going for the gold

Flipping idly past Olympic gymnastics coverage last night in my hotel room, I briefly watched what appeared to be pre-teen Chinese girl contort herself in ways both majestic and disgusting. The commentators marveled at her athleticism and flexibility. Moments later they were discussing how Chinese girls are fed into China’s gymnastics machine at age three.

Amidst the occasional discussions of China’s human rights violations during these Olympics, I do not understand how we can celebrate a sport like gymnastics. Children too young to comprehend their fate are enslaved in training camps, spending their formative years in training so rigorous many might consider it inhumane. For the gold medalists, perhaps it is a worthy trade-off, sacrificing a more normal childhood to attain greatness.

But what for those who aren’t on the Chinese Olympic team? What becomes of those children, forced into the same life, but without the profile and rewards of success? Perhaps their suffering is inconsequential compared to that of dissenters, Christians or Tibetans. But the tragedies of that suffering are recognized and condemned, and not glorified before the world, remarked upon as an achievement for a society, and rewarded with gold.