Shocking Images of Extreme Child Training in Asia and Russia

It's enough to make any parent grimace as these children are contorted into the most uncomfortable positions. Aged between four and seven, the young gymnasts are put through a rigorous stretching routine by their coaches during a training session. 

The pains-- is it really worth it?

Her face etched with pain, a child trains for Olympic glory while her gymnastics trainer stands on her legs. 

Another young asian blood bending to her limit

Boys hang from a bar for five minutes as part of a physical training exercise at the Gymnastics Hall of the Shanghai University of Sports.

Cry for help

Nir Elias. Reuters. 2007


Torture at the Xiantao sports school in Hubei province, China. For five-and-six-year-olds the joints of the boys are bent beyond their limits in order to create a permanent joint stretch. If this is not done at an early age, certain gymnastic moves are not possible when they are older.


A young gymnast in Russia is forced to be flexible. Picture courtesy of Aleksei N. (Link)

I want my Mommy

Please wake me up when this is over

Sorry, how long are we supposed to stay here?

A girl from the Nanjing children's gymnastic team, with her hands tied on the horizontal bar, prepares for her practice during a training session at a sports center in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, July 6, 2012. The team with about thirty young gymnasts, between the ages of four to eight, is the representative of Nanjing city for the provincial gymnastic games.