Underage Gymnasts at the Olympics?
By Lisha Arino - Aug 15th, 2008 at 11:04 amWhen I first saw the Chinese gymnastics team, I, like many others, was taken aback by how young they looked–were they really supposed to be 16? A recent AP report indicates that my suspicions may have been on point:
In its report Nov. 3, [China's state-run news agency,] Xinhua identified He as one of “10 big new stars” who made a splash at China’s Cities Games. It gave her age as 13 and reported that she beat Yang Yilin on the uneven bars at those games. In the final, “this little girl” pulled off a difficult release move on the bars known as the Li Na, named for another Chinese gymnast, Xinhua said in the report, which appeared on one of its Web sites, www.hb.xinhuanet.com
The Associated Press found the Xinhua report on the site Thursday morning and saved a copy of the page. Later that afternoon, the Web site was still working but the page was no longer accessible. Sports editors at the state-run news agency would not comment for publication.
In order to be eligible to compete, gymnasts must be at least 16 the year the Olympics are held, meaning that if these allegations are true He would have been ineligible. China insists that all of its gymnasts are old enough to compete, and an official affilated with China’s gymnastics delegation explained the discrepancy by saying that news outlets never checked in with him or the gymnastics federation to verify their ages. The Chinese position is backed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which examined the gymnasts’ passports–a form of identification seen as sufficient proof of eligibility–and deemed them valid.
Okay, so considering China’s shady Olympic behavior recently (fake fireworks and lip-synching little girls, anyone?), it’s not hard to believe that it forged those documents. But since both the FIG and IOC considered them legit, maybe we should cut China some slack, at least until further evidence comes to light.
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