The idea that they enter them so young because their bodies are wrecked by the time they're 20 just makes me feel so bad for them.

I'd rather see athletes who are slightly less amazing but who have lives outside of training, even if that's just school (which I get the sense is seriously lacking in the case of the Chinese athletes, and the Soviet athletes in the past). Which is also why the Home Depot ads make me like them a lot.

The idea that they enter them so young because their bodies are wrecked by the time they're 20 just makes me feel so bad for them.

Yeah, that was interesting to hear in the commentary -- that your body can only take so many repetitions, and when you start full out at age 3, you just get used up faster. That's ugh.

I know that sort of mindset is very Western on my part (Japanee pitches, I believe, will pitch the whole game, which significantly shortens their careers), but, still, damn.

Also makes me wonder what they do after.

Yeah, there was also commentary with one of the Chinese divers that she was "reprimanded" for having her picture show up in the tabloids too often and being in too many commercials, and they told her that she had to choose, either diving or everything else.

American was the 31-year-old mother of an autistic child, but they didn't send a whole crew to her house last month to film her with said child, etc.

They showed the profile of her family last night, sorry. With the shots of the family at home and how she was going to make sure her son saw her compete on TV so he'd know where Mommy was.

edit: or an earlier night. But I remember seeing it.

I like those types of stories, but I agree, it's nice seeing them in smaller doses and more emphasis on the sports.

They showed the profile of her family last night, sorry. With the shots of the family at home and how she was going to make sure her son saw her compete on TV so he'd know where Mommy was.

Ah, so they're just saving it for primetime. Or I missed in the morning, or whatever. I'm not saying it's not a good story!

Also makes me wonder what they do after

Yeah, this is the really rough part -- there are a lot of sports (most, really) where your competitive career is over before the rest of your life really starts. 20 is rough, but 25 or so is common to a lot of sports, and it's a time when non-athletes are just starting on careers, families, and all the rest. From a few years older, the age difference doesn't seem like much.

But when you combine early physical burnout with not having had any other education, contacts, skills... that becomes a much harder thing. There was an NPR piece a few weeks back about a woman who had come up through the sports training system and then become disabled (blind, maybe?), and who had never had even a HS-equivalent education, had no job skills or prospects, family in poverty once the sports paycheck stopped... she's an extreme case, of course, but with that system there's just nothing else.

But when you combine early physical burnout with not having had any other education, contacts, skills.

Exactly

It was a gymnast or a sculler yesterday who tested positive for a stimulant, but he took the stimulant so he could stay up studying.