Participation in youth sports can have a physical price. Four million children under the age of fifteen are injured each year while playing sports. These injuries can range from contusions to fractures to conditions such as “Little League elbow,” a muscle and bone problem that can affect young pitchers. In more extreme, but generally rare, cases, a sports-related injury can lead to death. In her book Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters, Joan Ryan writes about two girls who died as a result of gymnastics training and competition— one because of an eating disorder, the other due to injuries sustained after falling off an apparatus.

Sports advocates acknowledge that while injuries do occur in gymnastics and other sports, the overall benefits outweigh any dangers. In an article in Synapse, the student...