Age Issues For Gymnasts

This blog entry is a result of Amanda Pitcock's ethical issue presentation on Wednesday, September 23. Amanda talked about the controversy surrounding the past Olympic games where the ages of the Chinese team was under scrutiny. Amanda's case was based on the theory of Deontology or the rules of the Olympics. The rules state that each participant must be 16 years old to compete, so they would have to be born in 1992 or earlier. The controversy was brought into question because He Kexin's birth year surfaced as 01/01/1994, putting her at 14 years old and ineligible to compete. Once those records surfaced and this issue was gaining attention, for some reason the records and internet sites with information 'disappeared'.

Eventually, the country's that were pursuing the issue of her age dropped the investigation. There are rules in sports for a reason and in order for fair play, whether it is at a high school level or the Olympics, they need to upheld by all participants. I understand that the Chinese girls look a lot younger and I don't take that into consideration because by ethnic diversity the Chinese are generally shorter and smaller and look more youthful. But, it makes me question the Chinese authorities that took the information off the web; if they were not breaking any rules, then what were they trying to hid? I find that behavior to be a little unsettling.

A rebutting comment was brought up in class that all the girls competing on the Chinese Gymnastics' team were of the appropriate age to compete under Olympic rule. First, I like how Amanda stuck to her opinion and used the facts that she found to defend her points. Second, if I were up there I would have asked that person, then why remove those documents? If the girls in question were the appropriate age, there would not have been any issue in showing the documents supporting their ages.

It comes down to rules for the sport of Gymnastics, as it does for every other sport. The rules are there and whether you agree with them or not, everyone should uphold them.

And as always, "Life is Short, But Sweet for Certain." [Dave Matthews Band] Enjoy life, but live it right!

Ethical Decision-Making; Exploring the Issue of the 'Dive'

A recent issue has risen in the world of soccer (football) that links right in with the article Ethical Decision-Making: Issues and Applications to American Sport by James Conn and Daniel Gerdes. Conn and Gerdes have done a wonderful job providing definitions and examples of ethical instances. The win-at-all-cost attitude is mentioned which is fueled by the competitive mentality of most athletes. The article gives a nice overview of ethical and unethical decisions that are made by players. The players are not the only ones involved in making ethical decisions; the athletic department, athletic director, coaching staff, referees, parents, as well as the players are all responsible in upholding the ethics involved in the game. The best way to get the feel for the article in short is to read how Conn and Gerdes put it.

"In sum, when the outcome becomes so highly significant that some or all of the participants employ whatever means possible to achieve success, then the questionable behavior is covertly or overtly employed, to the detriment of values and sound character, and the ideals of sport."

On August, 26, 2009 the unethical decision of Arsenal striker Eduardo caused quite a stir in the world of soccer. A brief recap of this situation is that during a Champion's League Qualifier game against Celtic, Eduardo used 'stimulation' to win a penalty shot. This means that a player falsified being hit (kicked, pushed, tripped) to win a call from the referee. During the play of this game, the referee saw that incident and ruled that Eduardo was taken down by the Celtic goalie and a penalty shot was awarded. It was not until after the conclusion of the game that the Union of European Football Association (UEFA) reviewed pictures regarding the incident and concluded that Eduardo was to be charged with "deceiving the referee" for diving. The UEFA suspended Eduardo for 2 club competition matches.

The back story to this is that this is the first time that a disciplinary board has opened the doors to reviewing a referees call. Here's my take on it though, it's about time- the first judgement call has to be made somewhere and someone has to be made an example of. I feel that any player doing something to deceive the referee is cheating. It is not fair, and furthermore it sheds a dark light on that player, his team, and on up to the game itself. The UEFA acted in accordance to Article 10, paragraph 1c which states:

"Players may be suspended for two competition matches, or for a specified period, for acting with the obvious intent to cause any match official to make an incorrect decision or supporting his error of judgement and thereby causing him to make an incorrect decision."

This situation is not a question of should the UEFA be able to bring these charges against the player, they are the disciplinary board, that is what they are there for. The situation boils right down to ethics. Was the player acting fair in his decision or was it for personal gain? If nothing was done about this instance, then someone else would have continued to do it. If the UEFA allowed this to continue without bringing sanctions against anyone, that would be equivalent of saying it's OK to cheat in the game of soccer.

I have no affiliation to either team that played in that match, and I honestly had never heard or Eduardo until this story. For me it's not a question of who the player is or which team won, it's how this situation has made soccer look. This event happened in Europe, but it tarnishes the game of soccer everywhere. I am so glad that something was done and judgement calls were made. The player made and unethical decision, but the UEFA did the right thing by bringing it to attention and bringing consequences because of it. I believe the UEFA toughened the name of soccer and made it known (finally) that this isn't a push-over sport and it's going to be played with integrity by all players or they wont play.

Think about this: today is one day before the 8th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on this country. If I could ask that you do one thing it would be to remember the love and the kindness and the willingness to help our fellow Americans. Remember that and share those feelings with someone today. Maybe someone you know, or maybe a stranger. Those gestures should not just be reserved for a day of tragedy, everyday is a great day to pay it forward! And to quote the song, "You Never Know" by the Dave Matthews Band:
"But rushing around seems what's wrong with the world,

Don't lose the dreams inside your head."

Now Introducing #6 Kara Higdon

Hello everyone! Welcome to my Blog! My name is Kara Higdon, but just call me Kara. I am a Junior at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. I am majoring in Tourism and Event Planning, with a strong focus on Wedding Planning. I am currently planning a wedding for a young couple as my practicum experience for this semester. I am doing this wedding on my own, so it is a lot of pressure and a lot of work, but I see it as a really good experience for my future in this industry. I work on campus at Instructional Media Services. I am the desk receptionist and a media assistant, so I help instructors with issues with the classroom technology. It sounds like a boring job, but I love the people that I work with and I have made some really good friends. 18 credit hours, 21 work hours, and planning a wedding takes up most of my time, but I always find time to have fun with friends and family!

Since I was able to walk I have been playing some type of sport. Here is a comprehensive list of my past sports history:

• Gymnastics: 2 years in elementary school
• Basketball: 6 years; 4th grade-10th grade
• Traveling AAU Basketball: 3 years in middle school
• Track and Field (various events): 5 years; 7th grade-11th grade
• Cross Country: 4 years; 7th grade-10th grade
• Indoor Soccer: 4 years in high school
• Intramural Soccer: 2 years in college
• Soccer: 12 years; 1st grade-12th grade

I have had a hand in a lot of different activities, but my favorite sport has always been soccer. My older brother played soccer and I wanted to do everything that he did, and it turned out we were both really good for our area. I love playing soccer, but I also refereed youth league games when I was in high school and I coached our girls indoor team one of the sessions that I was injured and could not physically participate. Although I love everything that is soccer, I'm ashamed to say that I don't watch it too often on television. I have been to probably 15 Columbus Crew Soccer Games, but ever since Brian McBride left the Crew I've lost interest.

I loved everything about Mia Hamm when I was a young girl. I had a poster of her that read, "I don't want to be the next Mia Hamm, I want to be better than her." As little kids usually do, I believed I would be the one to make it all the way. I had the chance to play soccer at 3 different colleges, but turned them all down. I decided I had had enough after high school and just wanted to be a student. I don't regret that decision, but I do look back sometimes and wonder ...what if... So if I had the chance to see any sports moment in history it would have been the 1999 Women's World Cup Championship; United States vs China. Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain and Kristine Lilly were my favorite players. I like to imagine that the atmosphere and energy surrounding the game was something that only can be described by someone that was there. I would have loved to have been at that game, and felt the wave of energy soar through the crowd when Chastain scored the game winner. Who knows, maybe being there and feeling the power of the game would have kept the energy in me alive and I might still be playing the game today.

My favorite soccer game from high school was during my junior year. Let me back track and sum up all the previous years of our girls varsity soccer program. My freshman year in high school our girls team officially had enough players to be considered a varsity sport. So our first two years were not winning seasons for us. Now we were in our third year and this game was against the Rosecrans Bishops. I'll skip to the first half and tell you the score at halftime was 4-0, we were down. We regrouped during the break and came back out in not the best of hopes for the rest of the game. With in the first 5 minutes of the second half I had scored one goal and assisted another; 4-2. Still a long shot for a win, but we had 40 minutes left to make something of it. 35 seconds left to play, the scores 5-5, and their goalie gets called for a handball outside the box. Before the goalie gets in position the referee signals that the ball is in play. I scored the game winning goal, ended the game with 5 goals, 1 assist and was named athlete of the week. I love thinking about this game whenever I feel that I'm too far behind to make anything out of life, it gives me strength and confidence to keep going.

So what is an aspiring Wedding Planner doing in a History and Philosophy of Sport class? Trust me, I am wondering the same thing. This class was on my list of electives and I have heard from some friends that they really enjoyed the class. I found from some of the first readings that I was very interested in the ethics aspect of sport. I think ethics interests me because my dad was a high school athletic director for 13 years. Once I was old enough to understand everything that went into his job, I started to understand why ethics plays such an important role in all sports. I am very nervous about this class though because I don't know much at all about the history of sport. I promise it took me talking to 5 people and looking online for hours to find the 5 events for class the other day. I just don't follow any sporting team or sports in general that closely to know or remember years and times of events. I hope that this wont hinder my learning in this class. If it is going to be something that is imperative for passing this class I guess I will be spending the next months watch ESPN and trying to get caught up! Everything that we are going to be discussing in class is new to me, so bare with me, I am going to do my best to follow along and participate when I can.

I've decided that when I sign off from all my posts I want to leave anyone that reads my blog with a thought for the day. So to quote my favorite musician Dave Matthews,

"Don't burn the day."