Question about age

[Kaylaermey93]

So my daughter is 7. She had her first competition today she competed on bronze team. She turns 8 in February of 2025. They had her in group with 8&9 years olds. Is this right? Or should she still be in the group with the 7 year olds?

 

[NYGymfamily]

Age Groups are subjective and change every meet. She might me in a 6/7 age group next time, she could be in a 7/8 an 8/9, it really depends. If the 7 year old age group at this meet was very large, they may have put some girls that were closer to turning 8 in the 8/9 group to balance out the numbers. My DD was in a JR A group one meet and a SR B the next, I wouldn't stress about it.

 

[Kaylaermey93]

Age Groups are subjective and change every meet. She might me in a 6/7 age group next time, she could be in a 7/8 an 8/9, it really depends. If the 7 year old age group at this meet was very large, they may have put some girls that were closer to turning 8 in the 8/9 group to balance out the numbers. My DD was in a JR A group one meet and a SR B the next, I wouldn't stress about it.

Her coach told me it’s because of her age she turns 8 in February. She was the only 7 year old in the 8&9 group. But if she would have been in her age group she would have placed at the top. They put my kid at youth A. When she should have been in child C with all the other 7 year olds. When at the beginning on the meet she did floor and it was after vault they actually started scoring her. I had to get the coaches attention that hey why is my kid not being scored. She wasn’t even on the scoreking site until the end of the meet. I’m very upset. They put my kid in an age group she didn’t even belong in she didn’t even place at all. Let me also tell you it was her own gym that hosted this event. I’m pretty upset over all of this.

 

[Coach Kate]

Assuming this is for the 2024-2025 season, it's her age as of 12/31/25, so yes, she would be 8 years old.

However, at most meets by us, they take the total number of competitors and divide them into even age groups. For ease, let's say there are 30 athletes. The 10 youngest would be a group, the next 10 oldest, and then the oldest 10 would be the last age group. In this situation, if your daughter was that 11th youngest athlete, it would bump her into the next group. And yes, an athlete who might win in one age group might not place in another, and I know it sucks sometimes, but that's just how it is. It's why, as a coach, I discourage goals that center around placing or even scores and focus on things a gymnast has control over - did you stay on the beam? Did you connect your bar routine? Were your feet pointed through your leap series?

As for not being scored initially or being on the website, mistakes happen and you'll find the scoring websites are not the end all be all. They will have missing data a lot, they will crash, they won't update immediately. Please just try to be your kiddo's number one fan and help her learn to try her best, be a good teammate, and have fun in sport.