"Allan Bennett" wrote in message
...
From rec.sport.rowing:

Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 20:48:51 +0000
From: Carl Douglas
Subject: Child abuse is OK with IOC?

On Friday the BBC website showed Matt Pinsent's film of child gymnasts
at a training centre in China & broadcast his opinion that he had been
watching child abuse:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/othe...s/4445506.stm#

The IOC's spokesperson, Giselle Davis, promptly dismissed his report as
"third-hand" & proceeded to deny that abuse of any kind could have taken
place.

Pinsent was there, & appeared throughout film. Davis, presumably, was
in Lausanne? I think that makes Pinsent's thoughtful & concerned report
"first-hand". Which must make Davis's knee-jerk spin no better than a
shameful "third-hand", since it was apparently generated without study
or consideration of the evidence, & no decent person would have used
such words had they actually seen & heard Pinsent's report.

Now see:
http://tinyurl.com/b2r2r

in which Sebastian Coe also poo-poos Pinsent's report & is quoted as
follows:
"However Coe insisted checks are in place to ensure young
athletes are not mistreated.

""I have spoken to a number of people this week about
gymnastics as a sport particularly. The general view is
there is no systemic or solid practice in the sport which
is actually abusing young children," he said.

""This is a very, very tough sport - but it is difficult to
make a observation without having seen any of the specifics."

So, may we take it that the IOC thinks that everything is perfect in its
house? That, although athletes have routinely taken drugs during & in
preparation for their Games (for a very long time with tacit approval of
the IOC & individual NOCs), no children or adolescents have ever been,
ever will be or are now being harmed in the run-up to 2008? If that's
what the IOC wants us to believe, then it is party to a serious cover-up
of child abuse.

We have seen, all too often, how readily those governing the lives of
children in part or whole, & those institutions controlling sport, will
rush to cover up abuses. When a coach's future prospects (let's forget
any other "special interests" they might also have) seem to them to
require the misuse of a few kids to get better results, don't we know
that everyone looks the other way? And, when the system, its results,
the spectacle, the commercial structures & the kickbacks are so
important, why worry about the warping & partial destruction of a kid's
future happiness?

So, does the IOC really think that its proper response to a thoughtful &
well-informed study by a famous Olympian is to smear the author &
dismiss his report? A caring & honourable institution would express its
concern in the face of such a report & promise an open investigation
forthwith. That would be especially appropriate since Matt's report has
such uncanny echoes in a report, 12 years ago in a UK paper & with
photos, of the abuse of child gymnasts at the same Chinese institution.

Or is child abuse OK with the IOC?

I think that there is more to this than a simple observation and personal
opinion that there may be/ are examples of child abuse in sports training
where high levels of achievement are involved.

It may be one thing for Pinsent to accuse China of systematic child abuse in
sports training, quite another for the IOC or Seb Coe to condone such
criticism. Their response, I am sure would be on the instructions of IOC
legal eagles.

There are issues though and given that the Olympics are supposed to
transgress all political and religious divides, should those elements ever
be allowed to generate comment from the IOC? I guess not in its current
guise.

However, if this is child abuse, and maybe it is, then it is as a policy of
the sport, or is it as a consequence of political interference in sport? If
the latter then we need look no further than the UK for such examples.

I many years ago, withdrew my own daughter from gymnastics due to the
painful training regime that was causing an ongoing back pain in an eight
year old child. Despite my protests the coaches persisted in the exercise,
so I withdrew my daughter. Perhaps the abuse is endemic in that sport?

Ewan Scott