Getting younger all the time
On NPR's "Morning Edition" this morning, Frank Deford discusses how American sports champions are becoming younger and younger, citing in particular , who is the US Women's Figure Skating national champion. Nagasu is not at this week's world skating championships because she's too young to compete internationally. The worlds in figure skating require that competitors be at least sixteen. Deford argues that it makes no sense to not allow Nagasu to compete, since she won her national competition. At face value this makes sense, but he hits the nail on the head for figure skating in particular further on in the commentary:
This is well and truly the bottom line, that pre-adolescents don't make for exciting athletic competition. Under-14 futbol is fun for the kids and the parents, but it's not something I'm going to get up and go to the park to see on a Saturday morning, and it's not going to be on the boobtoob. The problem we have here is a conflict between the leaders of the various sporting federations, who want to maximize the exposure and profitability of their sports, and the parents of young athletes, who want them to do their thing, win high-level competitions, then cash in and get on with their lives. In sports like women's figure skating and gymnastics, the pre-adolescents have a decided advantage over older teens and young adults. Mirai Nagasu is a classic example of this. She's 4'11" tall, and weights 78 pounds. She can do the triple jumps and such that make her a world-class skater because she has so little body mass to move around.
This philosophy is almost the direct opposite of our thinking in male athletics. We would never dream of assembling a team of 14-year old boys to play in La Copa Mundial or in Olympic basketball. Women's sports gives the advantage to the littles, though. A 16- or 17-year old post-pubescent girl is putting on weight and developing curves. She's no longer the toothpick that she was at 12-14. If she is, it means she's deliberately maintaining a practice schedule that is delaying puberty. The belief is that these girls can grow breasts and hips after they win gold medals and get on the Wheaties box. If a girl like Nagasu can't compete internationally until 16, that means she's got to keep up the pace she's on now for 2 more years. Private coaches, tutors, travel to competitions, etc., aren't cheap, and this is all coming out of her parents' pockets now. The payoff will hopefully come but no doubt they'd rather it sooner than later.
But it's just not all that enjoyable to watch these little girls. One of the only saving graces of taking your kid to a "Disney on Ice" show is the grace and good looks of the female skaters. They're adults, and they look like the Disney Princesses they are portraying on the ice. While the young skaters at least wear outfits that are at least a bit girly-looking, the gymnasts are the really scary ones. Some of these girls look like they should be in a "Save The Children" ad. I don't care what they can do on the balance beam, or how many flips and twists they can do in the floor exercise, they look like little boys. If you want to see gymnastics as it should be, watch the SEC women's gymnastics tournament one year. You'll see grace, skill, talent, and curves. The young women in a collegiate competition are dance students. They're musicians. They've been around a bit longer on this planet and put their life experiences into their competitive routines.
That's what we went to see at "Disney on Ice." Nobody wants to see a toothpick on "American Idol" or "Dancing with the Stars." We want to see adults. Women don't want to look at 13-year old boys in tight shorts on a futbol pitch, they want to look at Christiano Ronaldo's ass. You have to put adults front and center if you want a good product on the television screen or in the arena.
Pushing little girls to be world-class athletes is greedy and wrong-headed.
Deford's thoughts on high school athletics are interesting as well, and I'll respond to them in another post.
Not everybody is happy with this development. In particular, women's figure skating, which was once the most popular female sport on TV, has plummeted in the ratings as the tiny teens have taken over the sport, jumping about the ice but unable to display the grown-up grace and elegance once displayed by Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill and Kristi Yamaguchi.Shorter Frank Deford: watching pre-teens in tiny outfits makes us feel like pedophiles, so we turn the TV off.
This is well and truly the bottom line, that pre-adolescents don't make for exciting athletic competition. Under-14 futbol is fun for the kids and the parents, but it's not something I'm going to get up and go to the park to see on a Saturday morning, and it's not going to be on the boobtoob. The problem we have here is a conflict between the leaders of the various sporting federations, who want to maximize the exposure and profitability of their sports, and the parents of young athletes, who want them to do their thing, win high-level competitions, then cash in and get on with their lives. In sports like women's figure skating and gymnastics, the pre-adolescents have a decided advantage over older teens and young adults. Mirai Nagasu is a classic example of this. She's 4'11" tall, and weights 78 pounds. She can do the triple jumps and such that make her a world-class skater because she has so little body mass to move around.
This philosophy is almost the direct opposite of our thinking in male athletics. We would never dream of assembling a team of 14-year old boys to play in La Copa Mundial or in Olympic basketball. Women's sports gives the advantage to the littles, though. A 16- or 17-year old post-pubescent girl is putting on weight and developing curves. She's no longer the toothpick that she was at 12-14. If she is, it means she's deliberately maintaining a practice schedule that is delaying puberty. The belief is that these girls can grow breasts and hips after they win gold medals and get on the Wheaties box. If a girl like Nagasu can't compete internationally until 16, that means she's got to keep up the pace she's on now for 2 more years. Private coaches, tutors, travel to competitions, etc., aren't cheap, and this is all coming out of her parents' pockets now. The payoff will hopefully come but no doubt they'd rather it sooner than later.
But it's just not all that enjoyable to watch these little girls. One of the only saving graces of taking your kid to a "Disney on Ice" show is the grace and good looks of the female skaters. They're adults, and they look like the Disney Princesses they are portraying on the ice. While the young skaters at least wear outfits that are at least a bit girly-looking, the gymnasts are the really scary ones. Some of these girls look like they should be in a "Save The Children" ad. I don't care what they can do on the balance beam, or how many flips and twists they can do in the floor exercise, they look like little boys. If you want to see gymnastics as it should be, watch the SEC women's gymnastics tournament one year. You'll see grace, skill, talent, and curves. The young women in a collegiate competition are dance students. They're musicians. They've been around a bit longer on this planet and put their life experiences into their competitive routines.
That's what we went to see at "Disney on Ice." Nobody wants to see a toothpick on "American Idol" or "Dancing with the Stars." We want to see adults. Women don't want to look at 13-year old boys in tight shorts on a futbol pitch, they want to look at Christiano Ronaldo's ass. You have to put adults front and center if you want a good product on the television screen or in the arena.
Pushing little girls to be world-class athletes is greedy and wrong-headed.
Deford's thoughts on high school athletics are interesting as well, and I'll respond to them in another post.
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