Thread: Heredity

Our daughter is in gymnastics and because she is petite, she almost the ideal size/weight for it. She pretty good, but there are several girls who are better and truly love doing it everyday for 2-3 hours.

One her gymnastic friends is really very talented. The girl is about the same age/height/weight and you can see she loves gymnastics.

What is sad for her is that her career as gymnast is likely to come to an end over the course of the next couple of years. The girl has a 15 year old sister who, 3-4 years ago, was about the same height/weight when she was 11-12, and she had gone from a petite girl to a very large girl (in weight). In 3-4 years she looks about 40-50lbs heavier now and only a couple inch taller (under 5ft). The sisters resemble their mother, so it easily to see what the girls will be physically like when they are adults.

While I can't state beyond all doubt, but this talented girl has been more-or-less been skipped over by scouts looking for talent, and I tend to think they took into consideration that her career as a gymnast would come to an end by the time she was 13-14 by looking at her sister and mother.

At the local level they don't do that, at least I don't think they do. It is most likely those who come prospecting for the next Olympic hopeful. The girl is pretty good, but maybe it just in our own little world we think she being over looked.