Gender again. Sorry!

[AndyRM]

My goodness, I had no idea about any of this! Thank you both for 'splaining these things to me...

Hell, Aurora even made my point for me, well one of them - questions have rightly been asked about the long term and life changing effects of putting children through this kind of physical and mental pressure.

But I guess it's fine when it comes to sports...

 

[CXRAndy]

Well you were being a bit of a plank about it

 

[AuroraSaab]

Hell, Aurora even made my point for me, well one of them - questions have rightly been asked about the long term and life changing effects of putting children through this kind of physical and mental pressure.

But I guess it's fine when it comes to sports...

No, it's not fine, but elite athletes (or musicians) rarely spring from nowhere at 25 years of age. Most of them will have been training for years having been spotted in their teens as having a natural gift and potential. It's certainly debatable whether such single minded dedication is healthy or not, but I don't see how you can automatically assume it's abuse.

Funny that you have concern for female athletes all of a sudden when in reality you'd have that 12 year old Chinese girl changing with and competing with an adult man who claimed to be a woman, or spending years training only to be beaten in the Olympics by a man with a dsd.

 

[AndyRM]

That's a fairly massive assumption about how I feel.

It's also being overly generous to suggest that putting a child under the kind of mental and physical duress required to be competing against adults is anything other than abuse.

China has one of the most questionable attitude to children on the planet, and I can't believe that anyone is OK with that.