Originally Posted by rayxi

My guess is the age limit is there to protect under-aged athletes. The rule certainly isn't there because there is some inherit advantage to being under-aged in any of the events.

You can argue that they're 14 or 15 but you can't argue that they weren't better. After all, Olympic competition is about determining who is the best in the world, not who over the age of 16 is the best in the world.