Yup that's a problem for the health of the sport long term, maybe not in Russia but the rest of the world. Many people in the gymnastics community are upset that the age limit for Tokyo games will allow an additional year rather than original cutoff if it had occurred this year.I guess that is the heart of what I am concerned about. Sofia Akatieva (age 13) just became the first "woman" to land two quads and a triple Axel in a program. I guess that means that the Valieva/Usacheva generation is over the hill.
Except that Valieva will be exactly the minimum age to compete in 2022, while Akatieva will be too old at the time of her first shot in 2026.
If the main qualification for contending for an Olympic gold medal is that you manage to defer the onset of puberty until the day after the Olympics, that catapults the accident of birth order to the place of highest predictor of who are the Olympic favorites.
They all know that being certain within a certain age is huge advantage.