Had China's Women LOST All the Gymnastic Events, Would People Still Complain About Their Age?

Not at all.

at least, not as much.

Yes, they might have. Remember all that fuss about a dozen years ago about the gymnasts-- all gymnasts-- being "too young" which is what started the rule in the first place. that gymnasts have to be 16 to compete. Prior to that a few gymnasts of 13 or 14 were competing from every country.

In the 1990s, there was this "poor little girls" movement, (See the books "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes" by Joan Ryan from the 1990s, about gymnasts and figure skaters) Activists insisted that the girls in gymnastics and skating were being pushed and starved (possibly true in some cases, i don't know)

There seemed to be this consensus that the gymnasts were "far too young" to handle the pressure they were under. This was despite the fact that MOST of the gymnasts in the 90's were 15, 16, or 17 anyway, the same age as many of the Olympic swimmers (who were perceived as tough, take-charge athletes) the same years. And a big fuss was made of a few college-age gymnasts being supposedly old. (Can't win!) Gymnasts are just perceived to look young, and people--girls especially-- get an awful lot of fussing and smothering and mothering and inexplicable pity if they look young and do well at something, for some reason.

People complained before the event even started and more complaints after because CHEATERS SHOULD NOT PROSPER!. If America did this, you better believe it will never happen because our citizens would be too embarrassed to know that we cheated on age and be known as a country that will do ANYTHING TO WIN! Because rules are rules! Gymnastics has so many then they should stick to them.

Of course there wouldn't be as much complaints from viewers. If China lost then justice would have been served and I for one would have been happy for the countries as well as the gymnasts who followed the rules! Remember, Nastia Liukin was the favorite four years ago for Athens but she was inelligible due to age and so many other gymnasts most likely could not compete because of their age in Athens and Beijing and other olympics beforehand.

But I believe that there would still be complaints because this issue of cheating with age will still happen in the future and if governments like China can issue passports for their citizens and change their age, there is really no one that can stop them.

I doubt it, but then again if they had lost all of their events then no one (regardless of their country, keep in mind that there were good athletes from other countries) would have wanted to second guess the outcomes and wonder if they were cheated out of potential olympic glory...

But this is all hypothetical of course...

No, not at all.

The interesting part is that American athletes have been very classy. They are NOT whining at all. However, their coaches and all the commentators are whining and making excuses for them. That is the sad part. I like both Nastia and Shawn. They are both great!

Complaints were made before any events. I guess if they lost all of the events there would be no medals to take away from them so the answer would be no. The truth will come out and they will be stripped of their medals in a year or eight years down the road.

We'd complain about the food.

There will be a new Game Show this fall:

Are you a better gymnast than a Chinese Fifth Grader?

I would still complain. I couldn't care less who won and I couldn't care less who gets the most medals. To me, cheating is cheating. They might as well scrap all the rules they put out. If those kids are really 16, then they should do an investigation to settle things.

Nope.