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Politics, doping, cheating, commercialisation, stars, nationalism : now for a few Olympiads, following up the Games has not been a child’s play anymore… It turns out more and more complicated for the young (and less young) to focus only on sport during this universal joust, in a time where competition sport cannot anymore claim to be apolitical, pure, and out of reach by the law. Beijing 2008 is of course no exception. The Olympic Games arise the most diverse opinions, alternating the most radical criticism, and praise. However, nobody - or almost – intents to make out the implications of the OG as far as respect for children’s rights (people below eighteen years of age (1)) is concerned. And yet… And yet a whole range of questions arise as soon as one scratches the surface : has the age of some athletes competing in Beijing been falsified? Are the youngest of them also taking drugs? How many children have seen their health and education sacrificed through a pitiless and planned selection, with the sole aim of training champions? At what stage can the training of child athletes be qualified physical and psychological abuse? The existence of child rights violations in sport is known, thanks to trustworthy personal statements and some rare studies. It is established in the mark of the OG as well, however, with insufficient interest and research, it is not yet assessable. A few days ahead of the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games the daily paper New York Times (2) has published an inquiry on strong suspicion of document forgery dealing with the age of some Chinese athletes by the very Chinese authorities. The preceding years those same athletes had been enrolled for national contests with other birth dates… Unlike in male artistic gymnastics, the rules of female gymnastics have been developed those last years in a way to favour lightweight builds, thus limiting the access to medals to very young teenager. Young gymnasts whose body has not yet undergone the puberty process are accordingly advantaged : this accounts for the numerous cases of forgery already recorded in the past, and especially since minimum age of participants has been lifted up to 16 (15 if the contest takes place in the year leading to 16). Those child champions have only one Olympiad to make a name for themselves : they will be too old in four years… We do not intent to put sport on trial. What experience is more valuable for children and teenagers than to open up through competition sport ? No one can deny the formidable input of sport for the harmonious development of the human being. But this very spirit calls for the courage to recognize that sport, just like any other social activity, is not shielded from human rights violations. Why should it be freer from, say, physical, sexual or psychological abuse than the family or school setting? Ideals in the matter are unfortunately no immunization against this kind of phenomenon. What is to blame indeed, is the passivity, tinged with resistance, of the sport circles and public authorities, in their task to prevent and fight child rights violations in the sport setting. To this day, very few national or international instances of politics or sport have set out to analyse the impact of their programmes, contests and policies on the respect for children’s rights, in order to prevent abuse of all kind (the case of Ireland, who set up a few years ago a children’s rights policy in sport, must be praised). Yet all Olympic athletes have been children and … some present in Beijing still were, in particular in sports such as gymnastics, swimming or diving, who include numerous athletes between 14 and 16 years. A few days ahead of the launching of the Beijing OG, the President of the IOC Medical Commission, Dr Arne Lundquist, condemned “systematic use of drugs (3)” in Russia, following the suspension for doping of seven athletes bound for Beijing. He is since a much hated man in Russia : no wonder since sport officials daring to evoke the unpopular issue of young athletes’ rights are rare. The latter are moreover very exposed to doping. Now, at the end of the Beijing OG, it is a question of emergency for public and sport authorities to take serious care of the respect of children’s rights in competition sport. As a matter of fact, the IOC will organise in 2010 the Youth OG, for teenagers between 14 and 18. All the sport lovers hope that these new OG will promote the Olympic values inscribed in the Olympic Charter, and will not be simply another show of doping, racketeering, age forgery, and abusive exploitation of the children’s talent. (1) Definition of the CRC *Human rights in youth sport : a critical review of children's rights in competitive sports / Paulo David, London ; New York : Routledge, 2005
(2) Edition of July 27th, 2008
(3) L’Equipe, edition of August 9th, 2008