Honestly Officer, She Told Me She Was 16

Since I'm no gymnastics expert, I didn't realize until Sunday that apparently there is a rule that a gymnast must be 16 or older to compete in the Olympics. There has been quite the hub-bub about how young some of the Chinese gymnasts look, with speculation that some may be as young as 12. First, my feeling on the rule itself is 'who cares?'. If a 12 year old is better at something than a 16 year old, they should be rewarded for that. Second, I see the Chinese having super young gymnasts competing as a source of national pride, which is a big part of what the Olympics is all about. I mean, what country has a longer, more illustrious tradition of putting children to work than China? Just because the gymnastics arena isn't formally a sweatshop, that's no reason to get down on China about child labor. They're just doing what they do best. Besides, their gymnasts may very well be 16. Have you seen how much smaller Asian people are? Add to that how small gymnasts in general are, and it seems pretty obvious to me that Chinese gymnasts would be miniature people.