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Originally Posted by Cyber Wolf
Also, if you'd call professional dancing a sport,
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I wouldn't.
It's not that I'm petitioning for Rosie O'Donnell to join the US Women's Gymnastics Team; by nature, it's a sport designed for agile and lithe bodies. But like its cousin (women's figure skating), it's a sport with highly subjective judging, based on aesthetics as much as on technical skill, both weighed towards a ridiculous pixie ideal.
There's now a lower age limit of sixteen on the Olympics and other international competitions, which will help somewhat, though it won't stop little girls from starving themselves, attempting progressively more dangerous routines and spending umpteen hours per day in the gym. If you're competing at the top level at sixteen, you're beginning your training at what, 6? 8? That's a training schedule in place of a childhood -- one that seems designed to catch gymnasts "at their prime" at a point before their immature bodies start growing fully at puberty.
But at least there's a market for aging figure skaters, or at least those who make at least some name for themselves. Stars on Ice, Champions on Ice, Ice Wars, Ice Capades, dressing up in a furry costume and doing Disney on Ice, whatever...