Did China “cheat” its way to a gold medal in the women’s gymnastics?
Accusations are still flying over whether some of the Chinese gymnasts are underage. It is a requirement that gymnasts must turn 16 by the end of the 2008 calendar year to be eligible to compete in the gymnastics at the Olympic games.
The athletes in question are He Kexin, Yang Yilin and Jiang Yuyuan. According to their age in their passports they are eligible to compete. The controversy stems from older registration lists found supposedly show the athletes to be under age.
The NBC Olympic site writes:
In 1991, a tiny North Korean, Kim Gwang-Suk, won the gold medal on uneven bars. Later, officials discovered that her birth date had been changed three times, meaning that her age stayed the same for three years. As a result, gymnastics’ governing body banned North Korea from competing at the 1993 Worlds. More recently, some Romanian gymnasts have said that their ages were falsified as well.
Perhaps they should remove this rule. In diving we have Tom Daley who is just 14 years old and the youngest athlete at the Beijing Olympics is Cameroonian freestyler, Antoinette Guedia who is just 12 years old.
even though the chinese are underage..they still good in wat dey do..give them there credit..they worked realy hard
they are phenomenal at what they do yes, but it’s the principle of the matter; rules are there for everyone, and IF it turns out that they are underaged something should be done regardless of how hard they worked. Everyone trains hard for their events some just had a bad day they are only human after all.
yeah they should get credit for being really good, but the fact is that we might have girls that are younger and better but we didn’t use them because we would not cheat to win? Our girls worked really hard and did well without cheating
China cheated and should be disqualified. They are supposed to be 16 years old nad no younger. Other countries could be better if they were younger because y ou are also shorter which gives you an advantage. For example, if you are shorter it is easier to do floor exercises because you wont be able to step out of boundaries. They should revoke china’s gold medal in women’s gymnastics.
That’s true china should be disqualified. They didn’t play fair. They shouldnt be able to lie and cheat there way to a gold medal, that’s not right.
all the “girls” for china women’s gymnastics team all looked incredibly young, compared to the other countires. Why did china have to lie to win?
it’s laughable that there’s not a shred of evidence for this supposed “cheating” yet people are believing this smear campaign so readily - i guess that is how much people want to win, i guess smearing the opposition MIGHT give you the gold by default, but surely that is cheating in itself. you’d think a country would have more self respect.
not only did the chinese “womens” team cheat to the gold, but they were awarded the bronze on the vault………after the gymnast landed on ker effing KNEES???
sychronised swimming was also obviously fixed (germany won, period!)
just like seoul, these olympics are becoming a joke
and fidelia god or not, they broke the rules. So what youre saying is, if youre good………….rules dont matter? Hell why are rules there????
freckles25nw no youre laughable, get your facts right. The chinese STATED the chinese girl was 14 YEARS OLD in a major event last year……..what she ages 2 years in 1 year??
do some research……….idiot!
the chinese are not underage, but people do believe they are.
rich scales - YOU’RE the idiot. the press in question already refuted the claim and even the president of USA gymnatics has backed down over these unsubstantiated claims, so why you think your golden opinion and sources are more plausible is a joke - you obviously have a high regard for all the crap you read.
Hey Freckles, he is right. A chinese official was quoted last year as saying He was a 13 year old 2012 hopeful.
The Chinese cheated, but what the hell, reality is whatever the communist government wants it to be. What a joke.
MUST SEE website on articles of underage He Kexin……. very intersting stuff……
China cheated both by using underaged athletes+paying of the judges.
when some one failed ,they always take some excuses
not only that China has cheated in the gynmenastics but also the refrees always cheat for China in basketball for both their men and women.Thats pathetic
The olympics should have a minimum age of 16 for every athlete, period. It’s not just the physical strain on them but also the psychological strain which is dangerous.
Unfortunately, there’s always been cheating at the olympics and most notably by the (former) communist countries in an organized fashion too. This doesn’t mean there hasn’t been cheating by other countries, America included, but then it is almost always the individual and not an organized attempt and I recall no instance of a country actually doing the cheating - although there appears to be an organized attempt for Jamaican track and field - whether by the country or just a ring of cheats, balco lab like, who knows. That a country would do this to its citizens, to my mind, makes it much worse. It is abusing your citizens for some false “greater goal” for the society.
Dudes, they cheat, and more than in just gymnastics, and they should be punished, but not the children, who really don’t have a choice in the matter anyway, especially because they are children.
I know when I looked at that one gymnast I was like ‘Oh hell no, she’s not 16, not even if you take into account how much younger asian girls/women tend to look’…
Part of the reason some age limits are set are because of the physical demands on the body. This is why diving has an age requirement of 14 vs gymnastics 16. Because the stresses on the body in diving are much less since you’re not landing onto a solid surface. When these kids are jumping twice their height or whatever and doing flips and twists and what not that puts alot more stress on the body than most other events.
But I do agree that the age limit should be 16 minimum because 12-14 year olds having the weight of the country’s expectations on your shoulders is not a pressure that an adolescent should be bearing.
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