Thanks to stalwart Deceiver reader Ellen, we learned today about a fascinating development in the saga of He Kexin, the (female) Chinese gymnast whose gold medal in the uneven bars is starting to look more and more like pyrite — and whose name has already inspired lots of Abbot and Costello references. The Chinese government says He (that is, she) is 16, but sports-information documents from last year said she (that is, He) was 13, which would make He (her) too young to compete. (Whew!)
The London Times is reporting that a New York-based “computer security expert” (translation: a hacker, probably not much older than the gymnast, but then I’m just jealous…) has unearthed a treasure trove of new evidence in online caches from Google and the Chinese search engine Baidu. The hacker’s blog has spelled it all out; it’s a great read, chock full of evidence. (He/she seems to have started the blog just for this hack.)
The bottom line? The General Administration of Sport of China has issued many, many documents saying that He Kexin is a prepubescent kid. But China’s State Department has given her a passport saying she’s old enough to drive a car. And just like the old website of a certain American politician’s mistress, all the evidence of the gymnast’s apparent real age has been disappearing from the Internet — but thankfully not fast enough for the caches to clear.
The official mission of the General Administration of Sport of China, by the way, includes “fighting against drug use and other unfair competition measures.”
It’ll be interesting to see if this kid loses her medals, and if the Chinese women’s gymnastics squad, which won the team gold medal, will also be in the soup. For more background on the fakest Olympics held anywhere on the globe this year, click here.
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It’s not like this wasn’t obvious or unexpected coming from China.
I would love to see her lose her medal as well as the Chinese lose their team medal because they broke the rules. However, who issued the passports? Most likely, the Chinese government. Is the Olympic committee going to risk pissing off their already mentally unstable host country by requesting an inquisition? I’d love to see it, but so far, despite a lot of evidence, the IOC and the gymnastics federation have declined to protest. Just add it to the pile of fake stuff.
Sigh…I hate how all this has gone so far, but I think Queen Bee is probably right…I doubt that there’s actually going to be a big disgrace about this. How long did they have to fight to get medals revoked from former Olympians who were using steroids, again?
The sad things is even if, IF the medals get taken away, they won’t get given to those who would have won otherwise. Or at least that’s what I remember hearing from that whole steroid debacle. So it’s just an issue of the principle and international face-saving, but the athletes who this is truly an ordeal for will see nothing come of this.
That said, I’d love, love love to be wrong.
And for all the complaining Bela Kyroli (not sure if I got that right) has done throughout, yuu just know it is not about the girls health… he and his wife want to use very young girls on the US team as well. Nothing will change in this sport - I would be amazed to see any thing done different after all this.
I feel bad for the little girl, though. No doubt she’s not the one conniving behind the scenes, trying to get herself into the Olympics regardless of her age, and she’s won a few medals on her own merit (save the weird decision on the Nastia-He tie). If all of this does come to light, I’ll be glad that China is called out for repeatedly lying and cheating, but I’ll feel bad for the little girl if her medals are stripped over something she probably didn’t have much say in.
Chances are nothing will happen. I heard an interview on NPR last week where the USA Today reporter covering the Olympics unequivocally said some members of the Chinese gymnastics team were under age and when pressed as to how she knew for certain said that other reporters had done the research and had the proof. She also said that she didn’t expect the IOC to do anything about the proof, though, because they already said they weren’t going to conduct their own indication and that they were taking China’s word that the passports were valid as truth.
I’m afraid China hasn’t done much for their international reputation with these games. Too bad.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olympics/2008/writers/em_swift/08/20/underage.opinion/?eref=sircrc
Sports Illustrated
BEIJING — Recently I asked a Chinese journalist about the underage gymnast controversy. What, I asked her, did Chinese sportswriters who cover gymnastics think about the assertions that at least three of the members of the Chinese team were under 16? Was it western prejudice? Sour grapes? A cultural misunderstanding?
She didn’t bat an eye. Chinese journalists generally knew that the gymnasts in question, He Kexin (two golds), Jiang Yuyuan (one gold), and Yang Yilin (one gold, two bronze) were underage by Federation International Gymnastics (FIG) rules. Indeed, as newspaper reports both inside and outside the country suggested, they were probably only 14 (the rules state that gymnasts must turn 16 in the year of the competition). These girls had competed in provincial and city competitions for several years, so their histories were not unknown. None of the journalists were able to say so on the record, she said, because it would cost them their jobs. Or worse. But it was common knowledge that the underage allegations were true.
@ Jill - They’ve done tonnes for their international image through these games! We went in suspecting them of a being corrupt, totalitarian, dishonest and crazy regime, and now we are all convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt! How ironic that because of their blatant lies we’ve been able to see showcased just what the government’s really like over there…
I’ll throw my hat in with the majority here and say “I’d love to see the medals stripped, but I doubt it’ll happen.” This is why the world sucks so hard, y’know. Evil people and evil countries do things, and no one says “Stop!” until it’s escalated to Hitler invading Poland (or something along those lines) and even, it’s with mixed motives that the “good guys” do anything.
/sigh
I’m sure I could look this up on Wikipedia or something, but I’m lazy. Did the East German women’s swim team gold medallists from ‘88 ever get their medals revoked?
I think everyone is missing the larger picture here that ties in with Edwards scandal….
It disturbs me that the internet can so easily be scrubbed clean by those in power and while they have not been 100% successful they are making progress.
I’ll go ahead and jump on this bandwagon, too. The underage girls should be stripped of their medals, but I seriously doubt it will happen. Has anyone else noticed how, in every event, the judges are TOTALLY up China’s ass? It’s been especially obvious in gymnastics and diving. It’s like everyone is just scrambling to praise the host country, regardless of merit.
This being said, I think, in the off chance that the medals were stripped, they would go to the next deserving gymnast. The reason I think this is because of the mens 200m last night - Usain Bolt rampaged, then silver and bronze were both later disqualified (USA and…Netherlands?) and the medals were given to Walter Dix and the other USA guy.
But really I have no idea and I’m sure nothing will come from it.
@ D—
Way ahead of ya’… but good call!
http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/world/underage-chinese-gymnasts-ioc-fig-3151.html
Finally…but will anything come of it?
You gotta hand it too her though. At 13 I think I was still wetting my pants. Oh wait that was yesterday.
I think this topic´s been blown a little out of proportions, but I do understand why… too many people are tying sports with politics, and the 2 just don´t mix well.. but whether we like it or not there´ll always be politics in sports (anything at an international level anyway!)
Anyway, I really do think you guys should get yourselves here in Beijing before making anymore judgments on China from what the media is feeding you. I´m an Aussie currently working with NBC on the Olympics, so I´m witnessing a lot these things first hand, and I have to say.. China is a very nice country. The locals are extremely nice, and it´s far from the crazy freedom-less place that many have in their heads..
back on the issue…
maybe we should just let the athletes decide themselves on what happens with the medals IF it is proven that ¨He¨ was in fact underage.. cos to be honest with you, if I came second place on the uneven bars and found out later that the gold medalist was younger and thus not eligible to compete, I wouldn´t feel any better if they handed me the gold… knowing I was beaten fair and square on the apparatus.
Some may say that because she was younger she had an unfair advantage, but I really can´t see how that can be. I´m a gymnast (men´s), and have competed in 5 nationals in Australia myself. Gymnastics is definitely not the easiest sport to grasp and you need all the training you can get. To be younger means you´ll have less time to perfect your techniques, so I would give it up to her as the true gold medalist..
but these are just my personal views..
Allykat
“Anyway, I really do think you guys should get yourselves here in Beijing before making anymore judgments on China from what the media is feeding you. I´m an Aussie currently working with NBC on the Olympics, so I´m witnessing a lot these things first hand, and I have to say.. China is a very nice country. The locals are extremely nice, and it´s far from the crazy freedom-less place that many have in their heads..”
And from what I understand, the Chinese police have gone to great lengths to convince you that this is the situation…
Just one source of many.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA17/050/2008/en/83b26dc5-0008-11dd-b092-bdb020617d3d/asa170502008eng.html
Please, don’t swallow the totalitarian kool-aid.
By Withholding Photos, Olympic Timekeeper Draws Attention to Relationship With Phelps
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/sports/olympics/21longman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
It might fell better being a$$ kicked by a 16-year-old instead of a 14-year-old (if it is true).
All athletes are working their a@@ off for this once in four years game. Can people just drop off their biased judgment and give them some peaceful air for competition? Do you really know anything about Chinese government or Chinese people before being crazy? Have you ever been there to see the truth in your own eyes? Each government is running for their own benefits. Do you like US government? There might be more people in the world who hate US government. If you are not a politician, just enjoy the game. Whining can not make you less like a loser.
“It might fell better being a$$ kicked by a 16-year-old instead of a 14-year-old (if it is true).
All athletes are working their a@@ off for this once in four years game. Can people just drop off their biased judgment and give them some peaceful air for competition? Do you really know anything about Chinese government or Chinese people before being crazy? Have you ever been there to see the truth in your own eyes? Each government is running for their own benefits. Do you like US government? There might be more people in the world who hate US government. If you are not a politician, just enjoy the game. Whining can not make you less like a loser.”
I think I got one of your gold-spamming messages playing Lord of the Rings Online™ once. I see the script the government gave you is a lot better than games4power.com, but there’s still something about it that just makes me not want to even bother an iota thinking about what you just said.
Ta!
If China women gymnastics did not win in team and UB, do you think it will have such high escalation?
If China not strong in gymnastics, will someone start to fire up this issue?
I feel that some country is over influence by the local Media, and start to believe in the Media.
Sammy:
“I feel that some country is over influence by the local Media, and start to believe in the Media.”
Pot, meet Kettle. The finger pointing can go in both directions.
Well if she is a 14yo she deserves it even more
I guess I am a bit of a freak, but why do the Olympics or any sporting events have rules at all? Isn’t it to ensure a fair competition (regardless of the fact that girls in the US, Russia, Romania or China have unfair advantages because they have better training programs?) Yeah, maybe the age rule should go away for future competitions. As Dominique Moceanau(SIC?)pointed out, she was training really hard regardless of whether or not she could compete so why not let her compete? Of course, she was one of the people the rule was put in place for because she was pounding on her fragile, growing body at such a young age. By the time these girls become adults, they usually have multiple surgeries. Shawn Johnson is the exception to that rule - and everyone can’t quite believe she hasn’t had to have her knees fixed yet. And while the 14 year old gymnast might be lithe and wiry, the 16 year old might have better stamina as well as mental fortitude to manage the stress of major events.
But here is the bottom line - right now, there is a rule in place that prohibits girls under the age of 16 from competing in gymnastics. The IOC and FIG are choosing to accept “evidence” to the contrary because they don’t want to start an international incident. It’s sad that’s the way it is but there you have it - a tarnished Olympics that reflects the rest of the world.
If the Chinese gymnasts are under age, they deserve the medals even more. FYI Nadia was 14 when she won. I guess it is embarassing to be beaten by some body younger….
personally, I think it would suck to be the gymnasts who were beaten by her… they lost to a kid.
Even if it turns out that gymnasts were underaged, it should not take away the fact that they trained and competed at the highest levels. It would be a shame if they got their medals taken away just like that, it’s not as if being underaged makes it any easier to compete at that level. And quite likely, given the regime they come from, they did not have a choice in the matter anyway.
I think what’s easy is for us (myself included) to sit around and shoot the breeze about who deserves their medals to be revoked and what not, but unless we have been in their shoes, having worked most of their young lives, forgone many of the joys of childhood, just for a shot at a sporting event, we will never ever be qualified to judge them.
You do realize that their whole lives are based on being judged, right? Literally? And that the Olympics have, like, rules and stuff?
Underage gymnasts? Maybe not…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtB5VLxOBsQ