In 1976, Nadia Comaneci, the 14-year-old Romanian athlete, won gold with the first perfect 10 ever scored in the Olympics.
After that, the ranks of elite female gymnasts – which previously included women in their 20s and 30s – filled with adolescents and young teens.
“If you look earlier in the '80s [and] '70s, a lot of gymnasts looked the same,” said Janelle McDonald, the head coach of women’s gymnastics at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The pressure to make it young and stay small was intense: Female gymnasts feared going through puberty since getting a period meant growing taller and gaining weight.
“In the past, this is when you saw a lot of athletes drop out of the sport,” said McDonald. “Because they weren’t being given the grace to let their bodies grow and change.”
Then, in 1997, the International Gymnastics Federation raised the minimum age for Olympic eligibility to 16 to protect girls’ health. Rather than dooming the sport, as some commentators had predicted, it instead transformed it.
“Our sport is a sport of repetition, and the more you can get those reps under your belt, the stronger you are going to get,” McDonald said.
Practicing for years and years allows gymnasts to perfect their timing and body awareness, and “as you go through puberty,” she added, “you actually get stronger, you get more powerful, you have that ability to do some of the skills that we’re seeing the athletes perform.”
That includes five moves the International Gymnastics Federation code of points has named after Simone Biles that demonstrate the 27-year-old gymnast’s power, strength, and precision.
For instance, on floor, Biles executes a tumbling pass that ends in a triple double — two flips and three full twists. On the vault, Biles performs a Yurchenko double pike, the hardest vault in women’s gymnastics which requires speed and tremendous abdominal and leg muscles, and Jordan Chiles, 23, throws a double-twisting Yurchenko.
Puberty is a critical time for growth: Testosterone levels increase in girls which helps to build muscle mass; and girls gain high levels of estrogen which helps to build bone density, said Dr. Anne-Marie Amies Oelschlager, a pediatric and adolescent gynecologist at the University of Washington who works with young athletes.
When the bones are developing during puberty, the growth plates are open, and the growth plates don’t close until there are healthy levels of estrogen from ovulation.
“The nice thing about delaying the age of entry into the Olympic gymnastics is that when people are competing, like Simone Biles, she has healthy bones that have been able to fully mature,” said Amies Oelschlager.
The longevity of female gymnasts’ careers today — the average age of Team USA increased from 16.45 in 1992 to 22.47 in 2024 — is aided by the psychological maturity and the personal independence that comes with getting older, said Amies Oelschlager.
Training and performing an elite sport as an adolescent under duress because of pressure from coaches and parent is far different than an “25-year-old saying, ‘I’m going to do this. This is my choice and I’m going to keep going,’” said Amies Oelschlager. “It’s a different psychological mindset.”
UCLA coach McDonald returned recently from the Olympic Games in Paris where she was coaching UCLA athlete Emma Malabuyo who was competing for the Philippines.
She welcomes this new era in women’s gymnastics with a large roster of athletes competing at the highest levels. Gymnasts are enjoying the sport more because they can use their voice, show their personality and have a say in their training.
“I really do think it’s this shift in the sport,” she said. “The skills we’re seeing right now blow me out of the water.”
Transcript
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Simone Biles has competed in an astonishing three Olympic games - Jordan Chiles and Suni Lee in two Olympic games. The fact that American female gymnasts are competing internationally for eight or 12 years and well into their 20s is a huge change from previous generations of female gymnasts. Reporter Sarah Varney has more.
SARAH VARNEY, BYLINE: Back in the 1950s and '60s, it wasn't uncommon for women in their 20s or 30s to compete in Olympic gymnastics. But beginning in 1976, Nadia Comaneci, the 14-year-old Romanian athlete, won gold with the first perfect 10 ever scored in the Olympics. After that, the ranks of elite female gymnasts filled with adolescents and young teens, says Janelle McDonald, the head coach of women's gymnastics at UCLA.
JANELLE MCDONALD: Earlier in the '80s, '70s and before, it was - like, a lot of gymnasts looked the same.
VARNEY: The pressure to make it young and stay small was intense. Female gymnasts feared going through puberty since getting your period meant growing taller and gaining weight.
MCDONALD: This is when you saw a lot of athletes drop out of the sport because they weren't given that grace to let their body grow and change.
VARNEY: Then in 1997, the International Gymnastics Federation raised the minimum age for Olympic eligibility to 16. Rather than dooming the sport, as some commentators had predicted, it instead transformed it.
MCDONALD: In general, our sport is a sport of repetition. The more you can get those reps under your belt, the stronger you're going to get. You're going to get the timing down, the body awareness, all the things that help you be successful. And so as you mature and you go through puberty, you actually get stronger. You get more powerful. You have that ability to really be able to do some of these skills that we're seeing the athletes perform.
VARNEY: Puberty is a critical time for growth. Testosterone levels increase in girls - a big part of building muscle mass - and girls gain high levels of estrogen, which helps to build bone density, says Anne-Marie Amies Oelschlager, a pediatric and adolescent gynecologist at the University of Washington. She works with young athletes. She says female athletes become stronger after they begin to menstruate.
ANNE-MARIE AMIES OELSCHLAGER: Now, we're seeing people be able to get to the point where their bones are mature. You know, when the bones are developing during puberty, the growth plates are open. And the growth plates don't close until you get really healthy levels of estrogen from ovulation. And so the nice thing about delaying the age of entry - into the Olympic gymnastics anyway - is that, when people are competing, like Simone Biles, she has healthy bones that have been able to fully mature.
VARNEY: The longevity of female gymnasts' careers today is aided by the psychological maturity and the personal independence that comes with getting older, says Amies Oelschlager.
AMIES OELSCHLAGER: If you're doing some elite sport under duress because your coaches and parents are putting pressure on you to do it, it's different than if you're a 25-year-old who's saying, I'm going to do this. This is my choice, and I'm going to keep going, and I'm going to do the work. It's a different psychological mindset. So I think it's not just the physical. The psychological decision-making around it, too, is massive.
VARNEY: The UCLA coach, Janelle McDonald, just returned from the Olympic games in Paris. She was coaching UCLA athlete Emma Malabuyo, who was competing for the Philippines.
MCDONALD: Some of the skills we're seeing right now blow me out of the water. And to have so many athletes competing at this high level is just absolutely incredible. And I really do think it is this shift in the sport. I think that, you know, athletes are enjoying the sport more because they're able to use their voice. They're able to show their personality. They're able to have a say in their training.
VARNEY: McDonald says she's happy to see old-school and outdated ways of thinking about women in sport go out the window. For NPR News, I'm Sarah Varney. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
300x250 Ad
300x250 Ad