I am reading some books and man this sport is messed up AF.
These parents are crazy!
There’s a difference between doing a sport and trying to compete in the olympics/professionally at that sport.
You realize that the “characteristics” represent less than 1% of the kids who do gymnastics? And as Don Henley puts it, “[the media] loves dirty laundry”.
And as @NormalDan mentions, the “abuse” tends to happen to those who want to be “Olympic-caliber competitive.”
My son did gymnastics for a couple years at a hardcore gymnastics gym (Aly Raisman trained there as a kid) because their classes fit our schedule. Classes were good and highly non-abusive. The older kids could do amazing things, but seemed to be self motivated rather than pushed by parents and had emotionally supportive coaches.
At the Olympic level, there is a move to get rid of the old school abusive Károlyi style coaching for more supportive coaches (e.g., see Simon Biles’s coach). And also to appreciate multiple body types and that stunting growth is not helpful. (You omitted puberty blockers from your list of abusive drugs. Some gymnasts stayed on them into their 20s and suffered damage because of that. That doesn’t happen anymore.)
I didn’t think you found much value in formal education. Isn’t that a plus to you?
Wow, as soon as Don Henley enters the conversation, I find myself siding with CS. I’d not realized I have such a visceral reaction to Don Henley (and I assume other non-Joe-Walsh Eagles). Can we leave the Eagles and solo Don Henley out of this, please?
This. Mini Me does gymnastics. But neither she, nor STBX, nor I have any delusions that she’s going to the Olympics. She’s not even on her gym’s competition team. Just does the classes.
That said, if we were wanting to train a future Olympian, a different gym 10 miles further away has actually done that. By now she’d be up to 6x a week practices and traveling all over kingdom come for meets. We could have started her there when she was 3.
Instead we started her at the place 2 miles from the old house … the place where her sometimes babysitter worked when Mini Me was 4.5 and the babysitter was a teenager. She can do great one-arm cartwheels and for a long time she was the only kid in her class that didn’t fall off the beam. She has trouble with flips on the uneven cars and they haven’t even started actually transitioning from one bar to the other. They just stay on the low bar.
Absolutely no one is pushing her to lose weight or diet or take PEDs… it’s nowhere near that level of serious. 
It can be a lot of fun for small children.
Plus it improves reflexes and coordination. Definitely makes them healthier and stronger as well.
Our little one does it as an activity, but I would not encourage it competitively (they do take things too far in the sport).
Like many sports or other activities you can choose the involvement level that works for your kid in gymnastics. Depending on where you live, opportunities may not match what you need, but that’s pretty much like everything else in life.
Oh yeah? Well, when our daughter was young we put her in ballerina classes.
First class all the little balerinas sat in a circle listening intently. Except my daughter who laid on her belly and spun around in circles while farting. So, that was also the last class.
We need to have a “laugh” response for a post (similar to the heart “like” option) . . .
Obligatory Simpsons vid:
Lol that the cycling guy finds out what happens at the highest levels of the sport can be nasty.
2 of my sisters competed in gymnastics but dropped out in high school. It’s a good activity for kids despite the negatives at the top levels, not too different than cycling.
I’d use caution in either sport if my kid was deemed competitive on the global stage.
Nerd alert!
No, not that Nerd Alert.
I just finished this book and all I gotta say is this sport is messed up!
And this was published before the whole Nassar scandal broke. Think about that!
Are you familiar with generalization error?
His partner’s Twitter account lists herself as “Ms. Pommel Horse”
I heard that Karolyi dude died
good riddance
For an actuary this means lots of insurance.