Criticisms of age regulations in sports

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Age eligibility rules in sport are rules which restrict persons below a certain age from participating in senior competitions. There is more or less universal agreement that there should be age restrictions of some kind in all professional/senior sporting competitions. However, there has been criticism in relation to some sports that the age restrictions are set too high and are too restrictive, and are to the detriment of the particular sport. This article examines this debate in relation to women's figure skating, tennis, and gymnastics as these are three areas in which the restrictions have been amongst the most controversial and the subject of considerable recent debate and criticism.. Critics, such as Bela Karolyi point to this anomaly as proof that junior competitors are training just as hard as the seniors and that the age eligibility rules are therefore failing in their objectives. The solution they say is not to restrict young athletes from entering senior competitions, but instead for national governing bodies to rigorously monitor the training provided to young athletes to ensure that the training regimes they are on are not overly physically demanding, and that the athletes receive the necessary counselling and mentoring to cope with the psychological demands of their sport. She was a three-time Olympic Champion (1928, 1932, 1936), and a ten-time World Champion (1927-1936). Had the age eligibility rules existed during her period, she would probably have lost out on a third of her titles due to a combination of ineligibility and lack of senior level experience.
The practical effect of the age eligibility rules has, critics such as Christine Brennan point out, created a farcical situation full of anomalies. Going into the 2006 Olympics, for example, Mao Asada was widely regarded as the best female figure skater in the world.
The age eligibility rules had less of an impact on the 2010 Olympics. The two best skaters in the world at that time were clearly Kim Yu-Na and Mao Asada, and indeed they finished first and second respectively. However, critics such as Sherry Wight point out that they still had an impact all the same. The American skaters Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu, for example, had both been deprived of valuable experience at a senior level in terms of missing out on experience at world championships due to ineligibility especially from Nagasu had Nagasu had more senior experience. Moreover, the careers of Adelina Sotnikova and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva have moved on significantly in the short period that has elapsed since the 2010 olympics. They now rank first and second respectively in the world in terms of 2010/11 scores as of November 2010 (178.97 and 172.78 respectively - and that despite the fact that there is one less scoring element in junior free skates. Had there been an extra scoring element, their scores would have been even higher), yet they will not be eligible to compete on the senior circuit for another 2 years. Critics maintain that this makes a mockery of the rules as a situation in which juniors competitors are performing to a higher standard than seniors devalues senior competitions, as it makes them less attractive to the paying public, televisions audiences, and to sponsors (i.e. because they ask the question, what is the point of watching them or sponsoring them if the best skaters are barred from competing?), with Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune even going as far as to say of the 2010/11 season that: "I have covered figure skating for 30 years, and after watching Skate America last weekend, I can't remember a season that looks as dreary as this one has been so far." Critics point out therefore that had Sotnikova and Tuktamysheva been competing in the grand prix, there emergence as top new skaters would have generating considerable new interest in the sport. This would, critics suggest, have created greater public interest, higher television audiences, and greater interest from potential sponsors. Furthermore, this highlights a further problem with the age eligibility rules - the holding back of new talent over the last 15 years has led to a decline in the popularity of the sport in terms of public interest, in terms of television companies wishing to televise competitions, and in terms of sponsors wishing to invest and coverage of the European Figure Skating Championships and of the world championships has declined markedly, with many complaining about the lack of coverage. However, television executives simply retort that there is no longer enough public interest to warrant greater coverage. Coverage is also well down in the United States where interest in the sport, as in Europe, peaked in the 1990s - before the age eligibility rules as they presently stand took effect.
Artistic gymnastics
During the 1970s, gymnasts had to turn 14 by the start of the Olympic Games to be eligible to compete in them. The age limit was then raised from 14 to 15 with effect from 1981 (with gymnasts required to turn at least 15 years of age in the calendar year to compete in senior-level events). This age limit remained in place until 1997, when it was raised from 15 to 16. As in figure skating, critics point out that this has likewise created a farcical situation with many anomalies, with gymnasts losing many of their best years, and declining public interest and sponsorship in the sport. Moreover, under the present rules, Tatiana Gutsu would have never become Olympic All-Around Champion at the 1992 Olympics because she would have also been ineligible to compete.
As a result of the age restrictions, critics, such as Lee Ann Gschwind, further point out that a farcical situation now exists where junior competitions are now of a higher quality than senior competitions. Again, as with figure skating, critics such Gschwind, point out that such a farcical state of affairs in which juniors are competing to a higher standard than seniors devalues senior competitions as it makes them less attractive to the paying public, televisions audiences, and to sponsors (i.e. because they ask the question, what is the point of watching them or sponsoring them if the best gymnasts are barred from competing?). Indeed, Gschwind, states that "The age restrictions also make 2010 something of a no-man's land on the gymnastics calendar. Many of the likely stars of the London Games aren't yet old enough to compete at the World Championships. At least Komova and Wieber will be eligible to compete at 2011 Worlds; gymnasts born in 1996 won't even get that chance. A loophole that allowed 15-year-olds to compete at Worlds in a pre-Olympic year - without which Shawn Johnson would not have won the 2007 world title - has been eliminated this quadrennium". In terms of this 'lost generation' argument, critics such as Max Eisenbud and Patrick Mouratoglou .

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