IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age

[TMU]

I have not a Chinese descent nor am I Chinese but would this have been an issue if our athletes didn't participate in gymnastics?

[Fairview4Life]

I have not a Chinese descent nor am I Chinese but would this have been an issue if our athletes didn't participate in gymnastics?

What do you mean? If they were in a sport without a 16 year old age limit? Like diving? No, there wouldn't be an issue.

[dougthonus]

I have not a Chinese descent nor am I Chinese but would this have been an issue if our athletes didn't participate in gymnastics?

The issue of a team / person is an issue regardless of nationality or sport. I'm not sure how many sports have age limits though, so this specific rule violation is likely only relevant to gymnastics.

[MaxRider]

I have not a Chinese descent nor am I Chinese but would this have been an issue if our athletes didn't participate in gymnastics?

The issue of a team / person is an issue regardless of nationality or sport. I'm not sure how many sports have age limits though, so this specific rule violation is likely only relevant to gymnastics.

i don't understand it either
especially for soccer
they allow pros in basketball but not soccer (i think the rule is older than 23 can't not participate)
WTF?

[dacher]

i don't understand it either
especially for soccer
they allow pros in basketball but not soccer (i think the rule is older than 23 can't not participate)
WTF?

Actually, each team is allowed 3 players over 23.

Soccer is pretty easy explanation, it's all about the money. FIFA (Soccer) don't want the Olympics overshadowing or diminishing or sharing the prestige of the FIFA World Cup, like Olympics has done to FIBA World Championsips. FIFA makes a lot of money from FIFA World Cup, they have no reason to share that with the Olympics/IOC.

Gymnastics has no such excuse.

Soccer greatness is measured in World Cup performance (not olympics).
Gymnastics careers culminate and legacies are made on the Olympics stage.

[Death Knight]

He Kexin owns all of you!


Bow to Team China!


end.

[TMU]

I have not a Chinese descent nor am I Chinese but would this have been an issue if our athletes didn't participate in gymnastics?

What do you mean? If they were in a sport without a 16 year old age limit? Like diving? No, there wouldn't be an issue.

Sry, my question wasn't very clear.

When I said "our athletes," I meant our American athletes. As you know, in gymnastics there's a tight competition between the Chinese and the Americans. I posed the above question because I wanted to know whether or not the media and Americans fans would've made a big deal out of this incident had none of our American athletes participated in gymnastics. Are we upset because the integrity of the olympics has been impaired? Or is it because we didn't win gold?

[Fairview4Life]

I have not a Chinese descent nor am I Chinese but would this have been an issue if our athletes didn't participate in gymnastics?

What do you mean? If they were in a sport without a 16 year old age limit? Like diving? No, there wouldn't be an issue.

Sry, my question wasn't very clear.

When I said "our athletes," I meant our American athletes. As you know, in gymnastics there's a tight competition between the Chinese and the Americans. I posed the above question because I wanted to know whether or not the media and Americans fans would've made a big deal out of this incident had none of our American athletes participated in gymnastics. Are we upset because the integrity of the olympics has been impaired? Or is it because we didn't win gold?

If the Americans were cheating, they would be vilified like all of the doping Americans have been, with the exception of Carl Lewis.

[Bullsmaniac]

He Kexin owns all of you!


Bow to Team China!


end.

She's so talented. She even sang at the closing ceremonies with her classmates. how cute!!!

[TMU]

What do you mean? If they were in a sport without a 16 year old age limit? Like diving? No, there wouldn't be an issue.

Sry, my question wasn't very clear.

When I said "our athletes," I meant our American athletes. As you know, in gymnastics there's a tight competition between the Chinese and the Americans. I posed the above question because I wanted to know whether or not the media and Americans fans would've made a big deal out of this incident had none of our American athletes participated in gymnastics. Are we upset because the integrity of the olympics has been impaired? Or is it because we didn't win gold?[/quote]

If the Americans were cheating, they would be vilified like all of the doping Americans have been, with the exception of Carl Lewis.[/quote]

Well you're not answering my question.

[Fairview4Life]

If the Americans were cheating, they would be vilified like all of the doping Americans have been, with the exception of Carl Lewis.

Well you're not answering my question.

I still didn't understand it. Now that I do, it's a pretty pointless question. Would the Times have reported on the age discrepency pre olympics if the US didn't have a gymnastics team? Who knows. But someone would have. This wasn't a big secret. It has been talked about for months.

Even if American reports didn't investigate their ages because the US didn't have any gymnasts, all that would tell you is that US readers wouldn't be interested in reading about a sport they don't have any competitors in. On the other hand, the American public loves to read about scandal, so I'm sure someone would have done th eleg work and published this info regardless of who was involved anyway, since the olympics is such a big stage.

[dougthonus]

When I said "our athletes," I meant our American athletes. As you know, in gymnastics there's a tight competition between the Chinese and the Americans. I posed the above question because I wanted to know whether or not the media and Americans fans would've made a big deal out of this incident had none of our American athletes participated in gymnastics. Are we upset because the integrity of the olympics has been impaired? Or is it because we didn't win gold?

I don't think Americans would care much.

If Japan was right underneath China and lost because the Chinese were cheating then the Japanese might get really upset instead. In order for there to be outrage there usually has to be a vested interest of some type in the event causing the outrage. I would still feel just as strongly that the Chinese submitted an illegal lineup, but I probably wouldn't have spent much time discussing it.

[BlackMamba]

When I said "our athletes," I meant our American athletes. As you know, in gymnastics there's a tight competition between the Chinese and the Americans. I posed the above question because I wanted to know whether or not the media and Americans fans would've made a big deal out of this incident had none of our American athletes participated in gymnastics. Are we upset because the integrity of the olympics has been impaired? Or is it because we didn't win gold?

i would say...

[Blame Rasho]

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancou ... oly,237384

China stripped of 2000 gymnastics medal for underage athlete

By Chris Chase

Follow Yahoo! Sports Olympic blog, Fourth-Place Medal on Facebook and Twitter.

China was stripped of a team all-around bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Olympics on Wednesday because it fielded an underage gymnast. Dong Fangxiao was discovered to be 14 at the time of those Games, two years younger than the minimum age requirement.

The medal will be given to the United States team which finished fourth in Sydney. The IOC has asked for China to return the medals "as soon as possible" so they can be reallocated to the U.S. team.

The action comes 20 months after China was accused of doctoring the ages of at least two of its gymnasts at the Beijing Games. Those allegations became a focal point of the 2008 Games but were quickly hushed up by the IOC after it cleared China following a sham investigation which basically consisted of the Olympic governing body asking China if they were really, really sure that the gymnasts were of age. When China said "yes" and produced passports and ID cards, the IOC dropped the matter, seemingly content to let the controversy pass and not risk offending its Olympic hosts.

Forget the fact that media reports and security experts found Chinese government documents which said 2008 team member He Kexin was 14 years old and not 16. Forget that asking China to produce documents proving its innocence would be like replacing drug tests with a simple questionaire in which athletes are asked whether they've ever doped or not. And, now, expect the IOC to forget that Dong had proper documentation at one point too, documentation which was clearly forged.

Dong was caught because somebody slipped up and printed a different birthdate on her credentials for Beijing. Instead of being born in on Jan. 20, 1983, as was claimed in Sydney, Dong's listed birthdate was Jan. 23, 1986. On her blog she says she was born in the Year of the Ox, which would fit with the Jan. 1986 birthday.

The International Gymnastics Federation looked into the allegations following the controversy in Beijing and recommended to the IOC that China be stripped of its medal from 2000 because of Dong's participation. The organization did so Wednesday at a board meeting in Dubai.

This action only happened because the evidence was so overwhelming that the IOC had to act. They didn't seek out the truth, it was thrust upon them. As the organization showed in Beijing, if it had its druthers, it would have swept this under the rug long ago.

Just because China cheated in 2000 doesn't necessarily mean those gymnasts were under 16 in Beijing. It does, however, lead to a lot more questions and should reopen the inquiry. Knowing the IOC, don't hold your breath.