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[quote=Anonymous]Old competitive gymnast here.  All the information you are receiving above is correct.  I may have missed it because I read the thread quickly (it is getting late) but what is your daughter's age? Weight? Build?  I have a slightly different response than the others because competitive gymnastics, like ballet, has evolved so much in just the last 20 years that you have to be realistic about whether or not your daughter has the right body type and physique to be a real competitor.  The same is true with ballet.  Gymnasts must be short, tightly built, narrow hips, strong arms, and very flexible body.  I became too tall so had to quit.  Look at all the gymnasts who won at the Olympics and check their size.  Or go to local gymnastic school and evaluate (I go to Gymini in Herndon).  The good gymnasts and tiny dynamos.  If your daughter doesn't have the physical components necessary for the sport, I just wouldn't push it.  Unless, however, she just really really enjoys it and you are willing to do all the driving and pay all the fees.  But if she doesn't have the right body type, she won't go far and that includes competition at the lower levels as well.

The other comment I would like to add (and the moms above may disagree with me) but I think, like competitive cheerleading, the sport has simply become too dangerous.  You are probably not old enough to remember this but Olga Korbut won with a perfect ten by doing a now-outlawed move (called, naturally, "The Korbut) where she crawled up to the top of the uneven parallel bars and did an entire backflip in the air and caught the top bar and then continued her routine.  Had she not caught the bar she could have broken her neck.  I was also in Atlanta when we hosted the summer olympics when Carey Struggs (right name?) did the three backflips on the beam and missed the last one and injured herself.  That's another way to break your neck.

I recently met a cheerleader "flyer" who trains at gymini and she suffered a bad concussion when doing a flip and wasn't caught by the other cheerleaders.

For these reasons, I let my son and daughter take gymnastics until they got to the point where it was clear they no longer had the short, petite, compact body required for the sport and they moved on to other activities.  I would not want either of them to have become professional athletes because of the dangers involved for both sexes.  I've seen too many injuries.  That's just my personal take on it.  Thirty years ago when I competed it was still dangerous (back flips on beam, etc.) but now the skill level demanded of the athletes is so extreme that I really wouldn't want my kids risking their necks for a sport.

Also, the girls (and men, too, but more often the girls) develop severe eating disorders because of necessity to keep thin and smart.  And I imagine you all know that gymnasts get their periods later in life because of the stress they are putting on their bodies during training.  Anyone remember the difference in Nadia Comenich (sp) between the first Olympics and the second.  Yes, the Russians and the Romanians were using drugs to keep the girls small (China, too) but puberty eventually does catch up with these girls and the rapid growth spurt when that happens is not healthy.  Olga and Nadia didn't even look like the same gymnasts four years after their first Olympics.  Well, take that for what it's worth.

Double yawn here.[/quote]

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