China Acknowledges Gymnastics Team Age Confusion, Blames Bad Paperwork

China today acknowledged the confusion about the ages of its Olympic gymnasts. China's deputy sports minister blamed paperwork problems. ESPN has the story.

At last year's China's Cities Games, Chinese officials decided to move He Kexin, who won two gold medals during the Beijing Games, from a local team to the national team. China's deputy sports minister Cui Dalin said Sunday that it was during this transfer that a "misunderstanding appeared" about her age.

"Last year at the all-city competition, He Kexin moved from one team to another and during the process of registering during the move, there appeared this age discrepancy," Cui said during a news conference.

"So it was the appearance of a mistake in the process of transferring teams that the misunderstanding appeared. However, I can right here accurately say that the ages of the members of our gymnastics delegation entirely conform to the requirements for participation in the Beijing Olympic Games."

Read the Huffington Post's scoop on the "scandal of the ages"

Comments

[Christopheles]

Ok, first of all, people need to take a step back on this to collect their thoughts and emotions before getting ahead of their rational mind. "innocent until proven guilty" shouldn't just be a convenient sentiment. Press releases about ages are not reliable documents for proving beyond the shadow of a doubt the age of a person.

From my view, this issue may just not come to the result that many people here believe is inevitable. Having lived abroad in China, I can tell you that many girls that are even in their 20's in China look much, much younger than they appear to western eyes. One of my friends was kicked out the first day of his classes at Yale because the professor mistook him for a wayward undergrad seeking freshmen orientation who mistakenly walked into Doctorate program orientation. It turns out the "kid" he mistook for a brash youth was not only 25 years old but he had personally given him a full scholarship to the program.

One reason many chinese have an easy time accepting these girls as being 16 years old, isn't that they trust the PRC government, but many 16 year old girls in China look similarly aged.

Now, this is not to say that the PRC government wouldn't try to pull a fast one, but I'd rather wait and see before casting accusations that may not be valid. Prudence is the wise choice to make here, lest we diminish ourselves by rash behavior.

[geneven]

I think that "innocent until proven guilty" is a court thing, not a public opinion thing. I think that O.J. was guilty, what's wrong with that?

It's not like Americans have never cheated -- what was it that that guy said about he who is perfect casting the first stone?

So I think there was cheating, but this does not say anything about the greatness of China. It's a great country. However, it is wrong in some things, just like we are. It deserves to be criticized, just like we do. Pointing to the faults of Americans is not a defense of the Chinese, just as pointing to the faults of the Chinese is not a defense of Americans.

But I think there was cheating.

[darthmaul]

There was more evidence then just press releases. There were copies of official documents, that seemed pretty convincing that the girls were underage. I don't think anybody is doing anything rash. Inconsistencies have been pointed out and now it's up to the Chinese to come up with proof that they didn't cheat.

[coco77]

Presumption of innocence applies to criminal cases, not to civil.

[campaignman]

An X-ray of the girls hands would reveal aspects of the bone development that are incontrovertible prrof of age.

I'm sure the Chinese won't allow that though.

[misanthropologist]

YES! X-ray their hands! (Sarcasm Alert) - or better yet...

Why not just cut them in half and count the rings?

[stopgeorge]

Proof of age is a dilemma that needs to be dealt with in gymnastics. Why are you being sarcastic? If these Chinese girls were 2 years younger than the required age -- they have a huge unfair advantage.

This needs to be dealt with if these competitions are going to be taken seriously anymore.

[GhiaccioPronto]

Help Mr Wizard!

[gmlaster]

Ooooh, I smell fear. We're a little worried about evidence we can't hide, fix or destroy, aren't we? Gotta love that science!

[chinationreport]

Let's take a poll: is everyone here more outraged by the age of Chinese gymnasts or the accuracy of Iraq intelligence? http://blog.chinationreport.com/2008/08/20/china-fakes-olympics-us-fakes-most-everything/

[ilcapo]

liar liar pants on fire,those girls aren t 16,doesn t take a genius to figure it out...as if the Chinese government had any credibility,they still don t recognize that there s a "problem" with Tibet,they re hellbent on winning as much gold as they can and they ll do whatever it takes.

[PhantomAviator]

..

The CONFUSION is this:

The Chines are Dictators and don't care.

Don't ask AGAIN or perhaps any Chinese friends you have might go to a political re-education camp.

Get it?

.

[gmlaster]

Don't care.

[Scott1560]

And in four years pigs will fly in London (on the bars, of course).

[OhComeOnNow]

In the Immortal words of Short Round, "not my fault, not my fault!!!!!"

[stopgeorge]

Ok. Here's some stats for all of you. Notice that the girls that were not part of the winning gold-medal team (gold-medal team members have an asterix beside them) were well within the average weight of Chinese girls at their age. Teh gold-medal winners, however, fall well out of the "average" weight for girls at their age.


Weight distribution average for Chinese girls:
http://www.fwcc.org/girls_weight_data.htm

Weight stats for Chinese girl gymnasts (18 and under):
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/athletes?name=&country_codes=CHN&us_sport_codes=gymnastics

**** At 33 kg, Kexin He would be under the 3rd percentile for girls at 16 years of age ***

*** At 35 kg, Yilin Yang would be between the 3rd and 10th percentile for girls at age 16 years of age. ***

At 51 kg, Jianshuang Sui would be around the 50th percentile at age 19

*** At 36 kg, Shanshan Li would be between the 3rd and 10th percentile for girls at age 16 years of age. ***

At 40 kg, Hongyang Li would be around the 25th percentile for girls at age 18 years of age.

*** At 32 kg, Yuyuan Jiang would be be well under the 3rd percentile for girls at age 16 years of age. ***

*** At 31 kg, Linlin Deng would be well under the 3rd percentile for girls at age 16 years of age. ***

At 48 kg, Tongtong Cai would be around the 75th percentile for girls at age 18 years of age.

[stopgeorge]

Compare this with the American girls...
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/athletes?name=&country_codes=USA&us_sport_codes=gymnastics

Weight chart for American girls:
http://www.annecollins.com/weight-chart-children-girls.htm


Most hover around the 25th percentile for girls at their age group.

There is an exception, however...

at 18, Nastia Liukin is in the 5th percentile of her age group at 45Kg.

[geneven]

I think that there was cheating, but I don't think these particular statistics prove anything. The Chinese have a very large pool of potential contestants, so they choose people with unusual characteristics to compete. That is perfectly possible. It's not just a matter of typical athletes -- gold medal winners are not typical in lots of ways.

[stopgeorge]

They don't "prove" anything -- no. You're correct.

But, put in context -- they definitely beg further investigation. Especially when 3 of them are below the 3rd percentile for weight at their age.

I see you have also ignored the fact that the "over 16" Chinese competitors were very much in line with the average weight of a Chinese girl as well.

[sawyerboy]

My dog ate my birth certificate.

[OhComeOnNow]

OMG - are you from Minnesota? Norm Coleman used the same stupid lame argument against Franken....

[Doofus]

Plausible deniability opens door to implausible denials.

(Suitable for fortune cookie use. All rights reserved.)

[crablover]

The Chinese government has practically raised these kids to be athletes. There is NO WAY they could not have known their exact ages. The Chinese have exhibited poor sportsmanship. They owe the world an apology. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it.

[OhComeOnNow]

Sadly, you are absolutely right, darn it!!!!! China just demonstrated over and over again, why they SHOUL NOT be allowed into the global economy,

[hoya1960]

These kids are at the most thirteen maybe fourteen or else they have a growth disorder.

The Chinese government knows it and now most of the world knows it.

The part I don't understand is why everyone is so shocked about this turn of events. The Chinese with the approval of the government steal and pirate software, they steal and pirate music and video DVD's by the tons. Then say they are cracking down on the pirates which they don't. They don't have an original idea in their collective heads.

Why would anyone, anywhere expect them the Chinese government to abide by the rules of the Olympic games when they cannot even adhere to the basic rules of the civilized world.

[GhiaccioPronto]

racial slurs aren't an original idea ether

[justamazed]

There are no racial slurs in this post. My first post to that effect was censored. Yea freedom of speech right here at HuffPo. Not sure what they are afraid of. The truth I guess.

[IndependentBadger]

How is it a racial slur to point out that the Chinese government and its lackeys routinely cheat, lie, steal, and bully others to protect their rotten system? I didn't see any references to Taiwan, or "Han" deceitfulness, etc.

The man spoke the truth, I'm more curious about your willingness to apologize for these criminals. How is it decent or honorable to use 12 and 13 year old girls to prop up the public face of a totalitarian nightmare?

This mania for political correctness, at the expense of ACTUAL, SIMPLE correctness, is frightening.

[ilcapo]

playing the race card won t work,it s like when you criticize Israel for the way they treat Palestinians and then they cry Antisemitism...

[gmlaster]

Hoya1960 referred to the actions of a government and its people. Nothing was said about the shape of the eyes or the color of the skin. Playing the race card here won't help your cause.

[Pupster]

Of course they have a growth disorder. They've been in competitive gymnastics all their childhood. They probably have 10% body fat, at most and washboard stomachs. Do you think that's normal for an average adolescent?

[lunchbag]

This suggestion by China, that is was a paperwork error is silly. They would only need to physcially move the records of 'He' from the regional file folder to the national team file folder, why would they need to rewrite it?

[Marichu]

Right, blame it on the paper-pushers, the low tier workers. They're always the easiest and most convenient to fault.
The Chinese government considers those girls a commodity. Their regiment, every aspect of their lives is strictly monitored and orchestrated. So how could they not know their age? They need not try to sell us a bill of goods.

[PhantomAviator]

..

Well, America wrote the rule book on false documents, didn't we? They learned from the best.

.

[Marichu]

I somehow don't think the Chinese or any government needs lessons from us on how to falsify information. It's a required part of their unspoken by-laws.

[gmlaster]

Gawd, another troll. When will you ever learn...AMERICANS DON'T TALK LIKE THAT!!! So stop with the "we" crap. No one's buying it.

[gmlaster]

Thank you. With all the money that was spent on this production, clearly they left nothing to chance. They went through the trouble of doctoring the passports (plural, as in more than one), so spare me the paperwork BS. That's just a lie to cover up the other lies.

They thought this out really carefully. But with all the money they spent cultivating these gymnasts, they overlooked the three most important things:

1) Most of us can see
2) We know what a 16-year-old looks like
3) If you live outside of China, you can call the Chinese government a liar without going to jail for it.

[nonconformist2]

There is no good outcome from this.

The gymnasts were never allowed to compete on a level playing field.

Stripping China of it's medals won by underage althletes will be a hollow victory for the resulting gold medalists. They would have preferred to win on merit with teams that followed the rules. Don't you think that other countries might have had outstanding althletes that were under 16 that couldn't compete because THEY followed the rules?

The whole thing is sad.

[nonconformist2]

Apparently China has been asked to supply birth certificates for each of their gymnasts. I'm sure we can RELY on the Chinese Government to supply the authentic birth certificates. When have they ever lied before...........................................HA!

[stopgeorge]

If they can't provide any OLD documentation that shows their birthdates jiving with them currently being 16, then the IOC should strip them of the medals. It's as simple as that.

[justhope]

I don't think America is ready to open that pandora's box of removing medals based on cheating. There is at least one track and field medal that is in question from this Olympics which we may have to relinquish. Also there are at least nineteen from past Olympic sthat the USOC are trying to hold on to. Talk about hypocrisy, yet Marion Jones is sitting in jail based on this nonsense when the doping cheating scandals goes all the way to the top of the USOC. iF WE WANT MORAL JUSTIFICATION AND FAIRNESS, THEN WE OUGHT TO TREAT OTHERS FAIRLY AND WITH EMPATHY. WE MUST REMEMBER WE WON'T ALWAYS BE AT THE TOP, WHEN WE FALL WE WILL BE LOOKING FOR EMPATHY. WHY DO YOU THINK THE WORLD NOW REJOICES WHEN WE FAIL. IN THE PAST THEY WOULD MOURN WITH US. NOW THEY REJOICE!! OUR RACIST AND NATIONALISM HAS MOVED WAY OVER THE TOP!!

[Pupster]

You've already admitted that you don't care about the medals. nibblybits exposed you as just an anti-China agitator. Maybe you should stop using this issue to rally anti-China sentiment.