… The New York Times raised questions about the athletes’ ages in a story Saturday. And Chinese officials provided the newspaper with copies of passports indicating both gymnasts are 16.
But in a speech on Nov. 3, 2007, in the central city of Wuhan, Liu Peng, director of general administration of sport for China, said: “The 13-year-old uneven-bar gymnast He Kexin, who defeated national team athlete Yang Yilin – she just won the bronze medal in the world championships – has demonstrated her ability.”
To be eligible for the Cities Games where Liu made his remarks, Chinese documents show athletes must be over 13, but under 15. …
Are Chinese gymnasts too young for Olympics? – USA Today
It doesn’t seem possible that ALL these references are simply “mistakes” made at the time.
10 comments ↓
Hamm is out!
Paul Hamm withdraws, Raj in:
http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/showthread.php?t=72086
Yea for paul hamm being out and raj being in.
Raj brings the true spirit of the olympics and sport, whereas paul very much lacked it.
Ana Lia, I don’t know what you’re smoking but Raj is so self absorbed, he will never be the leader Paul was and the Olympics are not about self absorption. Raj shouldn’t have been named. David Durante should have been.
So she’s 13 or 14. It’s ashame that the Chinese are liars, but I don’t agree with an age restriction for picking the top athletes anyway. If someone is the best, then they are the best no matter what the age is. Aren’t the olympics designed to find out who the best athletes in the world are for that quadrennium? If there was a faster 13-year old runner or a tougher 13-year old boxer or a stronger 13-year old weight lifter, we’d probably all love to see them compete in the olympics. I’m not sure why gymnastics should be any different.
I love the sport of gymnastics, but these age scandals really fuel the fire for controversy.
Katrina:
I simply stated my opinion … no smoking of any kind involved.
I stand by what I said and you can agree or disagree with me.
Happy for Raj.
To Coach M …
Many would vote for an Olympic rule to let any athlete compete if they are good enough to qualify.
HOWEVER, since we have the age rule … It’s unfair to allow the underage girls from one nation compete and not others. The USA and Canada have never cheated. Why should China be allowed to? It gives them an unfair advantage.
You are right. It’s unfair. The rules have been set, and they are apparently not playing by the rules.
Hopefully, we can fight back by actually beating them anyway, and still playing by the rules.
You almost have to give them the benefit of the doubt, because of all of the slip-ups. I mean, really! If they were trying to cheat and get girls in that were too young, they are the worst at trying to cover something up that I have seen since cartoons of kids standing on each other’s shoulders in an overcoat to try and get into an R-rated movie. The fact that they are this bad at covering up their real ages actually does make me think that they are mistakes. If they were really under the age requirement, wouldn’t they be much more careful? Or…is that their plan? Success through obvious incompetence? Whoa…brilliant!
Leave a Comment