[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Autumn

Is that rule new though? I don't follow gymnastics but watch it at the Olympics, and I thought that typically there were 12-14 year olds competing in the events. When did they institute the age limit?

And yes, I agree, I think the sport emphasizes young girls because they're lighter and more flexible. It's a sport that maturing doesn't really help in.

Source

The 58th Congress of the FIG, held in July 1980, just before the Olympics, decided to raise the minimum age limit for major international senior competition from fourteen to fifteen.[4] The change, which came into effect two years later, didn't eliminate the problem. By the time the 1992 Olympics rolled around, elite competitors consisted almost exclusively of "pixies" — underweight, prepubertal teenagers — and concerns were raised about athlete welfare.

The FIG responded to this trend by raising the minimum age requirement for international elite competition to sixteen in 1997. This, combined with changes in the Code of Points and evolving popular opinion in the sport, have seen older gymnasts return to competition