He Kexin, Gymnast At Center of Age Scandal, Wins Gold In Uneven Bars

China's He Kexin has won a tiebreaker over all-around champion Nastia Liukin of the United States for the uneven bars gold medal Monday at the Beijing Olympics.

Both scored 16.725, but He got the nod.

He, at the center of an age-eligibility controversy throughout the games -- was fast and furious on the bars. Her twists and flips went by in the blink of an eye, and she won by about that short a margin.

Liukin, who sat stone-faced for much of the competition, now has four medals, two of them silver.

Monday's bronze went to Yang Yilin, her third medal, including bronze in the all-around.

U.S. women have won six medals here; China's women have five, including team gold.

Comments

[LitDr2B]

The "tie breaker" rule was very stupid. If they can give two silver medals in swimming events--because the two swimmers came in at the exact same time--why can't they give two gold medals in gymnastics? This rule seems needlessly byzantine, and did not even make much sense (dropping the lowest score after the highest and lowest were already dropped).

[gmlaster]

Her performance was absolutely brilliant. She's a joy to watch. Too bad she's going to end up losing that medal because it came four years too soon.