When we say “gymnastics,” we almost always mean “women’s gymnastics.” Though all the athletes who competed in gymnastics in the first modern Olympiad in Athens were men, the Platonic ideal of the gymnast has long been a woman (or rather, a girl). From Mary Lou Retton to Gabby Douglas, it’s women’s gymnastics that, every four years, captures the American imagination and whips up patriotic excitement. The happy consequence is that gymnastics is one of the few sports where girls enjoy more prestige than grown men. Something I love about gymnastics is that it’s one of the few sports that is feminine by default. In gymnastics, as in life, we demand impossible perfection of girls, and punish them when they inevitably fail to achieve it.

Source: New York Times August 11, 2016 16:30 UTC