UPDATE 2: Just for fun — Here is a look at what U.S. editorial cartoonists are doing with the He Kexin kerfuffle. Click to enlarge.
UPDATE: China Digital Times has a November 3, 2007 report from the Xinhua News Agency describing He Kexin as 13 years old. And on the same day (courtesy of The University of Hong Kong’s “China Media Project”), the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily also reported that He was 13.
This story is just getting interesting. The Times of London is reporting that the International Olympic Committee is opening up an official investigation into the age of Chinese gymnastics gold medalist He Kexin:
An IOC official told The Times that because of “discrepancies” that have come to light about the age of He Kexin, the host nation’s darling who won gold in both team and individual events, an official inquiry has been launched that could result in the gymnast being stripped of her medals.
The investigation was triggered as a US computer expert claimed today to have uncovered Chinese government documents that he says prove she is only 14 – making her ineligible to compete in the Olympics – rather than 16, as officials in Beijing insist is her age.
Mike Walker, a computer security expert, told The Times how he tracked down two documents that he says had been removed from a Chinese government website. The documents, he said, stated that He’s birth date was January 1 1994 – making her 14 – and not January 1 1992, which is printed in her passport.
The Times article is a fascinating read, which also includes the real name of “Stryde Hax,” the computer security consultant who uncovered a host of cached documents on Chinese search-engine servers that seem to peg He Kexin as a 14-year-old. If so, there’s gonna be some gold medals re-assigned. And the top of the Olympic medal standings could even be determined by the outcome.
Sports Illustrated writer E.M. Swift has a sturdy oak paddle laid out for the IOC, accusing the body of wearing blinders at the outset of what was bound to be a corrupt process:
Cheating is cheating. The IOC spends millions of dollars trying to ferret out drug cheats. Yet they ignore allegations of institutionalized cheating by an authoritarian government that has the ability to alter the dates on a passport anytime it wants. The IOC’s response to the whole underage gymnast controversy? One statement saying that they’d checked out the passports of the gymnasts in question and they were in order. Any other questions should be directed to the FIG [Federation International Gymnastics]. All’s well in China. Let the Games begin. (How young do the Chinese gymnasts look? Check out the photos here.)
It’s an outrage. For the IOC to sit idly by while an inept organization like the FIG — the geniuses who meekly asked Paul Hamm to return his gold medal four years ago because their judges screwed up in the middle of the competition — allows the Chinese to operate behind a cloak of secrecy makes a mockery of the concept of fair play. Asking the FIG to certify that China’s gymnasts are really 16 is like asking the International Cycling Federation to do its own drug testing. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. The three monkeys ride again.
Ouch. He has a point.
Deceiver finger-snaps also for The Epoch Times, a publication of the Falun Gong spiritual Chinese sect, which had confirmation from the IOC several hours before much bigger news outlets.
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I get it, it is cheating…but really…in the big picture, we not only lost, we lost to 14 year old girls.
Let’s take away medals from 14 year old girls who were forced to do this anyways, and give them to “adults” who couldn’t beat them.
The Chinese are scum, but the poor little girls training night and day (prob at gunpoint), did manage to win…
It just really sucks, I hate China, and I hate being a softy here.
Jrod – you can’t think of gymnastics like you do ANY other sport. Being younger and smaller is actually a HUGE advantage. Why do you think Kyroli(sp? I can never remember) wants the age rules lifted? These younger girls have a much more compact body, thus a more stable center of gravity. They’re less likely to be in the middle of a ‘gawky’ growth spurt that’s gonna mess them up too.
In this case, it’s actually no surprised we were beaten by 14 year old girls. The thing people don’t realize is that if the US and Russia had sent their 14 year olds too, we most likely would have competed better ourselves.
This Olympics has no representation of the original Greek games. Now its about marketing crap, spending billions of public money on buildings and infrastructure which has very limited functionality, and trying to pay for it by bringing in as many tourists as you can in a short period of time.
Doping, age limitations, who has the best technology – frankly, this event, while entertaining, continues to be smeared every four years because of the money and pressure on the athletes.
I suspected the Chinese would do this because its part of their culture to cheat – it’s almost a birth right as I have experienced when dealing with Chinese businesses. Payoffs, bribes, this event is no different.
Of course, we as a nation have Gitmo, started a war in the Middle East, have a Congress and House of Representatives who allowed our President to erode our privacy, and have effectively slapped every foreign nation’s face with our current leader’s arrogance. So who are we to judge?
I just wish we had more women’s beach volleyball because the women are gorgeous and they kicked everyone’s posterior.
The saddest part of this whole debacle is that a little girl has been shamed by her country.
Frankly, it doesnt matter who anyone directs their apologies to right now, much less if their wrongdoing is even surprising. The bottom line is the Chinese knew these rules were in place and never objected to complying. Now if you’re going to play dumb, please learn to cover your tracks.
Well, this is interesting: A Chinese blogger (translated into English) argues that it’s more likely that He Kexin is a 16-year-old whose age was falsified to make her look younger in previous years, so she could compete in prestigious regional competitions where there are maximum (not minimum) age limits.
One thing missing from most of these articles is an explanation that yes, being underage *would* in fact help the Chinese gymnasts rather than hurt them, because immature bodies have greater flexibility. I’ve seen at least one comment on every site that allows them, questioning why China would even *want* younger athletes — here, the misconception belonged to Jrod, & was capably cleared up by Scott F. Including a similar clarification in the body of your post might help to forestall the (otherwise, seemingly inevitable) confusion.
Anyone else find the sheer dominance of the Jamaican sprinters unlikely?
Bolt may have been an anomaly, but watching all four runners in the 4×100 relay dominate their segments of the race, it occured to me that something may be amiss.
Winning shouldn’t look that easy, should it?
I just read that the IOC has already backed off the investigation…
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news?slug=ap-gym-underagechinese&prov=ap&type=lgns
Anyone suprised by that?
So basically, what I learned here is that we should send our Jr. high and High school teams out around the world to kick everyones ass. From my experience…our High School Gymnastics looked nothign like this, and the Freshmen were the worst.
In any case, good points were made, I just think that the pressure, the performance and the maturity needed for Olympic gymnastics means you should still be able to beat 14 year olds.
But what do I know? I am just a guy who watches for the camel toe, and now I feel dirty.
Jrod- yeah, I’m betting your high school gymnastics team wouldn’t beat olympians. That’s why they were in high school, not training for the olympics, right?
The women’s gymnastic teams are always super super young, compared to the other teams. There’s a reason for that…and they train these girls long before they’re competing age to prepare for that so they aren’t at a disadvantage due to age. That girl with the gold is not your kid sister, and has traded her childhood for a shot at that medal. It’s a weird sport, but age and size do count against you.
So since she traded her childhood, can we at least let her keep her medal? lol
It’s a fair trade.
No I get it, I just can’t wrap my mnd around losing to 14 year old girls when I am supposed to be a world class athlete. It will continue to blow my mind, but I understand what you are saying. I find it hard to believe that there is not a single, in shape, smallish 20 year old who has been doing gymnastic her whole life who cannot beat a 14 year old girl.
Ok, one more, one more.
Chinese Gymnists: It’s like Veal, so good!
Look at it this way, Jrod- that smalllish, 20 year old who has been doing gymnastics her whole life could probably beat the 14 year old girl…in the parking lot afterwards…and steal her medal.
Also, the 20 yr old can probably beat the 14 year old in a drinking contest.
See, it all works out!
A Chinese blogger raised the possibility that in those other meets, the gymnasts ages were fudged to make them appear younger–but it then begs the question, what ID were used in those meets?
As for the IOC, they’re only going to look at the documents presented. If they’re forged, who cares.
After browsing this site for the past couple weeks, I’ve developed a sinus problem attributed to (according to my doctor) deceiver.com. Apparently, while reading the news here, I tend to snort wind out of my nose. This condition is exacerbated while under the influence of a hangover.
Keep it up!
I am just a guy who watches for the camel toe, and now I feel dirty.- jrod
And just when I thought womens beach volleyball was the prize.
The people at fault should be punished not the girls who competed. I say let the medals stand but ban the Chinese team from international competition for 5 years so they will not be able to compete in the next olympics.
They also need to come up with a better way to determine age. How many times have there been little league players with forged birth certificates?
They have cool names though don’t they? STRYDE HAX CRIME FIGHTER! And phoneix, the 20 year old could definitely beat the 14 year old in a drinking contest. Unless the 14 year old was from the U.K.
Anyone who says anything questioning Usain Bolt let me first hear what they have to say about Michael Phelps.
As for the Chinese gymnastics, just look at the Chinese divers.