Feminist Musings on lady gymnasts

hello hello, good morning, salutations, etc etc. i leave texas for virginia this saturday; i am (mostly) packed and hope to god i can fit all my crap in a 5'x8' trailer and my car. including 2 cats in an AMAZING kennel AMAZINGLY and KINDLY donated by miss Cheryl! (i'm psyched about the kennel, not so psyched about seeing how my cats react to driving 22 hours).

in the meantime, i would like to discuss something: Olympic Gymnast's Fashion. (as seen on China and USA last night). mainly, the scrunchies. WHY, dear god WHY do we have scrunchies?! you dont need all that elastic fabric nonsense, you need a tight ass rubber band to hold your hair back! and why pony tails? why not elegant buns like ballerinas? i feel like the messy pony tails and 800 huge metal clips in the girls from China's hair made them look even younger than their 10 years (i swear they cannOT be at least 16!). They had simple red, long sleeved leotards (can that be comfortable? aren't they hot? why long sleeves?) and some wore a little glitter on their eyelids (again, reinforcing the 6 yr old look). maybe they all love to watch Hannah Montana in their spare time?
USA was better (thankfully not so much glitter on the eyes) in long sleeved (wtf with the long sleeves?) leotards with some sort of stylized starfish/star on the left boob/side (or was it right?). anyway, their hair was much cuter-- a lot of them looked like typical 16 yr old teenagers, with bangs poufed a little in the front held by a bobby pin (a look i rock all the time and actually am rocking right now) and that pony tail thing that you do when you dont care how you look so instead of pulling the hair all the way through the elastic you let it loop. does that have a name? i used to do that crap all the time-- who wants an annoying pony tail flying around your face unless you're going for a cute, sporty '50s era look? not me, thank you (plus i dont have enough hair for a pony tail anyway...). the only scrunchie i noticed was on the girl whose dad was an Olympic gymnast from what, Russia or something? so i figured he made her wear it (and her fall from the uneven bars-- OUCH! that sucked. but she's pretty and kicked so much ass on the balance beam)

their make up looked more natural (china, you can def. wear mascara like USA) and i thought overall they were cute and pretty. HOWEVER
i wonder what makes me think of judging/noticing their make up? do i notice make up on the male gymnasts? no! (and also, i havent seen their event yet). but i think it's more noticable because women gymnasts often have very childish, square bodies-- hardly any boobs, they are short, small, and have powerful (yet small) muscles. when they have make up on, they look older-- almost more like teenagers, since teenagers (in america, at least) tend to almost always wear make up. everyone i spoke to about the gymnasts said "good lord, the chinese girls were BABIES" (and it doesnt help that theyve been accused of lying about girls ages and the girls really are under 16).
the male gymnasts, however, definitely look like "mature" guys-- hugely powerful shoulders, very muscular, etc. i have no idea if it's preferred that they be short or tall, but either way they don't look like children like the girls/women do.
why do we idolize this sport so much? why is it more fun to watch/is so popular than almost any other olympic summer sport? what about it do you love so much? please comment, i'd love to hear your opinions!

ps- can we bring back that ribbon thing on the floor excercise? you know what i'm talking about-- that shit is amazing!