Age of Chinese Gymnasts who Won Olympic Gold News

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Newly-uncovered Chinese state documents suggest one of the gymnasts is only 14. The minimum age for competition is 16 and therefore should not have been allowed to take part. The new allegations about He Kexin were said to have been uncovered by a US computer expert, who alleged they showed her birth date was January 1, 1994 and not January 1, 1992 as shown in the passport used to 'prove' her age. The expert, Mike Walker, said the documents had been compiled by the General Administration of Sport in China and placed on their website but had now been removed. Significantly, the caption on a photograph published by Chinese state news agency Xinhua last year referred to '13-year-old He Kexin'.

The parents of the Chinese gymnasts
are indignant, the International Olympic Committee sounds satisfied and the
Beijing Games are almost over.

Yet questions persisted about the ages
of China's gold-medal women's
gymnastics team.

Are they 14? Are they 16?

Hoping to put an end to the controversy, China was asked to provide additional documents that prove five of the six
team members were old enough to compete at the games.


The request, by the International Gymnastics Federation, was made at the urging of the IOC, despite China's insistence that its athletes were not underage and the fact that there is no irrefutable proof to the contrary. Still, the questions haven't abated, and so the Chinese federation was asked one more time to prove the girls were eligible. "It's not a question of a final decision," an IOC spokeswoman said. "We simply want the federation to work with the national federation to just put to bed once and for all the questions."


At this competition, the Japanese gymnasts were just as small as the Chinese," said a Chinese Ministry spokesman. "Chinese competitors
have for years all been small. It is not just this time. It is a question of race.

European and American athletes are all powerful, very robust.
But Chinese athletes cannot be like that. They are by nature that small."


<China's He Kexin won a tiebreaker over all-around champion Nastia Liukin of the United States for the uneven bars gold medal Monday at the Beijing Olympics.

Both scored 16.725, but He got the nod. He, at the centre of an age-eligibility controversy throughout the games, was fast and furious on the bars. Her twists and flips go by in the blink of an eye, and she won by about that short a margin.

Questions about the Chinese women have been swirling for months.
Four of China's six medals could be affected if evidence of cheating is found. In addition to the team gold, He won the gold medal on uneven bars and Yang won bronzes on bars and the all-around.

The passports were issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The identity card was issued by China's Ministry of Public Security.

Earlier this month, the AP found registration lists previously posted on the Web site of the General Administration of Sport of China that showed both He and Yang were too young to compete. He was born Jan. 1, 1994, according to the 2005, 2006 and 2007 registration lists. Yang was born Aug. 26, 1993, according to the 2004, 2005 and 2006 registration lists.
In the 2007 registration list, however, her birthday has changed to Aug. 26, 1992.

The FIG and IOC thought they had addressed the issue at the start of the games. The FIG said a passport is the "accepted proof of a gymnast's eligibility," and that China's gymnasts presented ones that show they are age eligible. The IOC also checked the girls' passports and deemed them valid before the games.

But the controversy never quite went away. The IOC, however, sounded as if it did not expect anything to be found. "The information we have received seems satisfactory in terms of the correct documentation including birth certificates."

Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s after 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. 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.

North Korea was barred from the 1993 world championships after FIG officials discovered Kim Gwang Suk, the gold medalist on uneven bars in 1991, 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.

Even China's own Yang Yun, a double bronze medalist in Sydney, said during an interview aired on state broadcaster China Central Television that she was 14 during the 2000 Games.

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