Are they CHEATING?
Cause it ... well it looks like they are cheating.
In order to compete in gymnastics at the Olympics, you have to be sixteen or turning sixteen in 2008 (or calendar year of the olympics). Oddly, China's 11 year old looking gymnasts, all have passports that say they are 16. All of them. An even 16.
I was watching the qualifiers tonight (still waiting, Luikin did awesome on the vault just now!) and they were talking about how a girl that won the bronze at Sydney went on television and said she was 14 when she competed. But she had a passport that said she was 16 at the time.
Read this article from the NYT with quotes from Karolyi. Apparently this has been a question for months but since I've just seen the Chinese athletes for the first time tonight, this is the first I've been made aware of it.
And they are tiny. From the article, they are all under 5 feet (not damning in and of itself) and under 80 pounds. Crazy! The Americans look like giants next to them!
Apparently this is always an issue in gymnastics, but I've just never seen it so blatantly before.
In order to compete in gymnastics at the Olympics, you have to be sixteen or turning sixteen in 2008 (or calendar year of the olympics). Oddly, China's 11 year old looking gymnasts, all have passports that say they are 16. All of them. An even 16.
I was watching the qualifiers tonight (still waiting, Luikin did awesome on the vault just now!) and they were talking about how a girl that won the bronze at Sydney went on television and said she was 14 when she competed. But she had a passport that said she was 16 at the time.
Read this article from the NYT with quotes from Karolyi. Apparently this has been a question for months but since I've just seen the Chinese athletes for the first time tonight, this is the first I've been made aware of it.
And they are tiny. From the article, they are all under 5 feet (not damning in and of itself) and under 80 pounds. Crazy! The Americans look like giants next to them!
Apparently this is always an issue in gymnastics, but I've just never seen it so blatantly before.
Comments
Seriously, I don't know how the heck we could ever prove it since the government controls everything, from the birth certificates to the passports. And I would believe they're older than 11, but there's no way they are all exactly 16.
How about that 33 year-old competing for Germany? Maybe there's hope for me to be an Olympian after all!
Well and all the news reports talking about their passports say, their passports say ... so what? China could have a passport that says their 80. Would that make it true? The simple fact that they don't require birth certificates is damning in and of itself. And even when they make gymnasts get id cards next year, they still are providing those based on passports.
It's like the sport wants people to be able to cheat. Even the judging / new scores system is geared towards mistakes.
As for the Chinese team--sadly it doesn't really much suprise me.
Did you see the story about the Chinese boy who's school burnt down and he went back in and saved some of his classmates? When they asked him why he did it he said he was a class leader (I think like Hall Monitor?) and it was his job. He's like 9 or something. Awesome kid.