Olympic competition: how young is too young?

How young is too young for sports specialization and elite competition? The 2022 Winter Olympics has given us a lot to think about.

Like most of the world, I loved watching the 2022 Winter Olympics. I watched each sport with amazement and excitement. There were so many moments that gave me inspiration, like snowboarder Chloe Kim winning back-to-back gold in the halfpipe, cross country skiier Jessie Diggins taking silver and bronze in the 30k freestyle and women’s sprint respectively, and Nathan Chen delivering his gold-medal performances in men’s figure skating.

But if you were following the Olympics, you also saw the disaster that was the women’s figure skating competition. In short, 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva was allowed to compete after testing positive for a banned substance. This decision, as well as the Russian coaches, International Olympic Committee (IOC), and Valieva herself drew overwhelming criticism and attention, especially when paired with Russia’s recent history of state-run doping of athletes and parathletes. This controversial decision clouded the entire event.

Ultimately, Valieva crumbled under the pressure of a situation she should never have been put into, especially at such a young age. Her teammate who took silver was filmed screaming that she should have won gold, while her other teammate who actually won gold sat alone looking stoic, without a shred of glory for her achievement. Even with no depth of knowledge of figure skating (which I have none), it was easy to see that this was a brutal, unusual, and severe scene, even in elite sports. These skaters are all minors who were put into an unfair, pressurized situation that exceeded their young emotional capacities.

This event has sparked debates about youth involvement in high-level athletics as well as the consequences of physical and mental burnout on immature bodies and minds.

There has been lots of coverage of this chaotic scene since it happened, with an overall consensus that the circumstances that lead to this moment must change. One conversation around this is raising the minimum competition age for Olympic figure skaters. The current age to compete is 15 years old.

No matter what happens in the figure skating world, the research is clear that early sports specialization has a negative physical impact on young bodies. By specializing in one sport, a young athlete runs the risk of underdeveloping their “movement library.”

A lack of diversified activity can lead to underdevelopment of neuromuscular control, which pigeon-holes the body into only learning to produce practiced movements efficiently, leaving unpracticed movements inefficient, clumsy, and even inaccessible. Not to mention that overworking the same muscles and stressing the same body part repetitively also increases injury risk.

How many hours of training each week is too much? A study of 1190 athletes ages 7-18 years old found that when weekly hours of sports participation exceed a child’s age or when free play time to organized sports time exceeded a 2:1 ratio, serious overuse injury was likely.¹

Officially, sports specialization is defined by three criteria, where a highly specialized athlete may be able to (1) choose a main sport, (2) participate for greater than 8 months per year in 1 main sport, and (3) quit all other sports to focus on 1 sport.²

It’s certainly not just physical habits that factor into youth athletic health. Research supports that personality factors, like perfectionistic concerns, are a predictor of injury in athletes ages 16-19 years old.³

Another recent study found that athletes with a combination of high athletic identity, perfectionistic concerns and negative life stress and poor coach-athlete relationship were significantly more affected by overuse injuries.⁴

With what we know about preserving youth athletic health, its particularly hard to watch young athletes struggle. It’s important to note that age isn’t the only determining factor for healthy participation and competition. The culture of the sport, the team, coaching staff, medical staff, and parents have a huge role in healthy, age-appropriate sport for young athletes.

As a sports journalist, I have fielded calls from parents wondering why their kid didn’t get more coverage in my articles. As a sports physical therapist, I have explained overuse conditions to parents with the only question being, “When can my kid return to sport?” The attitudes and beliefs of the team of adults around young athletes is critical. Most adults don’t think they are the problem with youth athletics and I would urge them to examine their behaviors.

American figure skater Alysa Lui, 16, also competed in this Olympic cycle. On the ice, she skated clean (aka nearly mistake-free) programs and finished 6th place, the highest of any American. Off the ice, she was openly thrilled with her performances and experience, even without a medal. Refreshingly, American figure skater Mariah Bell, 25, competed in the Olympics for the first time, the oldest skater in the competition. To me, that is what healthier sporting culture looks like.

What I believe we’re seeing from the current Russian coaching style is applying elite training regimes to prepubescent bodies and minds solely in search of medals, with ensuing burnout prior to reaching peak puberty and/or peak athletic skill acquisition. Even more disturbing, there has even been talk that landing the most difficult jumps is easier with a prepubescent body, which may account for the influx of young skaters at the Olympic level. (For a concise yet in-depth review of the system that lead to this disconcerting moment, see figure skating journalist Philip Hersh’s (@olyphil) 24-part Twitter feed and his post-event article here.)

To make it to the pinnacle of sport by age 15, it’s not a stretch to assume these athletes have been specialized their entire young lives. But if everything goes to plan and a 15-year-old child competes at the Olympics, what happens once it’s over? We’re not seeing these young skaters start their Olympic careers at 15 and continue on into their 20s and 30s. Often, we are seeing children skating at the highest level each Olympic cycle rather than watching a young skater mature into their athletic bodies, not to mention their emotional maturity.

I remember watching American figure skaters Nancy Kerrigan, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Michelle Kwan compete in multiple Olympic cycles. They were young, but they weren’t kids. Yamaguchi was 21 years old when she won gold at the 1992 Olympic Games. Kerrigan was 23 years old when she won bronze in 1992 and 25 when she won silver in 1994. Kwan was 18 years old when she won silver in 1998 and 22 when she won bronze in 2002.

Athletes who feel empowered to take care of their bodies while undergoing training that honors overall health and well-being should be the goal for all sports, elite and recreational.

It sounds like an idealistic goal, but I’m not the only one saying it.

Alternatives to youth sports specialization are presented in research. Safer alternatives include allowing kids to “sample” sports to improve physical literacy as well as having youth programs available that integrate both general and specific conditioning activities designed to enhance health- and skill-related fitness in a socially supportive environment.⁵

Alexi Pappas, an Olympic runner, has written about how not specializing in sport in high school lead to her Olympic success and longevity in sport. If stories like Pappas’ were the norm and not the exception, there would be fewer young women with complications of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) and more female athletes thriving under coaching teams, medical systems, and core sporting ideals that truly support them.

Katie Noble is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, a journalist, and a runner. She enjoys empowering and supporting female runners with evidenced-based education.

1. Jayanthi NA, LaBella CR, Fischer D, Pasulka J, Dugas LR. Sports-specialized intensive training and the risk of injury in young athletes: a clinical case-control study. Am J Sports Med. 2015 Apr;43(4):794-801. doi: 10.1177/0363546514567298. Epub 2015 Feb 2. PMID: 25646361.
2. Myer GD, Jayanthi N, Difiori JP, et al. Sport Specialization, Part I: Does Early Sports Specialization Increase Negative Outcomes and Reduce the Opportunity for Success in Young Athletes?. Sports Health. 2015;7(5):437-442. doi:10.1177/1941738115598747
3. Madigan, D., Stoeber, J., Forsdyke, D., Dayson, M. and Passfield, L. (2017). Perfectionism predicts injury in junior athletes: Preliminary evidence from a prospective study. Journal of Sports Sciences, 36(5), pp.545-550.
4. Martin S, Johnson U, McCall A, Ivarsson A. Psychological risk profile for overuse injuries in sport: An exploratory study. J Sports Sci. 2021 Sep;39(17):1926-1935. doi: 10.1080/02640414.2021.1907904. Epub 2021 Mar 31. PMID: 33787453.
5. Myer GD, Jayanthi N, DiFiori JP, et al. Sports Specialization, Part II: Alternative Solutions to Early Sport Specialization in Youth Athletes. Sports Health. 2016;8(1):65-73. doi:10.1177/1941738115614811