B
bpatient
How dangerous would it have to be for you to pull your child out of gymnastics?
This question was prompted by another (rare) catastrophic injury, which was mentioned in another part of this forum. Wang Yan was apparently paralyzed in a fall from the uneven bars last week. Here's an interesting snippet from a news account:
China's top gymnastics official has warned that rules removing difficulty limits on routines could lead to more serious accidents, after a Chinese athlete broke her neck during a dismount.
Wang Yan, 15, fell on her head on Sunday during a botched dismount from the uneven parallel bars at the national championships where gymnasts were being urged to try tough new routines in preparation for the Beijing Olympics.
Gao Jian, director of the China Gymnastics Administrative Centre, said the the rules from the sport's world governing body would inevitably lead to similar accidents, the China Daily newspaper reported Friday. "The rule to allow non-limited difficulty will lead to an increasing number of injuries and also there will be fewer children taking part in the sport," Gao was quoted as saying.
I thought that last part was interesting: "...[T]here will be fewer children taking part in the sport." How bad would it have to be for you to consider pulling your child out of the sport?
It's hard to imagine the parents of the myriad six year-old, uniquely-talented future Olympians really appreciating just how dangerous the sport might be by the time difficulty has increased over yet another another decade--it all looks so beautiful on television....
I know from personal experience that it's easy to rationalize that a sport you enjoy isn't dangerous. When my wife and I were caught in Yosemite by an afternoon thunderstorm that could have killed us (the crack system we were climbing became a brutally-cold waterfall as the hail turned to a downpour), it was because I was climbing slowly that day; I'd had to remove the ankle brace that I'd been wearing while recovering from surgery to repair the joint that I'd broken in a climbing fall--for the second time. After twenty-five years of climbing and seven years of driving my kid to a gym, I've come to believe that gymnastics can be as dangerous as rock climbing--perhaps more dangerous than the gymnastic steep climbing ("sport climbing") that's kept me largely injury free for the past fifteen years. If we disagree, perhaps it's because at least one of us is unwilling to accept a few pertinent facts.
We've all seen some near misses. In the last few months, I've cringed at several: My nine year-old managed to turn a back giant into a one-arm giant a few months ago before she bailed awkwardly from high above the bar; she whacked the bar before she hit the floor, but she escaped injury that time--although it's true that she had just returned from a four-month hiatus due to breaking her hand in a beam fall. Her teammate was unscathed by a frightening fall from the bars that looked bad enough that the meet physician wouldn't wouldn't let her continue. I watched a girl land on her neck in a recent regional meet in a manner that could have left her like Wang Yan, but she climbed back on the beam and repeated the dismount. Sometimes, of course, it's not a near miss. A sizeable fraction of the women's NCAA gymnasts suffered season-ending injuries this year. Sometimes it's really bad--that's why the vault table was changed.
I believe that I understood and accepted the risk when I took up climbing as an adult. It's different with my daughter: I'm making the decisions, but she's the one who is accepting (but likely not really understanding) the risk. Today's tiny gymnasts might grow up to attempt something that now seems obviously and unreasonably dangerous (like Korbut's long-ago back tuck that seemed almost unimaginably dangerous; what will they be doing on the beam in ten years--double backs?).
So here are my questions: Do you ever worry that your daughter might be the one to get hurt? What will it take to make you draw the line? How dangerous must the skills become, or how many gymnasts must be hurt before "there will be fewer children taking part in the sport"?
This question was prompted by another (rare) catastrophic injury, which was mentioned in another part of this forum. Wang Yan was apparently paralyzed in a fall from the uneven bars last week. Here's an interesting snippet from a news account:
China warns new rules will lead to more injuries for gymnasts
China's top gymnastics official has warned that rules removing difficulty limits on routines could lead to more serious accidents, after a Chinese athlete broke her neck during a dismount.
Wang Yan, 15, fell on her head on Sunday during a botched dismount from the uneven parallel bars at the national championships where gymnasts were being urged to try tough new routines in preparation for the Beijing Olympics.
Gao Jian, director of the China Gymnastics Administrative Centre, said the the rules from the sport's world governing body would inevitably lead to similar accidents, the China Daily newspaper reported Friday. "The rule to allow non-limited difficulty will lead to an increasing number of injuries and also there will be fewer children taking part in the sport," Gao was quoted as saying.
I thought that last part was interesting: "...[T]here will be fewer children taking part in the sport." How bad would it have to be for you to consider pulling your child out of the sport?
It's hard to imagine the parents of the myriad six year-old, uniquely-talented future Olympians really appreciating just how dangerous the sport might be by the time difficulty has increased over yet another another decade--it all looks so beautiful on television....
I know from personal experience that it's easy to rationalize that a sport you enjoy isn't dangerous. When my wife and I were caught in Yosemite by an afternoon thunderstorm that could have killed us (the crack system we were climbing became a brutally-cold waterfall as the hail turned to a downpour), it was because I was climbing slowly that day; I'd had to remove the ankle brace that I'd been wearing while recovering from surgery to repair the joint that I'd broken in a climbing fall--for the second time. After twenty-five years of climbing and seven years of driving my kid to a gym, I've come to believe that gymnastics can be as dangerous as rock climbing--perhaps more dangerous than the gymnastic steep climbing ("sport climbing") that's kept me largely injury free for the past fifteen years. If we disagree, perhaps it's because at least one of us is unwilling to accept a few pertinent facts.
We've all seen some near misses. In the last few months, I've cringed at several: My nine year-old managed to turn a back giant into a one-arm giant a few months ago before she bailed awkwardly from high above the bar; she whacked the bar before she hit the floor, but she escaped injury that time--although it's true that she had just returned from a four-month hiatus due to breaking her hand in a beam fall. Her teammate was unscathed by a frightening fall from the bars that looked bad enough that the meet physician wouldn't wouldn't let her continue. I watched a girl land on her neck in a recent regional meet in a manner that could have left her like Wang Yan, but she climbed back on the beam and repeated the dismount. Sometimes, of course, it's not a near miss. A sizeable fraction of the women's NCAA gymnasts suffered season-ending injuries this year. Sometimes it's really bad--that's why the vault table was changed.
I believe that I understood and accepted the risk when I took up climbing as an adult. It's different with my daughter: I'm making the decisions, but she's the one who is accepting (but likely not really understanding) the risk. Today's tiny gymnasts might grow up to attempt something that now seems obviously and unreasonably dangerous (like Korbut's long-ago back tuck that seemed almost unimaginably dangerous; what will they be doing on the beam in ten years--double backs?).
So here are my questions: Do you ever worry that your daughter might be the one to get hurt? What will it take to make you draw the line? How dangerous must the skills become, or how many gymnasts must be hurt before "there will be fewer children taking part in the sport"?
Last edited by a moderator: