Just a thought

DISCLAIMER: these are just things that are running around in my head & I don't intend to offend anyone. That being said...
I am sure that most of America has been watching the Olympics, just like we have. Talk about mixed emotions as we watch them win & loose. It is all SO exciting though.
As I was watching the women's gymnastics & couldn't help but feel so bad for them as they made mistakes (this was Sunday nights qualifications I am talking about). I felt the same way as I watched the Men's individuals last night. Of course things like this ALWAYS get me thinking.
Mostly I was thinking about just how young these athletes are...especially the women. Heck most of them are Gina's age. I can't even imagine the amount of pressure on these young kids...especially at this age when they should be having fun with their friends. You know, hanging out at the mall shopping, going to the movies, having a goal of just getting a good tan this summer, summer vacation with the family, mini-golf, boyfriends, sleeping in until noon and staying up until after midnight. Instead they get up at the crack of dawn & head for the gym for a day of training. Most of these athletes spend more time training than people with full times jobs spend in their offices!
Now when I think of this it just makes me sad. Would we as a whole let a teenager go and work a 40 hour work week? NO! There are child labor laws against this...even if the child wanted to do that. These young kids give up SO much for their sport & I just wonder how healthy this is.
Now I know they CHOOSE to do this. Why though, do we allow it? Why do we let them put so much pressure on themselves at such a young age & let them work their childhood away? Why are we, as a whole, letting these kids have the pressure that a VP at the age of 36 puts on him/herself? They have no family life, no childhood, & their friends are the kids they compete against. Is this fair that they live this way...all in the name of being the best???
It isn't just these gymnasts & young swimmers that deal with this. I have seen MANY kids in my community risk injury or surgery at young ages, & give up their social life for accelerated sports. I have seen kids spend all of their time on their music instead of going to the movies with their friends. Is this really healthy for them?
The second thing I thought over was about the mistakes they were making. Now don't get me wrong, it is really cool to see the things these kids can do with their bodies, training & strength...but is it really good that they are doing such hard routines just to WOW the judges? I didn't see one clean routine...but in the scoring the difficulty of the routine makes up for the missed points because they took a step instead of sticking it, or they did too many balance checks, or bent their arms. When I see each of our gymnast teams with injured kids who CAN'T perform at the Olympics this just infuriates me. Would they have been injured if they hadn't been doing such difficult stunts? Especially when I KNOW just how much time these kids have spent to get to where they are...all in the name of being good enough to go to the Olympics.
It just breaks my heart so see them fail. I am sure that those watching saw it in their faces too. THEY were heart broken & disappointed & it just didn't leave their psyche as they continued on to their other routines. It effected each routine after that mistake. When I see this I KNOW that they are WAY too young to be under this amount of pressure. Their developing minds just aren't old enough to deal with it...heck most ADULT minds aren't capable of handling the pressure that is on these kids.
I never really thought about these things until now when I have kids the same age as these young athletes. I see the things that MY kids are doing & I see the things that those kids are missing & it makes me sad. I guess my whole point is, are these kids too young to be competing like this? Are these kids skipping important parts of their childhood & growing up too fast? OR would they still be doing these things if the minimum age was raised to say 21? Am I just not competitive enough to feel this is OK? It's all just a thought...