Chinese news service reported that gold medal gymnast was 13

[Kolken]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olympics/2008/08/14/underage.gymnasts/?cnn=yes

"Just nine months before the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government's news agency, Xinhua, reported that gymnast He Kexin was 13, which would have made her ineligible to be on the team that won a gold medal this week.

In its report Nov. 3, 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."

[Adriane]

I knew it- they all look like children.....

[christytorres]

See I knew it too..they just looked way to young to be 16. Rules are Rules and fair is fair right..thanks for sharing..

[LilB]

I don't believe He "that's her name" is 16. Look at this pic and others:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08142008/photos/gymnast.jpg

[christytorres]

Nope she does not look 16 at all..

[arcoiris]

Pretty amazing work for a kid, though.

[Kolken]

This is a picture of He in her warm-ups:

http://itrocks.biteus.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/top_10_cutest_asian_baby_faces_2.jpg

[pluan]

It is nothing new in this sport. I've been involved in gymnastics my whole life, and I can remember it being quite common back in the 70's and 80's for questionable practices such as these. The Russians were famous for this sort of thing back then.

Don't get me started on the scoring. Nastia was totally ripped off.

[arcoiris]

Well, that was pretty good.

[dianna832]

:lol: cute baby

[Cherokee]

They had Bella being interviewed in the newsroom during the team competition. Did you guys see? And he was like, "that team of 14 and 15 year old Chinese gymnasts are really excellent" and the anchor was like !~!!!!!

[Kolken]

Are Chinese Gymnasts Old Enough?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV7Z8QMY-AI&feature=related

[M&M]

There's no way those girls are 16! They look like a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds.
I LOVE this quote in the article...

Asked whether the federation had changed their ages to make them eligible, Zhang said: "We are a sports department. How would we have the ability to do that?"

Yeah right, all China gives a crap about is winning gold medals. I would not put it past them to make up fake documents.


Don't get me started on the scoring. Nastia was totally ripped off.

I was pissed too! She was totally ripped off in her vault score! Then the judges were super nice to the chinese girls in their balance beam scores. If she wouldn't have gotten the Gold I would have been super pissed!

[emilios_girl]

I sincerely hope that China hasn't cheated. The Olympics is about integrity IMHO. I'm gonna be p*ssed off.

[LilB]

I was pissed too! She was totally ripped off in her vault score! Then the judges were super nice to the chinese girls in their balance beam scores. If she wouldn't have gotten the Gold I would have been super pissed!

tru dat. Sheesh, they need to get to the bottom of this, pronto.

[Kolken]

"A new chapter in the ongoing controversy surrounding China's women's gymnastics team opened today, as search engine hacker stryde.hax found surviving copies of official registration documents issued by China's General Administration of Sport of China. The incriminating documents, expunged by censors from the official site and from Google's document cache, still appear in the document translation cache of Chinese search giant Baidu, here (1) and here (2), showing the age of one of China's gold medal winning gymnasts to be 14 instead of 16, the minimum age for competition presented on her government-issued passport. Now that official government documentation is available, how long will the IOC be able to keep a lid on this scandal?"

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?no_d2=1&sid=08/08/20/1259253

[chalakita]

So obvious!

[simply-heartfelt]

Wonder how long before they take the medals away.

[M&M]

Wonder how long before they take the medals away.

I don't know if they will. They have to convince the Olympic "people" (or whatever you call them). They've already stated how the passports show the right age and that's the required proof of identity/age.