age evidence for gymnast Jiang Yuyuan

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: 江鈺源; simplified Chinese: 江钰源; pinyin: Jiāng Yùyuán) was actually old enough in Beijing.

This video is an excerpt from the documentary film “Dream Weavers 2008” (筑梦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 (邓琳琳) is shown in the 2003 footage, as well, but does not give her age.

He Kexin is still most suspected of being underage.