Gymnastics does not permanently stunt growth in most children. Elite gymnasts tend to be shorter than average, but the best available evidence points to selection bias, not the sport itself, as the primary explanation. Coaches favor smaller, lighter, later-maturing bodies because those proportions create a mechanical advantage on apparatus. That said, the picture isn’t entirely simple: intensive training during childhood can temporarily slow growth and delay puberty, and in rare cases, repetitive stress on growth plates can cause localized problems.
Why Gymnasts Are Shorter Than Average
Studies consistently show that artistic gymnasts of both sexes have heights tracking along or below the tenth percentile on standard growth charts. That looks alarming until you examine when the size difference appears. Research following young gymnasts over time has found that many were already small at the start of training, before accumulating enough hours to plausibly affect their growth. A systematic review in the Journal of Human Kinetics concluded that being small and lightweight with slim hips relative to shoulder width is “likely to be part of the selection criteria used by coaches in the initial selection stages.”
In other words, gymnastics doesn’t make kids short. Short kids are more likely to succeed in gymnastics and therefore more likely to stick with it at competitive levels. Late-maturing athletes also appear to have advantages in motor performance, training, and competition, which further concentrates later developers in elite programs. The review noted there is limited evidence that late maturation is actually caused by gymnastics training.
What Happens to Growth Rate During Training
Even accounting for selection bias, some studies do find a temporary slowing of growth during intensive training years. A prospective study of female gymnasts aged 7 to 16 found that puberty milestones like breast development and first menstruation were significantly delayed. Hormones tied to puberty only showed their typical rise after age 14, well behind the general population. The researchers concluded the delay was partly constitutional (these girls were naturally late developers) and partly caused by intensive training.
Skeletal maturation tells a similar story. In a study of 83 active gymnasts, bone age lagged behind chronological age by an average of 1.3 years. Their height, trunk length, and leg length were all roughly 1.25 standard deviations below average. These numbers reflect delayed development rather than permanently lost growth. The bones of these gymnasts were behaving like younger bones, not damaged ones.
Longitudinal tracking confirms this. One 18-month study measuring male gymnasts every three months found no differences in monthly growth rates for height, sitting height, or leg length compared to age-matched boys who weren’t gymnasts. Australian female gymnasts followed for up to two years showed growth velocities that overlapped with non-gymnasts, with the only notable difference being a later peak in trunk growth, consistent with later puberty rather than suppressed growth.
Catch-Up Growth After Retirement
Clinical reports and cohort studies suggest that some female gymnasts experience attenuated growth during their competitive years followed by catch-up growth once they reduce training or retire. This pattern makes biological sense: if growth was temporarily slowed by energy demands or delayed puberty, the body has a window to recover once conditions normalize. Available data generally indicate that gymnasts reach their predicted adult heights based on their parents’ stature.
Whether the catch-up is always complete remains debated. The evidence is conflicting, and individual outcomes depend on factors like how long the athlete trained at high intensity, their nutritional status, and their genetic growth potential. But the overall pattern is reassuring: most gymnasts end up where their genetics predicted they would.
The Real Growth Risk: Not Eating Enough
The most significant threat to a young gymnast’s growth isn’t the training itself. It’s inadequate nutrition. A condition called Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) occurs when energy intake doesn’t keep up with energy expenditure. When the body is running on too few calories, it prioritizes survival over secondary functions like growth, development, and reproduction.
RED-S affects multiple systems at once. Low energy availability reduces levels of growth-promoting hormones, disrupts bone development by suppressing the cells that build new bone, and can delay or halt menstrual cycles. Gymnastics is specifically flagged as a sport with higher rates of these problems because of the pressure to maintain a lean physique. The downstream effects on bone development are particularly concerning in growing athletes, since this is the window when the skeleton is building the density it will carry into adulthood.
The fix is straightforward in principle: increasing caloric intake by 300 to 600 calories per day, spread throughout the day with emphasis on protein and carbohydrates, resolves most cases without medication. A gain of just 1 to 4 kilograms can be enough to restart normal hormonal function. For parents of young gymnasts, making sure your child eats enough to fuel both training and growth is the single most important thing you can do to protect their development.
Growth Plate Injuries From Repetitive Impact
There is one way gymnastics can directly interfere with bone growth, though it affects specific joints rather than overall height. The growth plates at the ends of children’s bones are vulnerable to repetitive loading. In gymnasts, the most commonly reported stress injuries occur at the wrist, specifically the growth plate at the end of the radius (the larger forearm bone). This makes sense given the enormous forces transmitted through the wrists during vaulting, tumbling, and handstands.
MRI studies of young competitive gymnasts have revealed changes in the wrist growth plate that resemble experimentally induced injuries in lab settings. The good news is that in nearly all reported cases, these injuries healed with rest and did not lead to premature growth plate closure or abnormal growth. The bad news is that a small number of documented cases did result in permanent changes: premature closure of part of the wrist growth plate leading to shortened or deformed forearm bones. Similar stress injuries have been reported in the shoulder and lower extremities, with rare cases of premature growth plate closure in the knee.
These outcomes are uncommon but real. They’re most likely to occur when young athletes train through wrist pain rather than resting, allowing repetitive micro-damage to accumulate. Persistent pain in a young gymnast’s wrist, shoulder, or knee warrants evaluation, because growth plate injuries caught early almost always resolve fully.
How Training Volume Factors In
Elite gymnasts often train 20 to 30 or more hours per week, sometimes starting at very young ages. Current guidelines from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association recommend that young athletes not exceed their age in training hours per week. An 11-year-old, for example, should train no more than 11 hours. Injury risk, including overuse injuries to growth plates, rises sharply beyond 16 hours per week regardless of age.
For recreational and club-level gymnasts training 5 to 10 hours per week, the concerns about growth are minimal. The research linking gymnastics to growth delays focuses almost exclusively on elite athletes training at intensities most children will never approach. A child doing gymnastics a few times a week is getting excellent exercise with no meaningful risk to their height.