With all the fuss over the Chinese gymnasts' ages, is there any advantage in using younger girls?

Perhaps you don't understand that when you have a larger pool of gymnasts to pick from regardless of age, you can choose your best gymnasts to compete on you home turf, without the worries of them being old enough because you can just forge documents. why would china use underage gymnasts if they were not superior to older ones? there was and advantage or China would not have used them and risked it.

also when you have 4 inch feet the balance beam becomes less daunting of a task. furthermore its a rule you shouldn't just break rules for the hell of it.

no but there is an age limit rule which has to be applied to, the US may have 14 year old gymnasts who are better than those who competed in the olympics but werent allowed to use them because of the rule. the underage girl that was in the chinese team was obviously chosen over older girls because she is a better gymnast than they are, so therefore if they had stuck by the rules their team would not have been as good and they may not have won the gold.

there's really no advantage. it's just something for the losers complain about when they lose.

bottom line is that there IS an age limit that every country is supposed to follow.

Yes, they would have an advantage and medals would need to be revoked, not that I care anymore.

generally, gymnasts don't have a very long career. My friend was a Australian Champ and she retired at 16. I know people can still do it after that age.....everyone's different I guess.

There's an advantage and it's just something that wimps and loser cry about when they condone cheating, lying and forgery. losers cheat, loser complain about people that call cheaters out, and losers whine and cry about Americans because of their countries low medal count.

Yes there is indeed an advantage. Basically, puberty. As you get older, your ligaments start to change making you less flexible and making it much more difficult to preform gymnastics. Underage gymnasts whose bodies haven't developed yet are much more flexible and can preform the rountines with more ease. The hormones of a woman who has gone completely through puberty change her body mass, hips and boobs get in the way. You need more muscle mass to overcome these things. Then there is also the clear size advantage.