Update: Amy Chow, Jamie Dantzscher, Dominique Dawes, Kristin Maloney, Elise Ray and Tasha Schwikert will be getting a Bronze Team Olympic medal from 2000. They move up from 4th place.
details – IOC Strips 2000 Games Bronze Medal From China
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I saw this news report linked from Gymnastics Examiner – The gymnastics week in review
… During its two-day meeting, the IOC board is expected to strip China of an Olympic bronze medal in gymnastics from the 2000 Sydney Games because one of its athletes was only 14 at the time.
In February, the International Gymnastics Federation nullified all of Dong Fangxiao‘s results from Sydney and recommended that the IOC take the medal from the Chinese. The United States finished fourth and would move up to the bronze.
Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s, after the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 in an effort to protect young athletes, whose bodies are still developing, from serious injuries. The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997.
http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js
I can hear the indignant shouts from Beijing already.
Dong Fangxiao is the only underage gymnast to have been penalized since the very first, Kim Gwang Suk.
I liken Dong Fangxiao to Ben Johnson, the Olympic sprinter disqualified for doping in 1988. There were many other sprinters doping at that race, but only Ben was sanctioned.
Olympic Champion He Kexin is still not underage, despite a fair bit of evidence.
The heat will be on in China with all this loss of face.
I wonder what underage teammate Yang Yun, found innocent, has to say about her friend being sanctioned.
And … has Dong Fangxiao returned to New Zealand? Or is she still in China?
Gymnastics Coaching.com 