You don't have to be short to be able to do the stuff gymnasts do.
I was going to add a reference to basketball - you don't have to be tall... but it sure helps! I remember a story (I think from aus) about gymnastic twins where one quit young enough and grew 6 inches taller than the other.
Have you ever seen someone six foot on the balance beam?
Firstly, it's not a waste, they got to the freaking Olympics.
Of course not - a waste for the Olympics :)
They also have a million other competitions throughout the year.
And unless you've broken/really hurt something (or your coach screams at you to stop because they can see that the injury you just picked up is worse than your adrenaline thinks it is), always finish.
It is the "always finish" thing that I wanted to highlight.
Sounds legit. My daughter reckons the only reason she got taller than me was because of the stupid panpanic otherwise she probably would have stayed shorter. Similarly eldest is going to get surpassed in height by youngest (who quit gymnastics when he was between 8 and 10) probably soon.
Yep, the boys when we used to do switch comp XD None of our girls are that tall.