ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 25, 1996 TAG: 9607250073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BOSTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
A REPORT released by medical experts says such intense training for girl gymnasts can lead to permanent physical harm.
Turning adolescent girls into Olympic gymnasts involves so much nonstop training, so many injuries and such intense social isolation that it can amount to child abuse, a team of doctors contends.
The physical stamina and stoicism drilled into these young athletes were strikingly obvious in the U.S. women's gold-winning team performance Tuesday, when Kerri Strug nailed her final vault with two torn ligaments, then collapsed in pain.
``Everyone else had put so much time and sacrifice into it,'' Strug said afterward. ``I couldn't give up.''
Such heroics make for instant sports legends, although competing with pain is common for the world's top athletes. What doctors worry about more are the years of unrelenting training some girl gymnasts endure to reach the Olympics.
The issue is frequently discussed among coaches and parents. A book on the subject, Joan Ryan's ``Little Girls in Pretty Boxes,'' was published recently.
In a new report being published today, experts on the physical and mental complications of athletics warn against pushing youngsters to be champions, citing hazards such as eating disorders, skeletal damage, and even psychological damage from trying to make prepubescent girls look sexy.
``At its worst, the sport can result in serious, life-endangering physical and emotional disabilities,'' they wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Not everyone agreed.
Dr. Dan Benardot of Georgia State University, the U.S. gymnastic team's nutritionist, dismissed the report as ``old stuff dredged up.''
He said the growth and health of U.S. women gymnasts are monitored closely, and they are older and larger than their chief international competitors.
``Some of the other teams look cadaverous compared to us.'' Benardot said Wednesday. ``Our girls look like normal kids.''
He noted that one of the U.S. women, Shannon Miller, has grown six inches and gained 35 pounds since the last Olympics.
One author of the latest report, Dr. Ian R. Tofler, a child psychiatrist at Louisiana State University, said international sporting organizations, the news media and the public share responsibility for overtraining female gymnasts.
But Tofler said blame primarily lies with parents who push pre-teens to train 40 hours a week and send them off to live with coaches, perhaps because they live vicariously through the youngsters' successes.
Such intense exercise can delay or stop menstruation, inhibiting bone formation and leading to fractures. Also, repetitive stress on the developing skeletal system can cause an accumulation of small physical injuries that result in permanent harm or deformity.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 linesby CNB