Don't worry, the same thing happens in the USA. Ever heard of Shantessa Pama? Bianca Flohr? Ashley Priess? Natasha Kelley? Shayla Worley? Sarah Demeo? Monica Shoji? All former junior champions/standouts who never made it to the Olympics, not because they weren't good enough but because they were hounded/injured out of the sport. Tessa wowed the crowds with her originality, dance, and breathtaking gymnastics in 2005. Unfortunately, she had the temerity to go through a growth spurt in 2006, so Marta Karolyi wrote her off. Too bad too, since they could have used her bars routine as it turned out. Ashley Priess got to Nationals this year, did the podium training and then decided it wasn't worth risking her back any further and walked out, preferring to be able to preserve her college scholarship to Alabama rather than wrecking her body trying to make the Olympics. She made two finals at the world championships in 2006. Natasha Kelley quit this year, also a former world medallist. She looked absolutely miserable competing the whole time, and seems to have decided it wasn't worth it to continue with only months until the Olympics to make it through. Bianca dropped to level 10, preferring to wait until college rather than endure the injury and pressure of the Olympic run up - she was chosen as one of the four athletes to compete at the American Cup in 2005. Shayla competed at Nationals and Trials on a stress fracture (after enduring serious back/leg injuries for the last 2 years) only to have her fibia snap doing a full turn at selection camp. She's a world gold medallist. Moncia Shoji was in the top 4 at junior nationals in 2005 - she quit due to injury and is attended Yale. I could go on and on - in fact, the USA ended up scrambling for a 6th team member as virtually all their bright prospects from the last 4 years ended up quitting, injured or too burned out to bother. Perhaps the only difference between the Americans and the Chinese is the Chinese were able to successfully replace any athletes they lost, while the Americans continue to break and cheerfully discard hundreds of their girls, only to find in the end that the ones they had left (minus Chellsie Memmel's broken foot, Alicia Sacramone's useless lower legs, and Sam Peszek's sprained ankle) were in the end unable to match the Chinese. Perhaps they shouldn't have been so quick to throw away all their bars workers.