Records Say Chinese Gymnasts May Be Under Age
By JERÉ LONGMAN and JULIET MACUR | The New York Times
July 27, 2008
China named its Olympic women's gymnastics team on Friday, and the inclusion of at least two athletes has further raised questions, widespread in the sport, about whether the host nation for the Beijing Games is using under-age competitors.
Chinese officials responded immediately, providing The New York Times with copies of passports indicating that both athletes in question -- He Kexin, a gold-medal favorite in the uneven parallel bars, and Jiang Yuyuan -- are 16, the minimum age for Olympic eligibility since 1997.
Officials with the International Gymnastics Federation said that questions about He's age had been raised by Chinese news media reports, USA Gymnastics and fans of the sport, but that Chinese authorities presented passport information to show that He is 16.
Online records listing Chinese gymnasts and their ages that were posted on official Web sites in China, along with ages given in the official Chinese news media, however, seem to contradict the passport information, indicating that He and Jiang may be as young as 14 -- two years below the Olympic limit.
Mary Lou Retton, the Olympic all-around gymnastics champion at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, recently watched a competition video of He and other Chinese gymnasts on the uneven bars.
"The girls are so little, so young," Retton said. Speaking of He, Retton rolled her eyes and laughed, saying, "They said she was 16, but I don't know."
An advantage for younger gymnasts is that they are lighter and, often, more fearless when they perform difficult maneuvers, said Nellie Kim, a five-time Olympic gold medalist for the former Soviet Union who is now the president of the women's technical committee for the Swiss-based International Gymnastics Federation.
"It's easier to do tricks," Kim said. "And psychologically, I think they worry less."
The women's gymnastics competition at the Beijing Games, which begin Aug. 8, is expected to be a dramatic battle for the team gold medal between the United States and China. At the 2007 world championships, the Americans prevailed by 95-hundredths of a point.
On the uneven bars, He and Nastia Liukin of the United States are expected to challenge for the individual gold medal.
In Chinese newspaper profiles this year, He was listed as 14, too young for the Beijing Games.
The Times found two online records of official registration lists of Chinese gymnasts that list He's birthday as Jan. 1, 1994, which would make her 14. A 2007 national registry of Chinese gymnasts -- now blocked in China but viewable through Google cache -- shows He's age as "1994.1.1."
Another registration list that is unblocked, dated Jan. 27, 2006, and regarding an "intercity" competition in Chengdu, China, also lists He's birthday as Jan. 1, 1994. That date differs by two years from the birth date of Jan. 1, 1992, listed on He's passport, which was issued Feb. 14, 2008.
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Not sure what's worse... the Chinese using under aged gymnasts or the US getting beat by under aged gymnasts. Either way, it's bad.
The Olympic Committee should be ashamed of themselves for not checking this out more thoroughly.....
If this is true their medals should be taken away & awarded to the second place winners.....
This is not fair to ALL of the other countries who have athletes competing against the Chinese "little girls".....
Lip syncing, too pretty medal presenters (according to the HRW), underage gymnasts.... what scandal is next? I bet hey're using Uncle Ben's Minute Rice!
Shame on them!
How can we trust anything the Chinese government says or does?
Lie
Cheat
Steal
I was a gymnast during Nadia’s years and I am angered by the fact that these Chinese girls are obviously not 16. The oldest girl may be about 16 but the smaller gymnasts are obviously NOT even close.
I do think they preformed the best, however, they did not do it fairly so they should not be awarded the metals for that reason.
If they had to put a team together of 16+ aged athletes it may be a totally different outcome. We will never know!
As Bela pointed out they are under less stress.
Also no one has pointed out that when a 16 yr. old hits puberty the body goes through drastic changes making it much more difficult to perform.
Our weight, height, and flexibility all change to a great degree. A young child of 10 or 11 yrs. old are not faced with these problems.
Even the amount of floor space is affected that you perform on.
A little girl will use 2/3’s the space needed to perform a routine on and are less likely to step out of bounds.
Has no one else noticed that the smallest gymnast is missing a canine tooth? Only 10 to 11 yr. olds lose these teeth. How many 16 yr. olds lose teeth? NONE!
Bob Costas seemed very uncomfortable addressing the issue. Why is the US media underplaying this, when it could be the biggest story of the Olympics next to Michael Phelps wins?
If any of our reporters did research and followed up on it, the American girls would feel better about their accomplishments. Silver is wonderful, but you can see the disappointment in their body language.
As a former gymnast that worked hard to get where I did I am so angered over this issue… it makes me want to stop watching the Olympics.
We have reasons for rules.
The Olympics should be held to the highest of standards, and be checked to make sure all athletes and countries are complying.
If we let people slide on these standards it really shouldn’t be called the Olympics.
Therese Becker,
I will agree that it is a disgrace the Chinese continue to run deception after deception at their own people and the world. I will agree that the federations , to protect the child against exploitation should no allow under 16 to compete.
I agree it was an advantage to use the underage girls.
I can't say that if the allegations were proven that the medals should be stripped. The girls must be presumed to be innocent and , well legally or not , they won the medals. Much more effective would be to ban the Chinese federation.
from Olympic and international competition for a full 4 year cycle.It would remove the incentive to do so or at least to get caught.
But the little girls - that would not be effective.
To me the most impressive accomplishment was the determination of our two girls last night to overcome the consistent underscoring of the USA girls and overscoring of the Chinese girls to provide the host country with something. I was clear and apparent enough for the host to wonder aloud , during the competition , what was going on.
But the two USA girls just kicked butt so much that they couldn't rig it enough and they won anyway.
It's a tough sport practiced by tough girls and women. but last night Shawn and Nastia - that was special - with the judges stacking the deck - they prevailed .....that's the feeling I will try to take away from these games.
to the host - when you make the spammer letter to hard for a human to read it kinda defeats the point , eh?
First of all, I am an American. I love the US team. I couldn't be happier when they won. However, I do not think the underage thing has a definitive conclusion, at least not yet. I can understand why most of us would think that the Chinese girls are definitely younger than 16. But, as a matter of fact, appearance is not reliable. Think about that how many of us have been trying to make ourselves look younger than what we actually are. So, I would not rely on the appearance argument. Well, how about the websites reporting their younger ages? I love to believe that. But, we all know that not all information from the websites was verified. They just do not constitute solid evidence. Ok, how about the registries? Yes, this is much better evidence. But, did the media verify the source of such information when they report them? I am not so sure. Even if they are verified with the source document, there are just a lot of holes. How were the source documents complied? Who enter the data into the registry? Was the person(s) entering the data taking is seriously at the time when he/she/they entered the data? You know, in China, they may not have a very vigorous process to handle the data into the registry. They could just enter something convenient at the moment. Again, I am not saying this it the case. What I am saying is that the registry is not totally reliable. So, now, we have "evidence" at both sides. The registry suggests the gymnasts' ages are under 16 and the official documents (passport and birth certificates) suggest the gymnasts' ages are over 16. There is conflicting information. So, what should we do? Many of us jumped to conclusion saying that the registry is telling the truth and the official documents do not contain the true information. This is not a right way to look at this. Come on, we Americans have to look at this in a more neutral way. If this is not China and the US but two other small countries, I think we would go by the official documents. Even if we do not go by the official documents, the case at most would be inconclusive. When it is inconclusive, we do not assume that their ages are under 16. We simply do not know. Someone may say that we should also consider the supportive information such as the appearance and the history. Well, history does not really count, as every occasion is different. Appearance could be a piece of supportive information but it just does not make the case conclusive. The gymnasts' parents also said that they are older than 16. There is supportive information at the other side too. Anyway, I am not saying they are underage or not. I just want to say that jumping to conclusion based on personal beliefs while there are conflicting evidence could be dangerous. You can see the damages that were done when we declared a war while we did not know for sure that there were MDW.