IOC To Launch Investigation Into Ages Of Chinese Gymnasts

The International Olympic Committee will investigate whether the Chinese women's gymnastics team that won the gold medal had underage athletes, saying "more information has come to light."

"If there is a question mark and we have a concern, which we do, we ask the governing body of any sport to look into it," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said Friday.

Messages for the International Gymnastics Federation were not immediately returned.

Questions about the ages of at least three of the athletes on China's team have swirled for months. Online records and newspaper accounts suggest three Chinese gymnasts -- He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan and Jang Yilin -- may be as young as 14, but Chinese passport records show they meet the age rules. A gymnast must be 16 in an Olympic year to compete at the games.

The IOC had said previously that it had verified the passports of all athletes competing at the games.

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HuffPost published official documents last week showing that Chinese gymnast He Kexin was 14 years old and underage. See them here in "Scandal of the Ages: Documents Reveal Underage Chinese Gymnast."

Comments

[Roci]

Yeah, right. The IOC didn't have the gonads to do anything about it while the Olympics was going on. I want to ask a question here. If it is found out that the Chinese gals are in fact to young, and the IOC should strip them of the medals, what happens to the real winners who didn't participate in government sponsored cheating? I'm talking about those athletes who will get no moment in the media, no TV time, no fat media deals, endorsements or anything else? it's Ok for them to become a footnote, or an answer to a trivia question, while the Chinese get a wrist slap.
The IOC and the "Olympic (bowel) Movement" get all their coin from selling things. The Host nation usually looses a pot full of money (Not that money is important, right Comrades?) Does the Government of China propose to pay the competiors who should have won in the first place any sort of restitution?
The IOC is REALLY good at shoveling around "the Olympic Spirit" and all that rot when they think they can make a buck. Let's see them live up to it if and when it really has to cost them something other than money.

[BillyT]

Yah this investigation will go far....

It's like asking Nixon to head the Watergate investigation. Or asking O.J. to preside over Nicole's murder trial.

[booker52]

How did you like the Chinese defense? Our bodies are not build like yours. Yeah that works, not!!! I see some gold medals being given back don't you???

[BillyT]

Next they will say "our calendar years are not the same as your stinkin' American years so your 16 is like our 13." I am Chinese American and I am embarrassed by China, by IOC.

[richardgordon]

Don't be embarrassed. This is hardly a scandal. Its just nit picking by sore losers. We are not talking about performance enhancing drugs here. We are talking about competitors age. If these competitors really are 14 as opposed to 16 then it just shows how extraordinary these athletes really are.

[chinationreport]

Below is the voice from a 17-year-old Chinese American girl who posted:
For more than a week, I have not slept a full night. I set three alarms before I sleep, on my watch, my cell phone, and my clock to get up at a scheduled time and watch the games live on CCTV. Everyone seems to get a cheer in these Games.
See full article: http://blog.chinationreport.com/2008/08/24/the-voice-from-a-17-year-old-chinese-america/

[GleenTurner]

Population of China- 1.3 BILLION

Population of USA --300 million

Population of Great Britain --60 million

Population of Germany --82 million

Population of Russia--141 million

Total medals of China---96

Total medals of USA-107

Total medals of Great Britain-47

Total medals of Germany-41

Total medals of Russia-69

[simonliu315]

you have posted same thing several times and it has been explained again and again that you have to take into accout total number of athletes in each country and give weight to different medal.

are you stupid or what? if you think a gold is as good as a bronze, then you are incurable.

[DAE]

With all the hoopla surrounding the purported young age of some of the Chinese gymnasts, it must be remembered that Bela Karoly, one of the most vocal critics, was Nadia Comaneci's coach when she competed in the 1976 Montreal Olympics at the ripe old age of 14.

[carlgt1]

err, yeah, but Bela & Nadia followed the rules, it wasn't until later that the 16 yr age limit came up (perhaps as a result of Nadia's sweeping perfect 10's?)

[Daly]

Rules were different then?

[NevadaLiberal]

They should cancel the Olympics.

[lunchbag]

Re: China bashing,

If these girls were from France, or Spain, or Japan, or Chile, or Somalia, even the USA, I'd still call for the medals to be surrendered.

Sorry, but they are not 16,

[liberal]

Can you say Prepubescent

[mairs]

How about 10 years old? They can't wait until they're 16, they're over the hill by then. By that time they don't have the bodies of little boys any longer and they become unbalanced.

[LinusBern]

It seems like a tough sport, if you are old enough to compete you are already past your prime.

[Daly]

No not really because if you are old enough to compete you are going against others in the same age group dealing with all the same body issues as any young women.

[Passenger57]

I'm not following the Olympics at all...but if the American gymnasts won any medals competing against these exploited children,then they should give them back.

[hopefull2008]

... Just like you said .... you're not following the Olympics at all.

[BillyT]

These exploited children won gold medals over the Americans and the Russians and the rest of the world. China should be giving the medals back.

[ramrocks]

For the record, this is NOT just Americans protesting or "whining" about this age issue. The Brits are even more eager for an investigation than the Americans. The Times of London was the first to break the story of the IOC investigation, and if you browse the British news websites, you'll see that they're especially upset because the British gymnast Beth Tweddle would have won bronze or even silver on the uneven bars if two of the Chinese gymnasts in question are in fact underage. Tweddle is 23, and this was her last chance to compete in the Olympics. Naturally, this age issue affects more countries than the U.S. The Russians, for instance, placed fourth in the team competition and would be in line for the bronze.

Americans are accused of being self-centered, but the accusers themselves behave as if Americans are the only ones important enough to be hurt by this. In the case of the women's All Around competition or the Balance Beam Event Final, how would this issue change anything for the US? The two American gymnasts competing in those competitions took gold and silver. And with the Balance Beam, Cheng Fei of China took bronze, and no one is accusing her of being underage. She looks 20 years old, which is the age listed on her passport and on the official websites. I feel most sorry for her. If these accusations are proven, she will most likely be stripped of her team gold medal.

[mangonut]

The Brits are scared to death for multiple reasons. They've been China-bashing (literally and figuratively) for the past 200 years.

[IAmYourDad]

that's because they will be hosting the O in 2012 and they know they won't be able to compare to the chinese.

they are afraid.....

[ramrocks]

You'll get no argument from me when it comes to the way the Brits and their empire behaved in China. However, I still refuse to call this a China-bashing issue. As I posted below, I was cheering for the Chinese gymnasts (because I didn't know enough about the sport to know there was an age limit). I'm hardly a "China-basher". I just have an overweening sense of justice and fair play. If a government falsifies documents to field underage athletes, I think they should be chastised. If the US did this, I'd scream to high heaven. I don't think your typical Huffington Post reader is shy about criticizing the US government. Why should we be reticent about the Chinese government. As bad as our gov is, the Tiananmen Square Massacre has them dopped.

[gmlaster]

You people keep saying over and over again that somebody or other is afraid of you. The Brits are afraid of you, the Americans are afraid of you. What is it about you people that you feel the need for someone to be afraid of you? It's like you've got some kind of collective inferiority complex.

By the way dude, the Brits do NOT fear you...at all! They survived Hitler and you think they're afraid of you? Brits don't fear people or nations for any reason. They're just not built that way. What you're sensing is not fear...it's disdain. They can't stand you. You're nothing but property to them; servants who suddenly lucked into way too much money. Now you're like monkeys in tuxedos, throwing around your new-found money. The only thing they find more ridiculous than you is the fact that diplomatically they have to take you seriously.

It's a colonial thing. They used to feel the same way about Americans...still do to some degree I think. Some rich Brit who's fortune was handed down to him from his ancestors suddenly finds himself face to face with a Texan who can barely read but has an oil fortune 39-times bigger than his own. Doesn't matter to the Brit how much money the Texan has. He's still a peasant.

[curocat]

If the US wins the gold by default the girls team standing in my opinion is still second best.. The respective performace was judged by IOC judges... 14, 10, 9 what ever they are still the best...

[Daly]

Other countries have proven that they have better reporters; Brits are not beholden to China like Americans are.

[happybp08]

From an american:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jOj7O4IHIM

[mangonut]

THAT was funny!

I think he forgot to leave out that track & field woman who complained that she had a false start so deserved a do-over. It was at that point when I gave up on the Olympics this time around.

[ramrocks]

That was one of the stupidest rants I've ever heard.

[curocat]

Play it back again, maybe after the third time you can get the gist..

[curocat]

Hey, Right on....Thanks for saying what I feel...

[ndolomar]

How sad it would be if these young ladies, who want nothing more than to participate in an activity they love, have to endure on the national stage the embarrassment of returning gold medals and being shamed because their country's government effed up and some sore losers don't like silver medals. Why not focus your "China ire" on tainted pet food or toys with lead or phthalates. Those things can hurt us...severely; losing to a team that fudged its members' ages really only hurts our egos, but little else.

[mangonut]

Now, THAT I completely agree with. Where exactly is the outrage over the health/safety issues of items manufactured in China? I know that the Chinese officials are having one hell of a hard time cracking down on the faux products. Their own people are dying from this crap too.

On the other hand, no one's gonna care about the Olympics next month.

[Destin]

Hey Einstein, I mean, ndolomar, are you gonna call people "sore losers" also if we criticize China's crackdown of Tibet and other areas? After all, like the Israel argument, they wont it fair and square through force of arms and repressive regime, right?? ;) Are you gonna call us "sore losers" for decrying their sweat shops to make Nike's for the US basketball teams and the neverending Air Jordan's? Are you gonna call us "sore losers" for their shoddy construction and lack of technology that probably contributed to killing as many people during the earthquake, as the earthquake itself did?

I mean, if you call us "sore losers" for criticizing their violation of the IOC rules, then you have to call us "sore losers" for complainging about their human rights records too. Otherwise you'll be fully exposed as the devout hypocrite you are!

[curocat]

Destin, you forgot New Orleans and talk about human right violation you should go to the UN web site and see how many res Israel has on that issue..

[Big0725]

The Chinese government can't exist without the adulation of their people. These Olympics were more for internal than external consumption. The Chinese government brought them in to show their own people that they are a world player. Now the 90+ percent of the people that still live like it's 1950 have something to make their sh*tty lives worth living.

[gmlaster]

And the athletes to whom those medals actually belong? You know, the ones who followed the rules and were eligible to be there but got a lesser medal or no medal at all because their hosts cheated...how sad it is for them? You people like to call everyone sore losers, but how are the girls who followed the rules sore losers? Is it because they had to stand by helplessly and watch as little Chinese children who had no legal or ethical right to be there walked away with medals that belonged to their competitors?

How incredibly selfish of you, to care only about your team members and not the guests who came to your country to compete in good faith and were cheated by you. This is yet another reason why China should NEVER have been awarded these games. And you've got some nerve to talk about ANYBODY'S ego, when your country usurped the Olympics Games and turned them into a Chinese cheerleading championship. You're not even sorry for the irreparable damage you've done to the other athletes. If anything, you're just sorry for having been caught in a lie.

[Daly]

Following the rules is what the Olympics are all about; it is their coaches fault for charging ahead in the face of the rule books; I for one do not believe that they had difficulty understand the rules they could have sought clarification.

Now if proven to have cheated THEY are the ones that have worked against these young ladies and what of all the countries that did play fair?

Participating is an honor in it's self ; winning and being acknowledged on the world stage proves invaluable in our commercial world. Phelps will cash in for the times he stood at the center receiving the gold; women that played fair were cheated out of this chance.

[The5thW]

As I feared, the problem of lack of Classical education has taken another casualty. Neither China nor her critics seem to have any idea of the meaning of the Olympics. East met West only materially and not spiritually. Is this the fault of Greece for pimping out their tradition to ignorant people, or for completely forgetting? Essentially you are talking about a warrior code. Bushido and the Samurai in Japan, and the games at Public Schools that trained the British imperial class that they then spread across the world with their empire. "Arete" in the Greek, the athlete as a representation of godlike excellence, a spiritual as well as physical attainment through honorable competition based on martial skills spiritualized. An erotic overtone? Of course. An activity enabled by the existence of a leisured aristocracy? Of course. But you are talking about a society whose art and poetry celebrated human existence in body and mind. If the Olympics cannot earn a moment's reflection on them and a little humility at our own relative contribution to the world, they are just another track meet or ball game.

[The5thW]

As disappointed as I am in China's not comprehending sportsmanship, there is real cruelty here in sentencing these girls to a lifetime of lying before they are old enough to know what they are involved in. The medals will be an albatross, and will only negate the heroic effort of millions of Chinese in presenting a fabulous Olympics, and detract from the glory of the other 10,000 athletes who trained and sacrificed to compete honorably. Unforgivable, really.

[xtiangodloki]

This post is funny. China's not comprehending sportsmanship? The only reason why US team complained was because they lost the AA finals. Now, just how many medals China had to return because of doping anyway compared to Western nations and Eastern European nations?

If there is one lesson which China needs to take away from Western sports, and especially US pro-sports, it's that it's not really cheating unless you get caught. That's really the mentality behind sports in the US. Heck, even after all of the books and testimonies about people like Bonds they are still considered heroes to many.

[simonliu315]

As said by your own politican, US is a nation of whiner. They can not face defeat. That is why they use total medal count for ranking, which is quite unique in the world. Why? It makes american feel good.
The truth is american olympic team has been beaten by Chinese.

[chitown]

The US WON the AA (all around) finals. Whatever the outcome, the team members never complained, even when a Chinese gymnast who finished a vault on her knees got a higher score than a US gymnast with near-perfect vaults.

[gmlaster]

If China had ANY sense of sportsmanship, morality, decency or fair play, it would not have been necessary for the author to write this article and we would not be her blogging about it.