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Go to the Bigger Faster Stronger Programs Home Palance beam, because during part of the routine they will have their arms overhead and their knees bent. A Strong Future with Gymnastics Although gymnastics is popular, especially at the Olympic level, the sport is not without controversy. A book entitled Little Girls in Pretty Boxes discusses some of the apparent abuses in gymnastics, especially in regard to promoting eating disorders. The book painted the entire sport with a very broad brush, says Ayars. Some of those abuses may take place at the elite level, which is what you see at the Olympics, but the same can be said for other sports at the elite level. Truthfully, the sport that I hear receiving the most criticism for pressuring girls about their weight is cheer-leading. If you look at the gymnasts who compete at the junior Olympic level, continues Ayars, the problems described in that book really don t take place with any greater frequency than they do in other sports. And if you look at college gymnastics, you re not going to see a bunch of emaciated little girls they re athletic, healthy-looking young women. Further, Ayars believes that all athletes can benefit from participating in the sport at some level. It doesn t matter what sport somebody plays, gymnastic training will help them be a better all-around athlete. The Sandhills Academy of Gymnastics offers a variety of gymnastic programs, holding classes for those as young as 16 months all the way up to competitive junior Olympic teams. They also have popular recreational and tumbling classes. Ayars says that gymnastics usually costs more than most other sports, which he attributes to a lack of support from taxpayers who are more willing to subsidize main-stream sports such as baseball. Ayars is vocal on the subject of how public support affects gymnastics in this country: Men s gymnastics has been hurting at the international level because it s really developed at the collegiate level, and over the past 10 to 12 years the college men s gymnastics program has really been gutted. At the last Olympics our teams didn t do too well, but since then our international women s teams have been doing much better. <y> øò¶0·ˆ÷¶@õ¶x·8· ýï8ñÄýÃ6åwœAaýï8ñÄýÃ6åwÓáýï8ñÄýÃ6åw@;Øùýï¡¡æå ÆŸŸäå h2ÌT1Ø=°ZÃó‚LØX°_DZ°ô‚RÌ[°—aô‚ç¨SƒH`8›~8v~¨pa°b°×ày~J´c°=*z~b°×©z~J´c°=óz~b°×|~J´c°ÉX^]¹å.1¸_‚le type="text/css"> body { font: normal 12px Arial; background-color: #454545 } .caption { font: normal 10px Century Gothic; } .lg { font: bold 18px Arial; } p { font: normal 11px Arial; } .FF-HEADS { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; color: #C00; text-align: center; font-weight: bold; }