Probe: China’s 2008 Gymnasts Were Old Enough to Compete

2008-10-1

Probe: China’s 2008 Gymnasts Were Old Enough to Compete

HONG KONG – The international gymnastics federation said that China’s female gymnasts on the 2008 Olympic team were all old enough to compete.

The gymnastics federation, known by its French acronym, FIG, announced toward the end of the Beijing Games in August that it would conduct an investigation into the ages of the China’s gold medal-winning women’s squad, amid speculation that some members were too young to compete.

FIG requires that gymnasts participating in the Olympics turn 16 during the year of the Games. Some critics had pointed to what appeared to be Chinese government documents on the Internet that contradicted the gymnasts’ officially stated ages. According to one of those documents, He Kexin, who also won a gold medal in the uneven bars competition, would have been only 14 this year. At least two other gymnasts on the women’s team had their ages questioned. In addition to taking the gold in as a team in Beijing, China’s women won five other medals in individual contests.

Chinese sports officials repeatedly insisted that all of the gymnasts met the age requirements and that the documents found online were erroneous.

In its statement Wednesday, FIG said it was satisfied by the evidence presented by Chinese officials that the 2008 gymnasts were old enough. “Originals of official documents received from the Chinese Gymnastics Association, specifically passports, identity cards and family booklets or ‘Household Registers,’ confirm the ages of the athletes,” FIG said. “It is considered that the case is now concluded.”

But the federation said it would continue its investigation into Chinese gymnasts who won the team bronze at the Sydney Games in 2000. One of those, Yang Yun, said last year on China Central Television, the state broadcaster, that she was 14 during the Sydney Olympics. The age of another team member, Dong Fangxiao, has also been questioned. “The FIG does not consider the explanations and evidence provided to date in regards to these athletes as satisfactory,” it said in its statement.

Aside from the possibility of losing medals, China could be barred from future international championships, as North Korea was in 1993, if found to have violated the sport’s age requirement.

The minimum age for Olympics eligibility in women’s artistic gymnastics was raised to 16 in 1997 in response to concerns about the physical and mental strain of training and competition on girls whose bodies and psyches are still developing. In past Olympics, a number of gymnasts have been suspected of age falsification, including athletes from North Korea, Romania and China.

Problem Since the ’80s

Underage gymnasts have been a problem since the 1980s, when the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to protect young athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997.

North Korea was barred from the 1993 world championships after FIG officials discovered Kim Gwang Suk, the 1991 gold medalist on uneven bars, was listed as 15 for three years in a row. Romania admitted in 2002 that several gymnasts’ ages had been falsified, including Olympic medalists Gina Gogean and Alexandra Marinescu.

The FIG’s announcement that it was closing the investigation on the 2008 team was hardly a surprise. China had insisted — heatedly and repeatedly — that all the girls were old enough to compete, and that it had the documents to prove it.

“For the FIG, the age of the Chinese team is well documented and proven,” said Andre Gueisbuhler, secretary general of the FIG.

In August, the Associated Press found registration lists previously posted on the Web site of the General Administration of Sport of China that showed Ms. He and Ms. Yang were too young to compete. And a Nov. 3 story by the Chinese government’s news agency, Xinhua, suggested Ms. He was only 14.

Younger gymnasts are considered to have an advantage because they are more flexible and are likely to have an easier time doing the tough skills the sport requires. They also aren’t as likely to have a history of injuries or fear of failure. China blamed the discrepancies on Web sites and paperwork errors.

—The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Write to Sky Canaves at sky.canaves@wsj.com

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One Response to “Probe: China’s 2008 Gymnasts Were Old Enough to Compete”

1
阿偉 Says:
October 2nd, 2008 at 7:43 am

I hope this puts to rest all the whining about it. You know, it was funny: in Taian they mentioned this once or twice, and after the passports were issued, nobody said anything. Similarly for the fireworks, there was one paragraph about it stating that what was on TV wasn’t real, but that the actual fireworks were, and nothing else.

I wrote a post “If the Olympics were in Israel”. You should check it out
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