You grow, girls!

Vegetarian Times, June, 2002

Parents of future female Olympians: Relax. The intensive training young athletes engage in won't stunt growth or retard sexual maturation. So says a review of nearly 20 studies in the February 2002 British Journal of Sports Medicine. Although female gymnasts tend to be smaller than their peers, and basketball players tend to be larger, their size is not a result of training.

Small girls are simply more likely to become gymnasts, while bigger girls become basketball players. Athletes "select themselves, or are selected by coaches and sports systems, into their specific sports," Nicola Maffulli, MD, and Adam Baxter-Jones, MD, write. Girls "can train five or six days a week," says John Brewer of the National Sports Centre in Shropshire, if "they have a proper rest and recovery period--and are well-nourished."