We thought some of those girls looked quite young!
The Associated Press has dug up some Chinese media reports that show one of the girls who helped the Chinese women’s gymnastics team capture gold at the Olympics on Tuesday did not meet minimum age requirements for competition.
Apparently, just nine months before the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government’s news agency, Xinhua, reported that gymnast He Kexin was 13!
Gymnasts have to be or turn 16 years old during the Olympic year to be eligible for the games. That would have totally made her ineligible to be on the team that won a gold medal this week!!
In its report on November 3rd, Xinhua identified He as one of “10 big new stars” who made a splash at China’s Cities Games
The AP found the Xinhua report on the site Thursday morning and saved a copy of the page.
Later that afternoon, the website was still working but the page was no longer accessible. Sports editors at the state-run news agency would not comment for publication.
Shady, shady!
Zhang Hongliang, an official with China’s gymnastics delegation at the games, said Thursday the differing ages which have appeared in Chinese media reports had not been checked in advance with the gymnastics federation:
“It’s definitely a mistake. Never has any media outlet called me to check the athletes’ ages.”
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has said repeatedly that a passport is the “accepted proof of a gymnast’s eligibility,” and that He and China’s other gymnasts have presented ones that show they are age eligible. The International Olympics Committee also checked the girls’ passports and deemed them valid.
We wonder how easy it is to doctor passports in China!
Can’t they do DNA tests to determine age?
Maybe the IOC should look into that for the 2012 London games to make sure everything is fair!!
[Image via Getty Images.]