In 1970, the Women’s Technical Committee set the competitive age limit at 14, arguing that elite gymnastics was endangering children through uncontrolled, overly intensive training that treated them as “competitive animals” rather than developing athletes. Raising the minimum age was meant to ensure a slower, pedagogically sound progression that protected gymnasts’ physical and psychological development.
A decade later, the FIG voted again, this time raising the age limit to 15. Once more, the decision aimed to protect young girls. Here’s what the FIG Bulletin recorded at the time.
Synopsis
The 1980 FIG Congress saw parallel proposals from Italy and East Germany addressing concerns about very young gymnasts competing at elite levels:
The Proposals:
- Italy called for stricter age verification and raising the minimum competition age for both seniors and juniors, citing risks of over-intensive training on young athletes and broader cultural/medical concerns about presenting “very young gymnasts (including little girls)” in exhibitions.
- East Germany specifically proposed raising the minimum age from 14 to 15 for major championships (Europeans, Worlds, Olympics), justifying this on safety grounds given “the constant increase in the degree of difficulty”
The Outcome: The Women’s Technical Committee accepted the proposal to raise the minimum age to 15 for Olympics, World Championships, and European Championships. However, Italy’s additional proposal to set the Junior European Championships minimum at 13 was rejected.
Historical Irony: In retrospect, this is striking given that East Germany was simultaneously running systematic doping programs on young gymnasts. The GDR’s public advocacy for age limits “in the interests of safety” while secretly administering performance-enhancing drugs to adolescent athletes represents a profound institutional hypocrisy—using legitimate safety rhetoric to gain a competitive advantage while actively endangering their own young athletes through pharmaceutical experimentation.
The Text from the Bulletins
Among the proposals for the 58th Congress, held in July of 1980 was Italy’s proposal:
Italy
a) Age of the Competitors
It is indispensable that a strict control be exercised regarding the actual age of the competitors.
We also consider that the minimum age should be raised.
Reasons
— There is the danger that over-intensive training could take place thus over-taxing the young people.
— The ideological conflict in the cultural world (medicine, psychology, pedagogy, sociology) and the agnostic orientation of recent years, during which very young gymnasts have been presented (including little girls) in non-competitive manifestations.
FIG Bulletin, no. 105, 1980
And the proposal from East Germany:
German Democratic Republic
[…]
c) Age limit for women gymnasts
The age of women gymnasts in the European Championships, the World Championships, and the Olympic Games must be at least 15 years and not 14 as has so far been the case.Reasons: The constant increase in the degree of difficulty in the voluntary [i.e. optional] programme for women’s gymnastics.
FIG Bulletin, no. 105, 1980
The aim of our proposal is to ensure constant development of gymnastics, above all in the interests of safety.
According to the minutes of the Women’s Technical Plenary Assembly held on the occasion of the 58th FIG Congress at the Lomonossov University of Moscow on 14th July 1980, the proposal was ratified:
Italy
Proposal a) The proposal that the minimum age for girl gymnasts [be raised] to 15 years for the Olympics, World Championships, and European Championships was accepted; a similar proposal has been made by the GDR.
The Italian proposal that the minimum age for the Junior European Championships be set at 13 years was rejected.
FIG Bulletin, no. 105, 1980
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