Gymnastics vs. Figure Skating: It's on!

On New York Magazine's website today, Aileen Gallagher made the bold pronouncement that "Figure skating is so much better than gymnastics." Them is fighting words, girl!

Most of the article was about how Joannie Rochette skated beautifully a mere two days after her mother died from a sudden heart attack, and I'll admit, I got as choked up as Scott Hamilton did on air. How could you possibly not cry for this young woman? But then Ms. Gallagher used Rochette's age, 24, to make a point about figure skating's sister summer sport, gymnastics.

Women's figure skating and gymnastics are the most popular events in their respective games, but the differences between the two are vast. One can skate much longer than one can be a gymnast; skating does not, as a friend noted recently, "kick you out once you get your period." Skaters are women, not girls. That's why skaters can be sexy, why their poise and athleticism mixes with a flirtation that is enviable and attractive, but not creepy.

It seems Ms. Gallagher doesn't have all of her facts straight. Aside from the Chinese women's gymnastics team, the competitors in senior elite gymnastics competition are not younger than their counterparts in figure skating. The rules don't allow for 14 year old Olympic champions anymore. Kim Yu-na, the heavy favorite to win the gold on Thursday, is just as willowy and only one year older than Liukin was when she won the 2008 all around title in gymnastics.

Not a girl, not yet a woman.

And now that gymnasts can specialize- which is to say, they don't have to compete on all events- many are electing to stay in the sport much longer since they don't have to punish their bodies on their worst events. Recent examples of "older" gymnasts include: Mohini Bhardwaj, Svetlana Khorkina, Isabelle Severino and Oksana Chusovitna, all of whom competed at the Olympics well into their 20s. Now no one would call Chusovitina, "womanly" or "sexy" but she is a mother who won a silver medal at the Games when she was over 30 years old.

Doesn't look a day over 40.

It seems that Ms. Gallagher is objecting not to the age of the gymnasts but to the sport itself. Gymnastics is often less "pretty" to watch and demands a different body type (though both emphasize being petite). It's hard to be sexy on the uneven bars- even if you're older than the age of consent.