Age requirements in gymnastics

Prior to 1981, the minimum required age to compete in senior events sanctioned by the FIG (including the Olympic Games) was 14. The earliest champions in women's gymnastics tended to be in their 20s; most had studied ballet for years before entering the sport. Hungarian gymnast Ágnes Keleti won individual gold medals at the age of 35 at the 1956 Olympics. Larisa Latynina, the first great Soviet gymnast, won her first Olympic all-around medal at the age of 21, her second at 25 and her third at 29; she became the 1958 World Champion while pregnant with her daughter. Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská, who followed Latynina to become a two-time Olympic all-around champion, was 22 before she started winning gold medals at the highest level of the sport, and won her final Olympic all-around title at the age of 26. In the 1970s, the average age of Olympic gymnastics competitors gradually began to decrease. While it was not unheard of for teenagers to compete in the 1960s — Ludmilla Tourischeva was sixteen at her first Olympics in 1968 — they slowly became the norm, as difficulty in gymnastics increased. By the late 1970s, Federations occasionally requested permission to allow slightly underage gymnasts to compete as seniors. One such example is that of Canadian gymnast Karen Kelsall, who legally competed in the 1976 Olympics at the age of 13. At the time, gymnasts had to turn 14 by the start of the Games to be eligible. Kelsall, with her December 1962 birthday, was five months shy of the requirement but was turning 14 within the Olympic year, and was granted a special exemption by the FIG to compete. Such exemptions were not automatic, however: American gymnast Tracee Talavera, who was named to the United States team for the 1979 World Championships, was deemed ineligible to compete due to her age of years. In response to the changing demands of the sport, at the 58th Congress of the FIG, held in July 1980 just before the Moscow Olympics, the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15. Under this rule, which went into effect in 1981, gymnasts were required to turn at least 15 years of age in the calendar year to compete in senior-level events. ==Reasons for age restrictions==

Age restrictions were supposedly designed not so much to level the playing field in terms of skill and physical advantages, as to protect child gymnasts from injury, however critics dispute the science behind the policy and argue that the answer is to prohibit junior gymnasts from competing in senior competitions. On the one hand, proponents such as Jeanne Doperak, a sports medicine physician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, contend that "[a child gymnast's] immature skeleton just isn't ready to handle the day-to-day stresses that will occur", A gymnast whose bones are still growing is more likely than an adult to suffer skeletal injury, because the bones are more porous and the joints not yet fully formed. Lesions, which are precursors to stress fractures, occur in 11% of young female gymnasts, compared to 2.3% of girls and women in general. ==Current regulations==

Currently, 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 2028 Olympics, a gymnast must have a birth date before January 1, 2013. There is no maximum age restriction, and some gymnasts compete well into their 20s. The oldest female gymnast competing in senior international events is Uzbekistan's Oksana Chusovitina, (b. 1975) who was 46 years, 1 month old at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She was old at her first Olympics, the 1992 Summer Olympics. Terminology The term senior, in gymnastics, refers to any world-class gymnast who is age-eligible under F.I.G. rules. The term junior is used to describe any gymnast who competes at a world-class level, but does not meet the F.I.G.'s age minimum. Juniors are judged under the same Code of Points as the seniors, and often exhibit the same level of difficulty in their routines. Legal exceptions The one exception to the F.I.G.'s age restrictions until recently applied to the year before the Olympics, when gymnasts who were one year below the required age, but would be the required age in the Olympic year, were allowed to compete as seniors at the World Championships and other FIG meets. For instance, gymnasts born in 1977 were allowed to compete at senior events in 1991, when they were 14 or turning 14 within the calendar year. Within the last Olympic cycle, gymnasts born in 1992 were permitted to compete as seniors in 2007. This was permitted to allow nations to qualify to the Olympics with their best teams, and to give emerging gymnasts some experience in major competition before the Olympics. However, the FIG eliminated this exception as of the 2012 Olympic cycle. In addition, the age requirement technically only applies to meets which are sanctioned and regulated directly by the FIG: the Olympics, the World Championships and the World Cup circuit. Many other meets, such as the European Championships, have separate divisions for juniors. Additionally, some competitions, such as the Pan Am Games, the Pacific Rim Championships and the All-Africa Games, have different rules which permit seniors and juniors to compete together. There are also numerous international competitions specifically limited to junior gymnasts, such as the Japan Junior International, Moscow World Stars, the Junior Pan American Championships, and the Youth Olympic Games. Verification procedures According to official statements from the FIG, "the accepted proof of a gymnast’s eligibility for competition is a valid passport issued by the country of residence." This verification process has been criticized by some in the gymnastics community, with the argument that countries can manufacture and submit falsified documents for underage gymnasts. In several cases, gymnasts involved in age falsification have verified that they did in fact compete under forged passports provided to them by their federations. Since 2009, gymnasts competing in FIG-sanctioned events at both the senior and junior level have been required to have licenses issued by the Federation. These licenses reportedly verify the competitors' ages based on their passports. However, the licensing does not include any independent verification of submitted passport information. Response from coaches and federations The age limit is arguably one of the most contentious rules in gymnastics, and is frequently debated by coaches, gymnasts and members of the media. While some members of the sport, such as former USA Gymnastics president Bob Colarossi, have expressed support for the age limit of 16, others, such as coach Béla Károlyi, have heavily criticized it. Supporters of the age restrictions have pointed out that it has encouraged older gymnasts to remain in the sport. The average age of an international gymnast was 18.10 years in 2005. In contrast, in 1994, before the new age requirements, it was 16.49, and in 1989, gymnasts who had reached the age of 17 were already often considered to be of retirement age. Opponents of the rule have countered that by barring younger gymnasts from top level meets, they are denying them valuable competitive experience. ==Age falsification== Age falsification is the practice of advancing gymnasts' ages to make them age-eligible for senior-level competition. Reports of age falsification among top-level international gymnasts first began to surface in the 1980s, after the age limit was raised from 14 to 15. This has frequently taken the form of inconsistently reported birthdates; at other times, speculation has been raised due to the young appearance of the gymnasts. In other cases, documents revealing inconsistencies, such as original birth certificates, have been researched and uncovered by the press. Inconsistencies with reported birth dates and ages at international and national competitions have also led to the discovery of age falsification. Gymnasts who have had their ages falsified, and have spoken about their experiences, have indicated that they were not given a choice in the matter. Olympic medallist Nellie Kim told The New York Times that "Psychologically, I think they worry less". Daniela Silivaş, in her interview, commented, "You should know that I competed better at the age of 13 than at 17. I felt much better, physical and mentally." Smaller gymnasts have generally excelled in the more challenging acrobatic elements required by the evolving Code of Points after the 1960s. In addition, older gymnasts may be more prone to certain types of injuries caused by overuse of bones and muscles; younger gymnasts are less likely to have such problems, or more likely to be able to work through pain while injured. However, she may have been younger than that. At the 1992 Olympics, she claimed she was 17 (i.e. born 1975). However, her front teeth were missing, leading Béla Károlyi to speculate that she may have been as young as 10 (i.e. born 1982) at the time. Her coaches said her missing teeth were caused by a training accident. Kim's front teeth were also missing when she competed at the 1991 World Championships. Lavinia Agache (Romania): Agache competed at the 1981 World Championships at the age of 13, under a passport which gave her year of birth as 1967. She was in fact born in 1968. The falsification was suspected as early as 1981; Agache confirmed her 1968 birthdate to International Gymnast magazine in 2000. Olga Bicherova (Soviet Union): Bicherova, the 1981 World Champion in the all-around event, was introduced at an early 1981 meet as a 12-year-old, but was claimed to have been born in 1966 (i.e. 15 years old) at the 1981 World Championships later in the same year. Gina Gogean (Romania): Gogean competed in the 1992 Olympics with a passport with a 1977 birth year. However, in 2002 her original birth certificate was uncovered by the media, revealing she had been born in 1978. Alexandra Marinescu (Romania): Marinescu, a World and team Olympic medalist in the mid-1990s, was given an earlier birth year from 1982 to 1981 in order to be eligible for the 1995 World Championships and 1996 Olympic Games. Daniela Silivaş (Romania): Silivaş, a multiple World and Olympic gold medalist, competed as a junior until 1985, when her birth year was changed from 1972 to 1970. She went on to compete at the 1985 World Championships at the age of 13. Silivaş, a resident of the Atlanta metropolitan area, revealed the falsification to the media in 2002 during her Georgia marriage licence application. In April 2010, the International Olympic Committee upheld the FIG's recommendation and nullified both the Chinese team's bronze medal and Dong's individual Olympic placement. Hong Su Jong (North Korea), the 2007 World Championships silver medalist on vault, was investigated for age discrepancies in 2010. Hong competed at the 2004 Olympics with a March 9, 1985, birth date, but participated in subsequent Asian Games and World Championships meets with a 1986 year of birth. Her 2010 FIG license and 2010 Worlds registration indicated that she was born in 1989. The FIG responded in October 2010 by provisionally banning North Korea from competition for one month, which effectively barred them from the 2010 World Championships. In November 2010, the FIG extended the ban until October 5, 2012, fined the North Korean Federation $20,800, and banned Hong from competing even in national competition within North Korea. 2008 Beijing Olympics age controversy During the 2008 Summer Olympics the age of four Chinese gymnasts – He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan, Deng Linlin, and Yang Yilin – was brought into question, with many foreign media outlets speculating that they were underage during the Olympics. Multiple age investigations were conducted at the urging of media, as well as United States Olympic Committee executive Jim Scherr and International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, and the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) found that the gymnasts had met the age requirements and were eligible to compete. The Chinese sports administration also acknowledged that mistakes in its paperwork have contributed to the misunderstanding. ==References==