justnzane Posted August 15, 2008 Share Posted August 15, 2008 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-flumen...m_b_118842.html Scandal of the Ages: Documents Reveal Underage Chinese Gymnaststumble digg reddit del.ico.us news trust Posted August 14, 2008 | 02:20 PM (EST) Read More: Beijing Olympics, Bela Karolyi, China, China And US Gymnastics, China Gymnast And Rule, China Gymnasts, China Gymnasts Age, Chinese Gymnast Underage, Chinese Gymnastics, Gymnastics, He Kexin, He Kexin Age, Ioc, Jiang Yuyuan, Olympics, Underage Chinese Gymnasts, Yang Yilin, Yang Yun, Home News What began as whispers among the media and gymnastics insiders weeks ago about the ages of three of China's female Olympic gymnasts -- Jiang Yuyuan, Yang Yilin and He Kexin -- has grown into ear-shattering, head-hurting shouts. Despite assurances by Chinese officials that all three are 16, the minimum age of eligibility for Olympic competition, newly discovered documents and records prove otherwise. The New York Times first looked into the age of China's gymnasts with a story on July 27 that focused primarily on He Kexin, whose birthdate on numerous online records was listed as January 1, 1994, making her 14 when the Games began and ineligible to compete. When the world was officially introduced to He Kexin this week, even those unwise to the ways of competitive gymnastics could tell that with He, something was not right. At 4-foot 8-inches tall and weighing 72 pounds, the Beijing native appears significantly younger than most of her Chinese teammates much less her American and European counterparts. The world's foremost expert on female gymnastics Bela Karolyi has routinely referred to the 2008 Chinese team as "half people" and in his contributions to NBC as a commentator during the Games he has railed against the Chinese for engaging in age falsification. After China outscored the U.S. in the qualification round, Karolyi had this to say about the Chinese gymnastics officials: These people think we are stupid...We are in the business of gymnastics. We know what a kid of 14 or 15 or 16 looks like. What kind of slap in the face is this? They are 12, 14 years old and they get lined up and the government backs them and the federation runs away. There is an age limit and it can't be controlled. Chinese Olympic officials have forcefully defended He's eligibility, maintaining that when asked, they submitted proper passport documentation to the IOC. He's passport says her date of birth is January 1, 1992, making her 16 and old enough to compete. However, as Karoyli told the AP, "passports mean nothing." China has a rich history of age falsification in Olympics competition, especially in gymnastics. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, three years after the minimum age was raised to 16 in gymnastics, Chinese gymnast Yang Yun competed and won a bronze medal in the uneven bars (coincidentally this event is also He's specialty). Yang's passport said she was born on December 24, 1984 and turning 16 in the year of the Games, making her eligible. She later confessed in a television interview that she was only 14 at the time of the competition and that she and her coaches had lied about her age. As in the case of Yang Yun, the existing records prior to the Olympics -- local registries, athletic records and news articles -- were all correct, whereas the documentation she showed Olympic officials to confirm her eligibility proved to be false. It is no coincidence that He Kexin's passport was issued on February 14, 2008, a mere 6 months before the Olympics. What did the IOC have to say about the scandal? President Jacques Rogge said, "The IOC relies on the international federations, who are exclusively responsible for the eligibility of athletes. It's not the task of the IOC to check every one of the 10,000 athletes." Not every one Jacques, but maybe just the ones who look like they're ten. So, for all of those who are still left unconvinced, I offer a collection of evidence that will demonstrate not only that the Chinese gymnast in question was born in 1994 and underage, but that Chinese officials, over the last few weeks, have systematically tried to cover it all up. EXHIBIT A: A China Daily article dated May 23, 2008 titled "Uneven-bars queen the new star in town" about He Kexin. This is the cached version (thanks Google) of the article as seen on August 4, 2008. EXHIBIT B: The same China Daily article dated May 23, 2008 titled "Uneven-bars queen the new star in town" about He Kexin. This is the version currently available online. As you can see, when compared to EXHIBIT A, everything is identical. Except for one little thing. The state-run newspaper has changed He's age. EXHIBIT C: A Chinese article written by state-run news agency Xinhua in 2007, and discovered by the great China Digital Times that refers to He Kexin as 13 years old. And though I wasn't a math major, if she was 13 in 2007, then she's 14 this year. Here is an image of the article with a translation from CDT beneath it. Translation: The thirteen-year-old He Kexin, from Wuhan, met opponent Yang Yilin, who is on the National Team. Amid cheers from her hometown audience, the young girl excellently executed the full set of moves in the finals, and just beat out Yang Yilin, who already had high scores. Lu Shanzhen, the General Coach of the National Gymastic team, also applauded her performance. EXHIBIT D: An official gymnastics roster dated January 27, 2006 published by the Chengdu government for its City Games, a competition in which He competed. As you'll see from the translated version I have provided, He Kexin's date of birth, according to these government documents, is January 1, 1994. UPDATE: EXHIBIT E: A Xinhua (Chinese state media) article from November 3, 2007 stating clearly that "The Wuhan Team's 13-year-old He Kexin faced off against the National Teams' Yang Yilin in women's parallel bars." Once again, 13 in 2007, 14 in 2008. To think that China out of all countries would illegally exploit children in the Olympics is a big shocker to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sen. John Blutarsky Posted August 15, 2008 Share Posted August 15, 2008 Anyone else waiting for the huge Chinese doping scandal? It's coming, it's just a question of when... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justnzane Posted August 15, 2008 Author Share Posted August 15, 2008 Anyone else waiting for the huge Chinese doping scandal? It's coming, it's just a question of when... When you notice the 11 yr old girls growing mustaches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffOrange Posted August 15, 2008 Share Posted August 15, 2008 I've got to take my hat off to those girls; it's the most pressure they've faced in their 7 years on earth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Jack Posted August 15, 2008 Share Posted August 15, 2008 China is a big country, maybe there's several people with the same name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilly Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/08/20/1259253.shtml Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Anyone else wish gymnastics and figure skating were banned from the Olympics? Seems to me that there is always endless whining and cheating and scoring b.s. and whatever around these silly events. Give me some good track and field (with or without the 'roids) any day. btw...that US girl who lost the 100m hurdles medal last night is pretty cute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorCal Aaron Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Anyone else wish gymnastics and figure skating were banned from the Olympics? Seems to me that there is always endless whining and cheating and scoring b.s. and whatever around these silly events. Give me some good track and field (with or without the 'roids) any day. btw...that US girl who lost the 100m hurdles medal last night is pretty cute. More women's pole vault please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Hey... Why does it bother people how old they are? Children half their age probably make the shirt you are wearing right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevestojan Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Hey... Why does it bother people how old they are? Children half their age probably make the shirt you are wearing right now. Yeah, that's really relevant to the rules of Olympic participation... And if 8 year old Americans could make this shirt with the same quality, I'd buy domestic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramius Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Anyone else wish gymnastics and figure skating were banned from the Olympics? Seems to me that there is always endless whining and cheating and scoring b.s. and whatever around these silly events. Give me some good track and field (with or without the 'roids) any day. btw...that US girl who lost the 100m hurdles medal last night is pretty cute. Agreed. Toss in diving as well. I hate the arbitrary scoring systems these events use. They bias the scoring towards either the "home" team (see: chinese B word getting a bronze in the vault after falling), or they base their scoring on previous reputation. Gimmie an event where you can see who won wth your own eyes, or there is some quantifiable way for an individual to earn a score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Yeah, that's really relevant to the rules of Olympic participation... And if 8 year old Americans could make this shirt with the same quality, I'd buy domestic. They can... Even better quality, you just don't want to pay. Are you really debating a "quality" issue with regards to CHINA? Things from CHINA are some of the most suspect in quality. Notice, I didn't say other countries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevestojan Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 They can... Even better quality, you just don't want to pay. Are you really debating a "quality" issue with regards to CHINA? Things from CHINA are some of the most suspect in quality. Notice, I didn't say other countries. I don't care. It's cheap and looks nice. If it breaks/wears out/shuts down, I'll just buy a new one!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drnykterstein Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 As far as I know, China has a lot of problems with cheating over the last 50 years. Steroids and all sorts of other problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Darin Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Anything that involves "judging" as the means of deciding a winner is not a sport. Those athletes are amazing but watching the scores is sickening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevestojan Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Anything that involves "judging" as the means of deciding a winner is not a sport. Those athletes are amazing but watching the scores is sickening. I said that same thing to my fiance yesterday. When you beat someone in the 100M Dash, you can say "I am the best runner of this event in the entire world". If you win the Gold in uneven bars (or ANY event with judges) you cannot say you are the best, those judges simply rated your performance the highest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Anything that involves "judging" as the means of deciding a winner is not a sport. So based on a game a few years ago in Tennessee, football is not a sport either? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted August 21, 2008 Share Posted August 21, 2008 Anything that involves "judging" as the means of deciding a winner is not a sport. Agreed, with boxing as the exception. Those athletes are amazing but watching the scores is sickening. That's why I don't watch it. It's also not a sport if the participants are children. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tcali Posted August 21, 2008 Share Posted August 21, 2008 Anyone else wish gymnastics and figure skating were banned from the Olympics? Seems to me that there is always endless whining and cheating and scoring b.s. and whatever around these silly events. Give me some good track and field (with or without the 'roids) any day. btw...that US girl who lost the 100m hurdles medal last night is pretty cute. extremely cute...--wish i were young again...sigghhhhhh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted August 21, 2008 Share Posted August 21, 2008 wish i were young again Let's be serious here. Do you really think that would make a difference? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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