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

[samlu1]

I don't think the combined age is 16?!

[curocat]

Asian always look younger , it's the rice...

[harriscrl3]

This is suspcious to me all those girls look like they are under 16 hence the suspcion. Why are all of them so young looking. You can have someone who is 16 but look like they are 14 but ALL of them thats suspcious. Then again this is China we are talking about.

Carol

[simonliu315]

This is america we are talking about. The most whining nation in the world. they can only win.

[Destin]

Is anyone whining cause Tyson Gay lost his races? Is anyone whining cause the US didn't win the shooting gold? Is anyone whining cause Dara Torres didn't win the gold? Is anyone whining that the Men's gymnasist didn't win the gold? Is anyone whining because the US is 0-6 in men's and women's 100m-200m-400m races and relays for the first time in history?

NO.

The only thing we can be accused of, is demanding fair play and sportsmanship. What's wrong with that??

Course, I guess you forget, you were the ones crying about all the other cyclists doping in the Tour de France even tho Lance still beat them 7 years in a row. So why did you whine back then??

[curocat]

It always comes from the leadership, you are with us or look out...

[gmlaster]

This is China we're talking about. The most lying nation in the world. They've totally made an ass of themselves in front of the entire world on international television by stealing from their own guests.

I'm laughing, China.

[mangonut]

"this is China we are talking about"

Feeling a bit prejudiced today, eh?

[xtiangodloki]

Here is a pic of Japanese Gymnast Koko Tsurumi.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/photo?slug=f9e5422768c394ec8538ec990d147b45-getty-oly-2008-gymnastics-final-jpn&prov=getty#photoViewer=urn%3Anewsml%3Asports.yahoo%2Cgetty%3A20050301%3Aoly%2Cphoto%2C94e1cb9820c89021ad316e871540b49d-getty-oly-2008-gymnastics-final-jpn%3A1

Now she looks underage too but why isn't anyone complaining that she looks too young? Why hasn't anyone accuse the Japanese government of abusing little kids?

[gmlaster]

At least she's old enough to have developed breasts.

[Daly]

Perhaps they will look at her, but when you have almost an entire team called into question that will get more attention.

[simonliu315]

As a Chinese, I would like to say, first of all I am not sure they are underage, they look young to me, but you can never tell age from look. secondly, even though they are younger than Chinese government claims to be, do you think you will be able to get any evidence to prove that. Your so-call evidences are just from some websites, they are not official documents. If a government wants to do something secretively, the public is hard to find out. Just like Geroge bush lied to american about the war.
Anyway, I will use one famous phrase from former Chinese president to describe you american " too simple, too naive". Stop whinning and get over it, it is finished.

[brizzle]

Thank you for referring to over 300million Americans as "too simple, too naive."

As an American, I would like to say: if all Chinese are like you, then I don't ever need to visit that country.

[simonliu315]

I am sure not all Chinese are like me. But honestly who cares if you are not going to visit China. Your country owes China big. Your dominance will be replaced by China soon. By the way, are you sure you will get a visa to visit China? LOL

[happybp08]

Americans were buying George Bush's WMD and reelected him for the 2nd term. Now they are buying John Mccain's offshore drilling for psychologic relief and other craps from Foxnews. Americans probalby will elect a third-term George Bush, even though they have been fooled again ang again. Does that prove "too simple and too naive".
Congratulation to Americans, your country will grow better and better.

[The5thW]

This proves your superiority to the Western Culture whose tradition of fair play you asked to present to the world? In a way, I'm grateful for the insight. After all the great statements about China's progress made by the Olympics, sportsmanship is still an alien idea. Olympic Games are nothing but war and law of the jungle. How naive of the West the last 2500 years. And this makes us superior to beasts how exactly?

[curocat]

Fair play, how about all those past drug issues???? and reported to have been condoned by coaches... One question I have is the swimming team that good and the rest of the world so bad ???? you can bet others are asking the same question..­.

[Laserbeam]

I have read that none of these girls have menstruated yet. If they are 16, something is seriously wrong with their health if they are not menstruating yet.

Read into that what you will.

[roninracer]

It is well known that the intensive gymnastics training these girls go through severely stunts their growth especially when it comes to hormone levels. It is indeed possible for them not to be having periods at 16.

That being said perhaps that type of training isn't healthy for them (which is why the age limit was raised to 16 in the first place) and the IOC should raise the age limit to 20. It would be _much_ harder for countries to cheat then.

[roninracer]

Simon, you miss the point. What the websites show is the "cached" or historical information from official Chinese governmental websites that contained excel spreadsheets listing the ages of gymnastic athletes. These spreadsheets were _removed_ purposefully to hide the evidence of such ages. It is very clear from the purposely removed documents that the girls in question were 13 and 14.

These are from 'official' documents not just from some websites as you claim.

There is no question that the Chinese gymnasts showed that they were the best in the world. But I feel sorry for the gymnasts themselves for being subjected to poor decisions by the Chinese athletic agency to not follow the rules _everyone_ has to follow and allowed underage girls to compete. I know for a fact that there are many girls who would have been eligible to compete. It would be a shame for the other girls on the team if they lose their medals because the management decided to cheat.

[yabu]

Finally. They are cheaters and they should be punished.

[simonliu315]

You are invaders and should be punished.

[gmlaster]

Does somebody need a hug?

[letsgetsmart]

The part that surprises me is that they are 14 or more. They look like 9-11. If you gathered all of the female athletes at the meet and had them in one crowd and put these girls in there, they would stand out no matter who was judging. If China would do this, what else have they done in pursuit of those gold metals? The officials were so cocky early on about kicking contestants out for drugs and that suddenly dried up and hasn't been heard since. Another thing they need to work on is judges. There is so much room for inexperience and political influence that the public viewers are all shaking their heads, no matter what country they are from. Unless they blow the rest of the field away like the sprinters from Jamaica, there are doubts and the disgusting part of the whole thing is that at this point is when the officials who are supposed to perfect the fairness of the event criticize the sprinters. The best thing that could be done for the success of this event in the future would be to get rid of the officials and start over.

[xtiangodloki]

You should google koko tsurumi, the japanese gymnast. She looks just as young but you didn't know that because you don't care. You just wanted to jump on the china-bashing bandwagon.

[letsgetsmart]

I did before your comment arrived. Thanks for assuming. You know what that means? I hit a number of sites and watched several videos of her. It is true that her face looks young but physically she is 4'7" and does look more mature then the girls from China.

[curocat]

IOC should get rid of all event that utilizes subjective judging and only allow events that clearly determines a winner... That way no more bitching..­. I'm tired of the whining.. I for one will not buy anything with a picture of the women gymnastic team on it...I had it..

[JimReed]

Are the 3 underage girls the ones who have the gold medal in their mouth in this photo?

[chinationreport]

Hey everyone..­. calm down:
James Shen wrote a piece where he calls the main stream media's favorite sport right now: China Bashing Marathon..­. Let's vote the top winners.

In the race to bash China - all my liberal and conservative friends - open minded friends - stop... and read from James Shen:
http://blog.chinationreport.com/2008/08/21/in-the-race-to-bash-chinastop-to-read-from-james-shen/

[Destin]

Why should I read anything about paid by China government mouthpiece James Shen? Not to mention the fact he is a neocon Bush lover. Check this quote from him.

"As much as I disagree with President George W. Bush on many things, I have to applaud his recent TV interview in Beijing with NBC in which he stressed that the US and China as two very different countries and cultures are bound to have agreements and disagreements on a range of things, but it is important to have a constructive relationship which will help each other communicate disagreeme­nts."

Makes Bush sound like the 2nd coming of Christ. And what's funny, if Bush actually said that and believed that, then why isn't he doing that very thing with Russia as a way to cool things down over in Georgia??

[mangonut]

Feeling a bit closed-minded today, are we?

[CostaMesaJoe]

While I agree that a story like this is trivial; the Chinese are guilty as hell.
Proof is abound that these kids are barely old enough to get into a PG-13 movie.
The Chinese act like they have so much credibility to have their veracity questioned­.....lmao

[chinationreport]

Okay, you guys can call James Shen or myself Communists-paid mouthpiece. Sorry if you think this way, I thought we allow free speech here, why afraid? I see that some of you are actually reading and commenting intelligently. Very encouraging.
Here is another one to pump up your blood pressure:
China fakes Olympics, US fakes most everything.
http://blog.chinationreport.com/2008/08/20/china-fakes-olympics-us-fakes-most-everything/

Now, shoot back but only with facts!

[mangonut]

Is this still a bug up people's butts? My daughter is Eurasian. She's 8 but is frequently mistaken for being 4. She wears between a 4T and 5T.

It's not uncommon for Asian girls to not hit puberty until 17. Just because girls in America hit puberty at 10 doesn't mean that it's the same for all girls across the globe.

[Clarabell]

Well, maybe you are right. But what's wrong with finding out the truth?

[mangonut]

You can try. The girls are backed by the gov't. If they are of legal age, great. If not, we're not going to know anytime soon.

[phoenics]

Well then maybe the gymnastics age should be based on when you hit puberty. That's the advantage of being a younger gymnast and it's also what can lead to the injuries.

I guarantee you that He will NOT be able to fling herself on the bars like that after puberty - basically proving that she's underaged now. The rules are in place to make everything fair and to protect these girls' bodies. China is not playing fair thus they should not be rewarded for cheating.

Period. End of Story. I imagine your daughter would benefit from rules being followed rather than broken just to win?

[mangonut]

Save your energy. This isn't a fight we can win. The IOC has already closed the case.

Speaking of breaking rules...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV-U3H-6Rvw

[xtiangodloki]

If age and puberty are such big factors in gymnastics how the hell did US team do better than the Chinese overall, and why isn't the US team filled with girls who are 16 and under 5 feet? US team did a fantastic job. Both Luikin and Johnson took 4 medals each, more than their Chinese counterparts. There is nothing worse in the world than a bunch of sore winners.

[nw77]

Didn't a 33 yr old German win silver in one gymnastic event? How can people argue these Chinese won because they are young?
And if you watch how Bela criticized everytime a Chinese won, didn't you notice how he was all happy once US had gold? A Romanian friend told me that Bela and his wife know what they did while they were coaching in Romania and may be that's why they assume others might be doing the same thing.
Cheating is wrong and I believe everyone should obey rules. However, we should remember that not everything on internet is true. And sometimes you can't tell a person's age by his/her appearance. I'm Asian (not Chinese) and over 30yrs old, but every time I buy a beer or a lottery I'm asked for an ID .

[outmost1]

Before you go a share your personal trivia you should at least read the news stories and supporting documentation that all was available before these children were pressed into service for their country.

And as far as the "bug" this is cheating plain and simple. While you may not be able to understand that, I bet your daughter would.

[mangonut]

Before you post, you should read yesterday's report from the IOC.

China has issued passports. If they lied about the kids' age, who is the IOC going to go to? This is a losing cause. The IOC has already said it's a shut case.

The US might be right in this case. It might be wrong. But you can't deny that this is losing battle. Chose the battles you can win. This isn't one of those.

[brizzle]

It is my understanding that there are official documents from the official Chinese website that show these girls to be underage. My understanding is that these documents once existed, but have been removed from the Chinese website. I read yesterday that some of these docs are still available in Google cache...

If this is true, there is evidence. These girls look young, but no one is saying they just look young...th­ere are documents.

[IAmYourDad]

also most of them don't get access to McD as much as American kids. HGH anyone?

[SoCalNick]

Nothing will come of this. They will NOT get the GOVERMENT of COMMUNIST CHINA to admit that they CHEATED! They made new documents and THAT is their PROOF.

Like their official said. " we submitted her documents before the games and they were accepted so....."

SEE, they got away with the fake documents and now they are caught it is TOO LATE so THERE!!!

Now run to Wal-Mart and give them another Zillion Dollars this month.

[OsamaBushLadin]

I.O.C. needs to get serious on this and bring out the big guns by bringing in special investigator ...
Gary Glitter P.I.

[Lerxt]

US medal tally? European? If you want to really see who is punching above its weight look at Australia. Over 40 medals and 20 million people.

[GleenTurner]

Yes, very good.

[mangonut]

How about Bermuda?

[peepeeray]

All this faux outrage at "underage" Chinese gymasts. Who the hell made 16 such a magic number? Suddenly at 16, these girls aren't exploited anymore? Freddie Adu can play in the MLS at 13. Tracy Austin and a whole slew of Capriatis can play pro tennis at 13. 15 year olds earn invites and make cuts at LPGA tournaments. They didn't just pick up the sport a couple years earlier in casual rec leagues. They were drilled hard like meat also. And 13 year old gymnasts have dominated the sport and the Olympics since Olga Korbut, Nadia Comenici and before. Hey, if you want to see the world's best on the Olympic stage (and obviously people do since they've opened the door to pros), then bring on the 13 year old gymnasts. If it's meat market Communists taking kids away at 3 years old that has everyone in a sudden huff, then don't give the damn games to them. Don't compete with them.

[fishsandwichesr2good]

You must be a liberal. As with the 2000 election, it's the outcome you care about, not the rules.

[MrsGreebers]

The point is that ALL countries should be allowed to send their 13-year-olds, if any country is.

[alsm9]

When I was 16 I looked 12 so I know it is possible. Some kids are "late bloomers". So you can't base suspicion just on their looks. But because those other docs are floating around, I suspect they probably are younger than 16. Either way, this should have been delt with BEFORE the competition, not after. I know there was a bit of chatter before, but it really should have been highlighted and delt with then.

[jpcline004]

"When I was 16 I looked 12 so I know it is possible. So you can't base suspicion just on their looks. "

Agreed, its as ridiculous as people saying Phelps "looks" like he has done HGH because he has long fingers and big feet.

Now if they have documentation saying they are 14, which is looks like they do, its a whole different story.

[IAmYourDad]

yes that's what we are all waiting for. so far i have seen nothing but webpages or blogs saying they are 14. let's see something official.

[NotALib]

Isn't it funny how the pair of 15 year old Chinese divers look older than any of the three 16 year old gymnasts? Is there something in the water in the gym that makes them look younger than other Chinese athletes?

It is also odd that almost any other gymnast in the world shows up on the worldwide scene around the age of 14 and they can watch to see if they develop for International competition. But these Chinese gymnasts just sprung onto the world scene at the age of 16........­odd????

[phoenics]

That's what has caused this firestorm. There WAS documentation that showed that He was only 14, with her birthdate showing. Suddenly on her passport, the numbers changed. I'm sorry, but it's not just that she LOOKS young - her bone structure, her facial FEATURES - she's not even close to being past puberty. As an African American I know about being perceived as younger - I'm often thought to be 10 years younger than I am (I'm 35) because I have good skin and a youthful look - but it's not about skin and a youthful look here - those girls' bodies are NOT the bodies of 16 year olds, or even 15 year olds.

If you notice, the few gymnasts on the Chinese team who are clearly older CHOKED in the final days of the competition - psychologically they were under more pressure. The younger girls did not choke because they aren't under the same psychological pressure - BECAUSE they are younger. It's an unfair advantage.

China deserves to have those medals stripped and it's a shame we ever had the Olympics in Beijing, as NONE of the promises China made on Tibet, etc.. in order to GET the olympics in Beijing EVER came to fruition. They lied to everyone then - what makes you think a little thing like an age requirement would stop them?

[max]

yeah, but they all look 12, maybe one looks older.....­it's BS, they're underage and it will come out, you'll see

[morbie5]

Those girls don't even look 12. They look like they are in elementary school!

[MrsGreebers]

At least one of them is still getting her grownup teeth. So its not just about looking young. Or course, the child could be medically abnormal..­. either by natural means (Easy to find in a big country like China) or by some kind of medical means.

[frappe]

They look like little munchkins from the Wizard of Oz in that photo, don't you think?...I can almost hear them singing with childish joy in that munchkin-like high pitch, "...the wicked witch is dead!"

If China expects us to believe their nonsense about their ages because of some "official" document which, by the way, they were instrumental in creating in the first place, they must think we are pretty stupid.