Dr. Laura Rips Gymnastics
Posted on 10 June 2009 by admin
Today on her nationally syndicated radio program, Dr. Laura Schlessinger tore into the sport of gymnastics in response to one of her caller’s inquiries about her seven-year-old daughter. Apparently Dr. Laura did not approve of the sport for children at all, saying that it was bad for the child’s physical development and that it was too competitive. She was so negative that it sounded like the caller was going to immediately pull her child out of the sport. Dr. Laura’s suggestion was to replace gymnastics with swimming. Somebody please call Michael Phelps and let him know that his sport is not competitive. WTF?
Developing…
June 11th, 2009 at 10:52 am
I’ve heard what she has had to say about organized competitive gymnastics before, and I heard the call to which you are referring. Including this call, I have only heard her refer what gymnastics puts females through. I have not heard her say anything about how it is for men.
She has expressed concern about eating disorders and damage to joints, etc. She has not bashed competition per se, but competition where lasting physical damage can become the norm as part of the practice, not some accident.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Her caller was speaking about a female child, and she probably has heard more about female gymnasts and their training, but since we know boys and girls train approximately the same way (albeit less pressure early in life), she might as well have been referring in her own ignorance to both men’s and women’s gymnastics.
Remember that she was asking the mother to replace gymnastics with swimming, in which the child might well be soaking in chlorine, and breathing in carcinogens therefrom if it’s an indoor pool, and of course no one ever drowned during floor exercise.
All sports have some risk of injury. Some have more than others. It is not the place of a life coach like Dr. Laura (I have not heard whether she’s kept up her licensing as a counselor) to publicly condemn a sport. Her own child went through every stage or belt of martial arts.
Dr. Laura has always been obsessed with her own weight; she admits to having had an eating disorder, and still appears hostile to overweight callers. Far be it for her to claim gymnastics puts pressure on little girls to be thin. More likely, it keeps them thin.
We in the gymnastics community just wanted the chance to publicly rebut her baseless dissing of our sport.