There seems to be a backlash to all the allegations that China falsified official documentation in order to qualify underage gymnasts to their 2008 Olympic team.
Most experts assumed those charges were highly likely to be true based on the many verified cases of age falsification in the past.
Commenter pommy pointed us to an important new video.
Here’s the best evidence I’ve seen that gold medalist Jiang Yuyuan (also Yuyan; traditional Chinese: 江鈺æº; simplified Chinese: 江钰æº; pinyin: JiÄng Yùyuán) was actually old enough in Beijing.
This video is an excerpt from the documentary film “Dream Weavers 2008” (ç‘梦2008, Zhu Meng). It was the opening film of the 11th Shanghai Film Festival that ran from June 14-22, 2008 …. The documentary, which took director Gu Jun seven years to make, captures events leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics and how various lives were affected by this major international event in China. …
Footage from 2003 shows two of the eventual Beijing Olympic Team training:
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
[01:09] The Chairman of the National Gymnastic Association, Gao Jian, states that the purpose of the training event is to “select women gymnasts of the appropriate age for the 2008 Olympics.”
[01:21] Four of the gymnasts state their names: Jiang Yuyuan, Nai Ruoyu, Shi Juan, Li Hanghai. Of the four, only Jiang Yuyuan eventually competed in the Olympics.
[01:26] The interviewer actually asks the girls for their ages!!! Their answers are: Nai Ruoyu “10″, Jiang Yuyuan “12″, Shi Juan “13″, and “11″ for Li Hanghai. The girls have absolutely no reason to lie at this point. None of them are on the National Team yet and the age controversy is still many years away. …
If Jiang Yuyuan was 12 in 2003, that would make her at least age-16 in 2008, age eligible.
While far from conclusive, it’s far stronger evidence than any documents published by the People’s Republic of China. Leave a comment below if you have an opinion.
Olympic teammate Deng Linlin (é‚“ç³ç³) is shown in the 2003 footage, as well, but does not give her age.
He Kexin is still most suspected of being underage.
15 comments ↓
I’ve heard that the confusion came for falsification of ages in order to participate in intercity junior competitions inside china. Their clubs would have actually LOWERED their real ages to be junior, thus eligible, and that apparently has leaved some traces. Anyway, that’s just what I’ve heard, It could be internet fuzz staff as well
I can’t hardly believe DEng Linlin is 16, but apparently she is. I guess we all should review our standards…
What a shame if all the scandal turned out to be just internet fuzz. Please, just let us behold their beautiful gymnastics in peace.
I thought that video was already uncovered during the whole thing.
Old news…
old but no mention at all in the new media here in US.
Talk about fair and balanced news coverage.
“old but no mention at all in the new media here in US.
Talk about fair and balanced news coverage.”
It’s old but I don’t think it’s THAT old. The gymblogs and forums were abuzz with age fakery discussions for months before the mainstream media picked it up.
>Via Gymnastics Coaching Portuguese – Fonte: Gymnastics Coaching
Rick, here’s a Google US search that shows Jiang entered the gymnastics incubation program in her home town, Liozhou, in 1994:
http://tinyurl.com/48k6vc
If Jiang was born in 1993, then she must have entered training when she was ONE YEAR OLD.
Ha, Thanks Charles.
I think she really does meet the FIG age requirement.
“Rick, here’s a Google US search that shows Jiang entered the gymnastics incubation program in her home town, Liozhou, in 1994:
http://tinyurl.com/48k6vc
If Jiang was born in 1993, then she must have entered training when she was ONE YEAR OLD.”
The video is better at making the case that she was old enough because we know It was done long before the age scandal made the news. Yeah, they could’ve told her to say she was 12 when she wasn’t but I’m okay with assuming they didn’t. Especially since she could’ve still said she was as young as 10. Provided that she turned 11 that year she would’ve been old enough in 2008. The Google search results? How long have they been on the net? Before or after they wanted her to be 16. If they were faking her age, news reports from 2008 would definitely show the age they want her to be. Especially from Aug and Sep 2008.
Good find on the video, if it was old, I certainly hadn’t seen it. It’s a real pity that some of them may have been under-age though. Do you think the difficulty in addressing this type of falsification accurately might lead to a change in the age-minimum rules?
The current FIG boss Grandi has proposed raising the age to 18.
… Imagine how many falsified gymnasts we would have then.
So until we get a new FIG President, there is no chance.
“The current FIG boss Grandi has proposed raising the age to 18.”
Who was it that came up with the brilliant idea of impeaching Grandi? The man is just…
lee, don’t count on something like this ever making the mainstream media in the U.S. It puts the case for the Chinese in far too positive of a light and you and I both know how the media here likes to distort everything to make our side look like it speaks the holy truth.
“lee, don’t count on something like this ever making the mainstream media in the U.S. It puts the case for the Chinese in far too positive of a light and you and I both know how the media here likes to distort everything to make our side look like it speaks the holy truth.”
Yeah. It’s so much more fun to paint the Chinese as immoral cheaters.
Anyway, I personally think that He Kexin’s case is quite similar to Jiang’s: someone changed (lowered) the girl’s age for the purposes of a local competition. And there just happens not to be any 2003 footage of her that would prove her age.
Regardless. If China did falsify any athletes’ ages, then good for China. And for anyone out there who strongly disagrees with the age rule but thinks that ‘cheating is cheating’, consider this: if the age rule ever goes away, it’ll be _precisely_ because of this type of cheating (real or perceived). The FIG rules will be whatever the FIG heads decide; the federations get little say in the matter. And the FIG heads won’t change the rule unless the enforcement of the said rule (or more to the point: lack thereof) makes them look sufficiently ridiculous. Now, I agree with Rick that the age rule is unlikely to go away while Grandi is in charge. However, Grandi won’t be in charge forever. And when the FIG gets a new boss, then that boss might just decide that looking ridiculous is not his/her cup of tea and eliminate the darn rule.
Actually, there is even less reason for the girls to lie in this video. The minimum age limit wasn’t set to 16 until 1997!!! Today, I hear the FIG is expanding their investigation into the ages of the 2000 Chinese Olympic gymnasts. Probably because they didn’t find any conclusive evidence with the 2008 gymnasts.
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