Chinese Olympic Gymnasts Underage Scandal
Two Chinese Olympic Gymnasts He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan, who won gold medals in the Beijing 2008 Olympics, may in fact be only 14 years-old, when Olympic gymnasts are required to be 16 years-old. Both were chosen to compete late in July. Younger, and therefore smaller, gymnasts have the advantage of being able to perform difficult skills easier. There is a lot of evidence supporting claims that documents were forged around the time of the Olympics to insure He and Jiang qualified to compete. However, there is a lot of evidence, especially from Chinese government web sites, and statements from government officials confirming the claims these two athletes were under the age of 16. If these accusations are true, it cheapens how the world sees China, and causes a loss of face due to the perception that they cheated their way to gold medals. To encourage the best athletes to compete, it might be best for the Olympic committee to allow any age to compete. Click the link below to read more, and see some of the evidence.
Below are China’s Beijing Olympic Gymastic team (left to right) Cheng Fei, Yang Yilin, Li Shanshan, He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan and Deng Linlin celebrate their victory during the awarding ceremony for gymnastics artistic women’s team final of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China, Aug. 13, 2008. The Chinese team claimed the title of the event with a score of 188.900.
Two female Chinese gymnasts, including a gold-medal favorite, might be too young to participate in the upcoming Beijing Olympics.
Several online records and reports show He Kexin, the host nation’s top competitor on uneven bars, and Jiang Yuyuan might not yet be 16, the minimum age for Olympic eligibility. Both were chosen for China’s team last week.
On the Web site of the Chengdu Sports Bureau — Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province in southwest China — a file dated January 2006 shows He Kexin as being born Jan. 1, 1994.
Most recently, a May 23 story in the China Daily newspaper, the official English-language paper of the Chinese government, had He Kexin’s age as 14.
The newspaper story begins: "The 14-year old newcomer to the national team, who was recruited last year, has raised a lot of eyebrows recently after she broke two world records on the uneven bars in as many months."
The New York Times raised questions about the athletes’ ages in a story Saturday. And Chinese officials provided the newspaper with copies of passports indicating both gymnasts are 16.
But in a speech on Nov. 3, 2007, in the central city of Wuhan, Liu Peng, director of general administration of sport for China, said: "The 13-year-old uneven-bar gymnast He Kexin, who defeated national team athlete Yang Yilin — she just won the bronze medal in the world championships — has demonstrated her ability."
To be eligible for the Cities Games where Liu made his remarks, Chinese documents show athletes must be over 13, but under 15.
Zhang Peiwen, spokesman for the Chinese Gymnastics Association, told China’s state-run Xinhua news agency that both gymnasts were over 16.
"Our Olympic squads were recently named and we registered their ages according to their ID cards or other legal certificates presented by their regional gymnastics associations, which show they all are over the minimum age for the Olympics," Zhang said.
Zhang questioned the credibility of data found on the Internet or in newspapers.
"There is a lot of online information and reports," he said. "We haven’t got the time to check every piece, but everybody knows not all of them are reliable."
The New York Times reported International Gymnastics Federation officials acknowledged questions about He’s age had been raised and asked the Chinese for clarification in May.
"We heard these rumors, and we immediately wrote to the Chinese gymnastics federation," Andre Gueisbuhler, the secretary general of the international federation, told the newspaper. "They immediately sent a copy of the passport, showing the age, and everything is OK. That’s all we can check.
"As long as we have no official complaint, there is no reason to act, if we get a passport that obviously is in order."
The American and Chinese women are expected to battle for the team gold medal when the Beijing Games begin Aug. 8.
He is one of the few athletes in the world who has scored more than a 17 under the new scoring system. Using He and Yang Yilin, who also has scored a 17 on bars, the Chinese hope to use the uneven bars to build up a big advantage in the team competition.
The Americans, who won the 2007 world championships team title, have only one gymnast, Nastia Liukin, who has achieved a 17 on bars.
If gymnasts He and Jiang are under age, it would be yet another black eye for China in the buildup to the games.
In June, Chinese swimmer Ouyang Kunpeng and coach Feng Shangbao were permanently banned from the sport after Ouyang tested positive for anabolic steroids. Wrestler Luo Meng and his coach also were barred for life for a doping violation by the athlete.
The Chinese government is working feverishly to present a positive image of an open, friendly, progressive nation.
But visa restrictions, air pollution, freedom of the press issues and a problem-filled torch relay have presented a far different image to the world.
Click here to read the New York Times story that has even more information on this story.
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20 Responses to “Chinese Olympic Gymnasts Underage Scandal”
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if i were 13 years old now they allowed me to be a gymnastic?
Does it seem convenient that according to the Chinese calendar, a lot of Chinese people end up being listed as a year or two off of what their real age is? That’s a little bit TOO convenient for my taste. O____o
i dnt c wats so bad they worked jst as hard 2 get there
Everyone is talking about Chinese woman being smaller then Americans. That fact is true, but look at the face. You can tell those Chinese girls are only girls. If you people would listen to the olympics and the news or research things before you speak this world would be a lot better. US Americans know how to lose but when the host country has to cheat to win it is a little funny. They found evidance that 5 of the 6 girls are underage so they might want to just come out, instead of looking like fools when they find everyting and strip all the gold medles of those girls. Shawn Johnson and the rest of the American team should have got gold because they did not cheat and yeah the underage girls maybe better but that does not matter, they broke the rules therefor should be striped of their medles.
c another thing that i think makes them guilty is the first time that we said that 2 of the girls might not be 16 the Chinese didnt show anything to convince us that they were 16… the first time that we asked all that they said was prove it.
If you google some photos og deng linlin, china’s smallest gymnast you will see from close up pictures of her face that she is NOT 16. As well as being short and light her facial features are those of a younger child.
To the person who wrote comment #12:
Russian gymnast Ksenia Semenova is eligible to compete because she is turning 16 before the end of this year. Any athlete who will be turning 16 before 2009 can compete. So she just has a late birthday.
Right. China breaks the rules, produces false documents to get away with it, lies to the entire world, breaks the spirit and honor that is supposed to be a part of the Olympics ..
.. and somehow this is a bad reflection on America. Brilliant.
Hahahha, you bunch of sour grapes americans. Can’t accept that your reigning champs were beaten by a bunch of KIDS. Get over it and accept that the world does not revolve around your country. This goes to show that your country sucks.
What i dont understand is that one of the russian gymnast, ksenia semenova is LISTED as being 15 by the olympics. So im alittle confused as to what the age limit applies too?
hahahah I’m chinese. I can totally tell at least 2 of them are not even 14. let alone 16. Trust me china will do anything AYTHING to cheat in order to get what they want.
I will eat my hat if the shortest gal is really 16. China can’t be trusted.
Who cares what avg height/weight is for anyone or any race? That’s got NOTHING to do with anything!
The Chinese themselves said in several interviews (before this Olympics) that those two girls are under 16. Now, miraculously they have turned 16 instantly and have passports to prove it! I guess the next news story will be “Amazing! The Chinese have learned how to time travel and have brought gymnasts back from the future!”
I bet you idiots talking about height and weight didn’t even read the entire article.
Asian girls are generally leaner and shorter than Americans
Japanese Gymnastics Women’s Team
Avg height in cm: 146.67
Avg weight in kg: 37.33
Avg age: 19
Chinese Gymnastics Women’s Team
Avg height in cm: 144.33
Avg weight in kg: 35
Avg age: 16.8
USA Gymnastics Women’s Team
Avg height in cm: 153.67
Avg weight in kg: 48.33
Avg age: 18.17
Data from http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/BIO/Team/9990373.shtml
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/BIO/Team/9990717.shtml
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/BIO/Team/9990657.shtml
In the ancient games, when someone was caught cheating, they were fined (so many drakhma back then) and the money was used to erect a statue of the cheater in a prominent place at Olympia as a warning to others – sort of an ancient Olympic’s “Hall of Shame”. And many in the modern world think the ancients have nothing to teach us……
Future ages shall wonder at us as the present does now. – Perikles’ Funeral Oration (431/0 BC)
And, yes….Perikles is spelled with a “k” (kappa).
Oh my god this is so stupid. Chinese have much smaller builds than Americans. Chinese tend to be shorter and lighter than most races. The Americans can’t just compare with their own people I mean take 1 person from America (16 years old) and one from China (16 years old), in most cases the Chinese would have a much smaller build.
Furthermore, China has 1.6 billion people to choose from. Knowing that smaller build people have an advantage, they would probably choose the smallest people. They have such a wide range, they would obviously choose people to their advantage.
I do not think China would do such a thing. Yes they may produce fake products, but I feel their integrity is there.
Glad to get that off my chest.
Min
If you google more effectively you’ll fing that the Diving & Gymnastic federations have different age limits.
no it should not be allowed for any age, as at that young age professional sport is extremely physicaly damaging to the growing child – imho they should up the age to 18, or even 20, so children would not be abused for the sake of little shiny coloured pendants and for the pride of some nationalists
having the minimal age of 20, everybody would need to excersize but there would not be that pressure and danger, that the children would be pushed to do things, that later in their life will inhibit their healthy functioning
at 18-20 the young person also would be able to decide on their own, if they want to enter the world of professional sports and take its risks, as when it is now allowed to abuse children for the pride of nation, these children have not the possibility to realy decide if they want to or not to be trained like circus animals as all the decision are taken by their fame driven parents and/or officials who want to get famous through them
its just another publicly accepted child abuse for the sake of public entertainment
Hello writer, if you google Tom Daley, you will realise he is another olympiad (UK diving team) that is under 16 too. If he is legal, why shouldn’t the chinese gymnasts be?
What else is new? Everything is FAKE in China: fake singing, fake food (even soya sauce), fake bags, fake ids. I can say this because I am Chinese, and am not a racist. The People’s Republic of China is but a slim shadow what Chinese culture really is. They are nothing but desperate, obscene, illiterate peasants who have used military power to control one of the world’s populated nations. – DOWN with the COMMIES!!!
The problem is their birth certificates are issued from the Chinese National Government, and they can be issued at any time. Kids are taken from their parents at an obscenely young age to undergo intensive training, and have little contact with them following that. If they are proven to be undersge, their gold medal in gymnastics will be forfeited.