Karolyi's outrage, which I understand has been broadcast into Americans homes, isn't over the welfare of the young athletes and the physical toll taken on their bodies. He's just angry because he wants the U.S. team to be able to use third-graders on our team, too.

That shouldn't be the issue. The issue should be the health and welfare of these children. Even if the Chinese gymnasts are 16, there's something wrong with this picture from a health point of view.

But the Chinese government says everything is fine. The IOC, as always, could care less. They'd like to sweep this issue under the big blue floor routine mat.

That isn't going to happen. Not with this perfect Olympic storm.