THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 16, 1996 TAG: 9607160001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 31 lines
Donald Kaul's column on the Atlanta Olympics (Perspectives, July 3) was informative and well-written, but he has given readers a false perception of women's gymnastics.
I am a level-10 gymnast. I assure you I take no drugs of any kind. I am a naturally small person - 4'3'' and 62 pounds at 12 years old. I go to an endocrinologist biannually for checkups. The reports are that I am as healthy as can be.
Gymnastics is not always a harmful sport; on the contrary, it offers physical fitness, good self-esteem, an excellent body shape and something to brag about. Those ``young undeveloped girls who can twist their bodies into unusual shapes and don't weigh anything so that they can throw themselves great distances'' have worked long and hard at the sport, and as foreign as it may seem to Mr. Kaul, they enjoy it.
My coaches care about me. We keep a food diary to make sure we eat the right kinds of foods and enough of each food group. I am part of a well-planned training program at Gymstrada National Training Center.
Mr. Kaul wrote about a 14-year-old ``playing with pain.'' At Gymstrada a trainer comes once a week to check on us, and we have access to two local chiropractors who donate their time.
I wonder how Mr. Kaul got such absurd ideas.
ANNIE JENKINS
Virginia Beach, July 5, 1996 by CNB