Olympic Committee Investigates Gymnast's age. (Finally.)

[Steve]

Its a rule and therefore if its broken its wrong but I'm not up in arms about it. Doping or if a person is over an age allowed where they have an advantage such as in soccer where you have U21 and someone is 22 or 23, okay, those examples the person has an advantage.

 

You're getting beat by a 14 y.o. Someone not as strong as a 16 y.o. Are they more flexible and therefore an advantage? I don't know.

 

Again, if its a rule and they broke it, fine, punish them but its not something I am looking at as other forms of cheating.

[mongon]

CS: Huh? Assuming the girls were under age, placing them in the olympics was cheating. Falsifying their birth records is a fraud on the 100 plus countries who came to Beijing to compete.

 

The IOC has been doing nothing but making excuses for Beijing in an effort to justify its catastrophic decision to award the olympics venue to a genocidal regime. An IOC investigation into the age of these girls would amount to nothing more than a stamp of approval of communist propaganda about the their age. Then the IOC can say: "You see? Awarding the games to Beijing was the right thing to do. Look at how human rights has improved and how the communists immediately provided us with the requested documents to verify the girls' ages. They have been the most gracious and cooperative hosts."

 

The IOC should be terminated they are worse than incompetent.

[Steve]

Totally agree it was cheating and said there should be a punishment if true. The severity of the punishment is debatable.

 

My point is that its something that does not add a clear advantage over another country as doping does. Its like having an U21 tourntament where the minimum age is 18, max is 21 and you play a 16 y.o.

 

So what? Okay, its against the rule, but where is the advantage other than other countries may have more talented gymnasts under 16? I'm not even sure if any do.

[mongon]

According to the quote in Flasher's post:

 

>>The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997. Younger gymnasts are considered to have an advantage because they are more flexible and are likely to have an easier time doing the tough skills the sport requires.<<

 

I'm not qualified to evaluate this statement. But if its true, then there is a huge advantage for the communists to cheat and seat underaged gymnasts to get the gold. They should not get away with it.

 

Someone mentioned banning the underaged girls. DEFINITELY NOT. They are children and should not be punished at all for doing what they were told to do. The adults involved in the fraud should be banned, the communist party officials should be banned from attending the next olympics, the gold medals should be stripped (this is a must), the underaged girls should defect to the U.S. and compete next time :thumbup: and there are other penalties that we can dream up.

 

With the IOC in charge, there will be no penalties.

[Steve]

Good point Mongon. Its an advantage then. Severity of punishment, you want them drawn and quartered practically though. lol.

 

Imagine the pressure they are under at that age?! Even at 16.

 

I had to go throw up before taking the SATs with the pressure from my parents alone to get into a good school. (didn't help by the way, board scores were lower than I wanted) I'd have cracked for sure if I were one of those Chinese gymnasts.

[shygye]

...

My point is that its something that does not add a clear advantage over another country as doping does. Its like having an U21 tourntament where the minimum age is 18, max is 21 and you play a 16 y.o.

 

...

 

The advantage for <16 girls is better strength to weight ratio and their center of gravity is higher. The smaller, thinner, and strong bodies makes it easier for them to twist and flip. Look at Nadia' s performance at <16 and then at >16.

[Flashermac]

Probe into gymnast He Kexin could rule soon - but censorship stops online debate

 

 

The governing body of world gymnastics has demanded additional documentary evidence to prove that five gold medal-winning China gymnasts were old enough to compete in the Olympic Games.

 

The Chinese Gymnastics Association has been asked to supply further evidence to prove the birthdates of Jiang Yuyuan, Li Shanshan, Deng Linlin, Yang Yilin and He Kexin, after more questions emerged over the stated ages of He and Yang.

 

The five competitors won gold medals in the team gymnastics event, while He became the darling of the host nation after she won gold on the uneven bars and Yang picked up two bronze medals in individual events.

 

...

 

A US computer expert told The Times on Thursday that he had uncovered Chinese government documents proving that He and Yang were only 14. Both appeared to have been registered as two years younger in previous years.

 

The online documents were the latest pieces of evidence to have emerged in recent months suggesting that the two athletes were two years beneath the minimum age of 16, [color:red]in a sport where younger gymnasts are thought to have an advantage, being more flexible and thus better able to perform more difficult routines.[/color]

 

In a statement issued last night, the International Gymnastics Federation said that it was demanding additional evidence from the Chinese association â??to resolve this issue once and for allâ?Â.

 

...

 

[color:red]The investigation has not been reported in the state newspapers. Leading Chinese news websites also failed to cover the story, and yesterday sites running reports of the inquiry appeared to have been closed down. Even the debates of the issue in internet chatrooms, which raged yesterday morning, disappeared in the afternoon as site-hosting companies moved to censor what could be a sensitive topic.[/color]

 

...

 

â??Plank of Woodâ? commented: â??Changing one's age in China, especially in the past, is very common. When I was at school I changed my age to get into the class I wanted. Later I changed it back.â? All of these comments had vanished from the web by the afternoon.

 

The latter point was repeated by a former Chinese sportsman yesterday. He told The Times that in his youth he had once changed his age to participate in competition with younger players. â??It used to be very common, but it is getting less and less so,â? he said.

 

 

 

Times

 

 

[CTO]

Because they disqualify ALL competitors under 16 and have done so for a while

[bust]

I wouldn't have thought she was pretty enough to be an Olympic Champion......not by Chinese standards anyway.

[Flashermac]

She just faked her routine. Another gal actually did it.