Can Kids Forget Their Own Age?
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In
If you have kids, the one thing you know they have etched in their memory banks is their age. They know the count down to their next birthday down to the millisecond!
So, this Yahoo!Sports article about Chinese gymnast Yang Yun is interested. Yun claimed during a June 2007 interview it was just a “slip of the tongue” that she was only 14 while on the Chinese Olympic Team of the Sidney Games. A gymnast must be 16 to compete in the Olympic Games.
Giving her the benefit of the doubt, language barriers and pressure of the games and being interviewed could have been at play. But, I come back to my opening remarks: kids have their birthdates etched in their brains. This is an unusual slip of the tongue under all circumstances.
The issues here are fairness, integrity and sportsmanship. Fudging the age of any athlete creates and uneven playing field for the teams who are following the rules. For the sake of all the athletes who worked hard to compete this past summer in Bejing, it’s very important authorities sort out this situation soon.
BTW, there is a great deal of evidence that kids really shouldn’t compete so hard so young and with gymnastics we have to be very mindful of age. So, this issue isn’t just about truthfulness; it has far reaching health consequences, too.
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One Response to “Can Kids Forget Their Own Age?”
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I do find it hard to believe that children could forget their age, as they look forward to birthdays. It is up to the IOC committee to decide about the Chinese gymnist.