Not necessarily the best system

The New York Times has an article about an experiment the Chinese did to see if their athletes would hold up under Olympic-level pressure: "To learn how their athletes would handle the pressure of competing at home in the Olympics, Chinese sports officials conducted an experiment earlier this year: They invited athletes’ parents to watch a gymnastics meet. Most of the gymnasts, who have lived at their training center since they were young children, had never competed in front of their loved ones. Some could not cope... “During the competition, some athletes didn’t feel very good and even fell down from the balance beam,” Cui Dalin, the vice minister of the General Administration of Sport of China, said in an interview. “They were affected negatively.” Officials knew that some of China’s best medal hopes— in diving, shooting, and gymnastics— could be in jeopardy, depending on how they handled the high expectations of the home crowd at the Olympics. As Cui said, those disciplines “all require a very high stability in their psychology".

Rico says running kids through the Olympics mill this way may produce great athletes, but not very good humans; if you can't stay on the balance beam in front of your mom, you're in serious trouble...