I had heard of tourists, business people and journalists having trouble getting visas to the Olympics, but now athletes? Athletes who have been selected for the games get a card which acts as a visa and Olympic credential. However, for alternates, athletes who can take the spot of an athlete who pulls out or is injured, they must get tourist visas to China.

The men were able to get visas, but the women could not. Now they will go to Japan to do their training.

“The organizing committee is not automatically issuing visas for replacement athletes,” Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics, said Tuesday.

ESPN says that the problem is that the American women’s gymnastics team are favorites to win the gold medal and this is China’s attempt to disrupt them.

The alternates include Jana Bieger, Ivana Hong and Corrie Lothrop and can be called up 24 hours before their team is submitted on August 9th.

Update: It looks as though China has now given permission for the United States alternate women gymnasts to train at a gym in Tianjin, about an hour from Beijing.