The problem with an open-ended code is that as athletes continue to push the difficulty level, we are seeing more and more injuries to the athletes and shortened careers. At any one time, it seems like at least half the top competitors in the world are either out of the competition completely, or limping through their routines too injured to perform them properly. If this injury level existed in any other sport, where, let's say, we regularly saw half of the starting lineup for each team in the NBA finals on crutches, there would be an outcry. The gymnasts we actually see at the Olympics are in many cases not the best in their countries, they are simply the ones still able to walk.

Ironically, now that gymnasts cannot compete at the senior levels until they are 16, gymnasts are confronted with a code that leaves athletes virtually crippled by 18. Shawn Johnson is a marvellous trickster, but she might as well be a power tumbler for all the dance and artistry that goes into her beam and floor routines. Gymnastics used to be a sport for women that showcased the balance between strength and beauty, power and grace, tricks with dance, sport with art. Now it is increasingly a monkey circus, where athletes can perform high level skills, but can't keep their legs straight, their toes pointed, or perform a simple split leap or back handspring properly. Power tumbling is already a sport, Artistic Gymnastics should contain elements of artistry. And this isn't simply some outdated nostalgia for elusive "femininity" - the same problems exist on the men's side. Even the Chinese who habitually do beautiful gymnastics have started fielding, in the men's competition, some gymnasts who do dreadful looking skills, cramming in the difficulty at the expense of line, execution, form and technique. This is not what the sport should look like.