The International Olympic Committee has asked gymnastics officials to look into whether China's women's gymnastics team used underaged competitors, an IOC spokeswoman said Friday. The committee asked the International Gymnastics Federation to clarify the situation, said spokeswoman Giselle Davis. She said she wouldn't call it a formal investigation.
The Chinese women's gymnastics team won a gold medal in a team competition at the Summer Olympics Games. Five members won medals in individual competitions. Yet commentators, bloggers and others have raised questions about whether about half the members of China's team were old enough to compete -- athletes must be at least 16 in the year the games take place. In women's gymnastics, younger teenage girls can have an advantage over older competitors due to their often smaller, more agile bodies and lighter frames. A top Chinese Olympic official said questions regarding the ages of the athletes have been dealt with previously. Chinese officials provided the Olympic committee with passports, showing that team members were of legal age, but numerous challenges have been made.
The latest came from a blogger known as "Stryde Hax." The blogger claims to have uncovered proof that Chinese gymnast He Kexin is only 14. In Internet searches, "Stryde Hax" allegedly uncovered Web pages showing lists complied by China's General Administration of Sport that show a 1994 date of birth for He. That would make her 14 -- too young to compete in the Olympic Games. Other bloggers have joined the search and reported similar results. The New York Times conducted its own investigation, producing similar results that seem to implicate He and two other members of the team. The Times uncovered a 2006 biography on He that lists her birthday as January 1, 1994.
The International Gymnastics Federation, however, has said that those gymnasts were eligible and that the ages on their passports were correct. Chinese gymnastics coaches defended their team Friday. [End of report]
If you ask my opinion on this issue, I would say that some of the girls are underage and I am only judging by looking at the photos of the girls. I dont know whether they are really underage or not because sometimes the size can deceive you. I have some friends who are the same age as me but are very small in size, it makes them look like 2 or 3 years younger. Nevertheless, if they are really underage, then I think something needs to be done. It is not as if the accusations is baseless because the people who are complaining have some good evidence to show that they are really underage. Therefore, I think it is really difficult for the International Olympic Committee to turn a blind eye on the complaints and not do anything about it. I dont expect the Chinese to say that they are underage if that is indeed the truth, so the IOC must do their job to ensure that they didn't cheat to win the medals. If they are found to be underage, then the Chinese should be strip off their gold medals and it should go to the team in the second place which is the U.S. I think that would be the only fair outcome if they are found to be cheating.
The game will be ending soon, but I think the investigation should continue for as long as it takes so as to be fair for all parties. Fair play is an important aspect of the Olympic movement, and the IOC is responsible for ensuring that everybody is playing by the rules. Im not sure if the Chinese government has anything to do with it because they are the ones who issued the passports and the identity card. So if the information on the passports is incorrect, then the government could have something to do with it as well but right now there is not much evidence to suggest that they are involved so it would be wrong to say they had play some role in this whole issue too. If the reports are true then I would think it will be a major blow to China. I mean to have some of your athletes cheating to win the Games and adding to the fact that they are the host country, they will be embarrass and it will have a major affect to their credibility when participating in future Olympics or other sporting competition. Just for your information, age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s after the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to protect young athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997.
I did some research and I found out that there have been cases of age falsification before in the Olympics particularly in gymnastics. North Korea was barred from the 1993 world championships after FIG officials discovered Kim Gwang Suk, the gold medalist on uneven bars in 1991, was listed as 15 for three years in a row. Romania meanwhile admitted in 2002 that several gymnasts’ ages had been falsified, including Olympic medalists Gina Gogean and Alexandra Marinescu. Coming back to the current China team, I really hope that will not be the case though because it would be sad to see those girls whom have worked so hard to win the medals, only to know that their celebrations are going to be shortlive because they are found to be underage. Nevertheless, if they are found of any wrongdoings, then they deserve to be punish. It will really defeat the entire purpose of the Olympic Games if you are cheating. Let's just hope it will be a positive outcome for the Chinese team.
*The report was taken from CNN.
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