1

Let them be kids

Page B2, August 8, 1979 - North Shore News

Tracee Talavera of Walnut Creek, California is -an American gymnastics champion. Working on the balance beam and uneven bars at the recent National Sports Festival, Tracee picked up gold medals for-both these demanding and grueling

events.

Yet this tiny, pig tailed youngster is only 12 years old. co

She doesn’t live with her parents any more. Instead she is living with her coach

’ in Eugene, Oregon.

Also, this little girl has very few friends she can talk _.to of her own age. There just aren't that tiiany 12-year-old children at the national level. in sports.

And she thinks her parents probably miss her.-

With the training and practice required, for national and international competition, young Tracee Talavera, a child, has been taken from her home and driven with an unrelentless discipline to a world where the ‘normal’ is totally ab- normal to the rest of the world.

Who is to blame _ for making this young child an automaton? Her coach, for the constant pushing and expanding of the girls skills? Her parents for allowing this to happen to their child without thinking of what will happen in a year or two when this still child is washed up?

Or do we blame the child herself for having the skills, and determination and lack of fear to reach for these

very adult goals? Perhaps the world of women’s gymnastics is to

blame for the ‘child athlete’ who seems to be appearing more and more on the in- ternational scence.

Ttheag ore “Hip EFS | have been, becoming, y@anger an MNBCr $0’ that

the term women is no longer viable. Children are now

being cheered and booed by -

the world.

It is tiny;-young children who are being pushed by our coaches, officials and, yes, even politicians, to risk their ‘all for a bauble.

Whatever happened to those days when athletics were for the performer?

Whatever happened to the concept that the athlete was competing of his or her own free will and to either greater or lesser degrees in his chosen field?

We now take them young. So young that they are extremely pliable, both physically and mentally, then bend them to the shape we want.

We now take them when they are so young that they do not know the meaning of fear so that they will perform tasks with a high injury factor without really thinking about it.

We now take them so young that they are still in absolute awe at the authority of the adult. When they will perform without question whatever we force them into.

Sick isn’t it?

Is this what you would like for your child? To be taken away and fed, housed, trained and clothed elsewhere, then put on display like a little robot for a year or two till the system breaks down? Then to be

uiscarded?. .For after all, ”

sohat is gr 14-year-old... chi coach or athlete?

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And, ironically we blame |

the communists for the same sins.

In the meantime the child as lost something very important. They have lost their childhood. And a childhood lost can create problems in later life. All of us need that growing ex- perience of childhood. To disallow it is to disallow part of life.

It almost appears many of us are trying to live out our

~““athletic fantasies through the

lives of our children.

And it is not only in the world of gymnastics.

Look around at the adult incursions into baseball, football, soccer, hockey. Who coaches them? Who runs them? Who organizes them? Who decides who is going to play where, when and for whom?

It's not the kids.

The child who is allowed to mingle, compete and mix with his own peers at what sport he wants in the postion

he wants will develop into —

the better adjusted in- dividual than the putty-like figure so many of our sports organizers are attempting to create.

The child is given everything. And most often it is better than the pros or minor pros. Look at the minor league team with their new uniforms each year.

Now look at Vancouver Whitecap reserves. One of the best reserve programs anywhere. They are wearing hand-me-down uniforms and equipment.

We are making it difficult for our kids to compete unless they are given the best

. the Games,”

-Charko. are open to the public and

of everything. It becomes. ana

awkward transition for that child to suddenly discover either in the world of the pro or the world of business that not everybody is going to give him everything he expects.

But it is just as awkward for the child athlete. to be the cent

‘It is difficult for a child to adjust to having thousands cheer their every move. To have the world press fawning

2 of so much attention. . .

every utterance or flutter of eyelashes.

It is equally difficult to have the crowds and press.

- ignore or laugh when things

don't go right. And to ‘see

. them chasing after someone

else.

It is even difficult to have Mom and _ Dad pushing eternally at the little league baseball or hockey game.

at their feet, picking up on _ - especially

We seem to be in an selfish athletic age. An age when we force

sO.many to do our bidding

without any great thought ~ for the object of all our

attention.

Just where are we going

‘with our kids? And-once -know the answer to that one, ‘then we must ask: Are we. ehappy with this -direction? .

And will it make the kids happy —in the Jong run?

Wheelchair games set for UBC

First off, let’s set the record straight... yes, the public is invited to attend the Canadian National

. Wheelchair Games,’ August

19-25 at UBC and _Rich- mond.

And it’s all free.

“We've had a lot of calls from people wondering whether they could attend said Tour- Chairman Mike “Yes, the Games

nament

we encourage them to come.

“I think what they'll see, and the calibre of athlete completing, that they'll be pleasantly surprised.”

More than 200 athletes from Canada’s 10 provinces and the Northwest Territories will take part in these Eleventh annual Games.

_ They will compete in 14 sports, and those who reach qualifying standards will be considered for the Canadian team that will compete at the Olympics for the Disabled in Holland, June 21 - July 5, 1980. ~~

archery and a bronze in swimming.

Vancouver's Ric Hansen won three’ bronze in track and field and Victoria’s Gary Birch won three bronze in track and field, swimming

-.. and slalom.

Keep an eye on at least five B.C. athletes in their

‘quest for Olympic team spots. The five recently returned (from the

prestigious Stoke-Mandevil- le Games in England, where, against the finest disabled athletes in the world, they brought home. a host of medals.

Pam Frazee of Vancouver captured a gold, two silver and a bronze in track and field and another bronze in swimming. Jeff Stanfield of

‘North Vancouver won two

gold and two bronze in swimming. Tom Parker of Burnaby won a silver in

Koreans to play BC

One of the finest amateur baseball teams in the world will windup a Western Canada tour at Capilano Stadium August 10, 11 and 12 with a three-game series against a B.C. Senior Selects team.

The national team of Korea will play the Selects team at 5 p.m. August 10, at 1 p.m. August 11 and at 6 p.m. August 12. The August 10 game will precede the Pacific Coast League game

between Vancouver Canadians and Hawaii Islanders.

Korea won the’ world

championship... in

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1977 and finished in the top three last year.

A Korean high school team toured B.C. last year and won all its games.

“The Koreans are a sound, fundamental ball team,” said Al Elliott, president of the B.C. Amateur’ Baseball Association. “They do play a

oc

Meet (officials are predicting that a host of Canadian records and as many as half a dozen world

marks could fall during the Canadian event.

The National Wheelchair Games will officially open‘at 2 p.m. on Sunday, August 19, at UBC’s War Memorial Gym and close at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday, August 25.

Is sports your business?

different style than we're use ~

to in North America, but they can really run the bases and their pitching is ex- cellent.”

The Selects team, still to be named, will be made up primarily of players from the Vancouver Pacific Metro League.

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