“I think most gymnasts are slightly underdeveloped. I did gymnastics, stunts and tumbling, and ran track in high school and the stress of exercise and competition caused me to be a very late bloomer.”
me too - and I was a subject in study done about the female athlete triad.
My teammates and I all experienced delay in onset of puberty and slower growth, but the exercise did not “stop” growth all together.
We still grew some curves - just not as much.
We still grew breasts - just not size d’s.
When one coach quit and our weekly training hours decreased, we all experience a growth curve at the same time.
Our girls will grow more when they quit the sport. They will go up a cup size or two and their hips will get bigger, but they still look like teenagers right now.
I think we are actually agreeing on the subject. Our girls, even underdeveloped, look older than the Chinese girls. They might be, but I hesitate to say for sure the Chinese cheated because Asians tend to be smaller and most times look younger. I did notice that the Chinese girls looked more childish in their facial features than our girls did. The Chinese girls did not look like teenagers. The only sure way to know would be to test them and that’s not going to happen.