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The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into the age of Chinese gymnast He Kexin, The Times of London reports. Faced with almost insurmountable evidence which suggests that He is two years younger than the birth date listed on her Chinese passport, the IOC has launched an inquiry that could result in the stripping of He's gold medals.

This news comes on the heels of another Times report that details the findings of a New York computer security expert who found official Chinese documents that list He's age as 14 years and 220 days. Mike Walker used a Chinese search engine's cache feature to find He's actual date of birth on spreadsheets from a Chinese government website. The spreadsheets were taken down off the site recently and He's name had been removed.

Assuming the IOC is committed to a real investigation and not some dog and pony show, the revelation that the Chinese government covered up the ages of gymnasts could end up being the defining moment of these Games for the host country. Officials wanted the Olympics to be a coming out party for a new China. But while the Games have been a huge success, there is a legitimate possibility that China's legacy from Beijing '08 will be that of a massive government cover-up, not the magical Opening Ceremony or the transformation of Beijing or anything else positive.

But while the Games have been a huge success, there is a legitimate possibility that China's legacy from Beijing '08 will be that of a massive government cover-up, not the magical Opening Ceremony or the transformation of Beijing or anything else positive.

All the good work China did to put on these Olympics could be forgotten because of an unnecessary, arrogant move by the government. Why risk everything to put a 14-year old in the competition when they could have replaced her with an of-age 16-year old gymnast? Sure, He is a better gymnast than the Chinese gymnasts who were eligible to compete, but with the judges they had at the Olympics, would it really have mattered?

jourdy wrote:LOL at this. It just never ends.

BEIJING (AP)—The International Olympic Committee said Friday it had asked gymnastics officials to investigate whether the Chinese women’s gymnastics team that won the gold medal had underage athletes, saying “more information has come to light.”

“We’ve asked the gymnastics federation to look into it further,” IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. “If there is a question mark and we have a concern, which we do, we ask the governing body of any sport to look into it.”

It was not immediately clear what new information prompted the IOC to act now, three days after the gymnastics competition ended.

5DOM wrote:here's the work the "New York computer security expert" did

http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2008/08/h ... mpics.html

YiOF wrote:

5DOM wrote:here's the work the "New York computer security expert" did

http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2008/08/h ... mpics.html

We should just put this issue to a rest. Whatever document can be found, could be easily discredited as well. I just saw the article about US covering up doping athletes that includes big names like Carl Lewis. I've never seen that article, which means US media do a pretty darn good job at covering up. China's been accused of manipulating athletes' age numerous times, why do you think there is never a conviction? The fact is, a country is as powerful and influential like the US and China can find ways to cover up their short ends. It's not right, but that's the way it is, lets not call each other cheaters, because you can't be sure if your own country have cheated or not, they cover it up to other people as well as they cover it up to you.

We should just put this issue to a rest. Whatever document can be found, could be easily discredited as well. I just saw the article about US covering up doping athletes that includes big names like Carl Lewis. I've never seen that article, which means US media do a pretty darn good job at covering up. China's been accused of manipulating athletes' age numerous times, why do you think there is never a conviction? The fact is, a country is as powerful and influential like the US and China can find ways to cover up their short ends. It's not right, but that's the way it is, lets not call each other cheaters, because you can't be sure if your own country have cheated or not, they cover it up to other people as well as they cover it up to you.

dougthonus wrote:

We should just put this issue to a rest. Whatever document can be found, could be easily discredited as well. I just saw the article about US covering up doping athletes that includes big names like Carl Lewis. I've never seen that article, which means US media do a pretty darn good job at covering up. China's been accused of manipulating athletes' age numerous times, why do you think there is never a conviction? The fact is, a country is as powerful and influential like the US and China can find ways to cover up their short ends. It's not right, but that's the way it is, lets not call each other cheaters, because you can't be sure if your own country have cheated or not, they cover it up to other people as well as they cover it up to you.

I understand what you are saying, but I'd rather punish all the cheaters even if it kicks out the top 10 nations at the Olympics and all the medals go to the previous 8th and 9th place finishers. You will never remove cheating if you don't address it, and maybe removing it is a naive and impossible to achieve goal, but I think everyone should make their best effort. I really have no idea what evidence exists against old T&F US athletes, but if they were failing drug tests then they should be giving back their medals as well.

It's a bit more of a grey area perhaps if they failed tests at US trials and the US let them appeal and passed it and then they passed the Olympic drug tests though. However given the US's history with steroids and HGH a healthy dose of skepticism should be looked at when failed drug tests are out there even if it was only US trial ones and not at the actual Olympics.