New article out today on the Michigan Daily, "Gym Warriors": http://www.michigandaily.com/media/storage/paper851/news/2006/09/28/Sports/Gym-Warriors-2313666.shtml?norewrite200609282101&sourcedomain=www.michigandaily.com . ...the tone of the article glorifies the aspect of practice-competing through pain...is it going too far? Things like this: [quote]Being the worst injury of Catrambone's career is something of an honor in the world of hurt. Like most gymnasts, he has an impressive list of breaks, sprains and other mutilations. He has degenerative discs in his back and stress fractures in his right wrist. Once, falling off the high bar, his knee went into his eye requiring thirteen stitches. [/quote] .. Would you use the word "impressive" in this? Maybe another word would be more appropriate... [quote]Pain is a normal part of gymnasts' lives. Every day, they practice and compete through a multitude of small aches, and, sometimes, through more serious injuries. But for the love of the sport and the team, it's worth it. At last season's March 4 meet against Stanford, he initially decided not to compete on rings after falling off during warm-ups. But in the end he did the event - for the team. [/quote] The author should read the ocregister.com article from a couple years ago again, and then think again about the way he's writing (http://www.ocregister.com/investigations/2004/gymnastics/ ). Then again, lower down the article there's similar stuff that is in that investigative piece, about gymnasts' injuries and lack of going to the doctor on time. Guess then it could be because this is a fluff piece article.

This is probably just written as a "fluff" piece to promote this college team.....but yes, it does say something and could feed into the glorification of ignoring pain that shouldn't be there - kind of like the Keri Strug controversy.

The whole tone for the article is set from the title: Gym Warriors. Gymnasts do have to be warriors too in a sense! :D

Gymnasts and other athletes should be careful when deciding to practice / compete with pain, there could be some real injury involved that practicing and competiting on it more could aggravate it to the point that rest is no longer a solution for it, and surgery comes into the picture. Interesting article: "Stevenson: Gymnast fights through pain, aims for state" - http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2006/12/28/sports/columnists/doc4593962db3ee1096741332.txt