Does anyone else think the Chinese women gymnasts are too young under the rules

@cripfemme (7698)
United States
August 14, 2008 6:15pm CST
According to the Olympic rules, you need to be 16 or at least turn 16 in the Olympic year to compete in the games. I don't mean to sound like sour grapes, as China beat the U.S. who I was rooting for in the women's gymnastics all around competition, but I saw those Chinese girls and as far as I can tell at least two of them were not 16. Whatever their government says. One barely looked like she was 11. I know Asian people are small especially Asian women, but it was so obvious. I know you're probably thinking that they had passports issued by their government. However, it wouldn't be the first time the government has lied to gain advantage in an Olympic competition (which is totally against the spirit of the games in my opinion). In East Germany, they even went so far as to cover up drug taking by their swimmers. What do you all think of this controversy and what should be done about it? Personally, I think that if they are proved to have violated the rules, the team should lose it's gold medal and if they are going to have age restrictions (which I'm not sure they should but that's a different subject) there needs to be some other kind of way other than government verification because as I've said before governments have been known to lie about this to gain advantage.
4 people like this
5 responses
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
14 Aug 08
I noticed the gymnasts as well and a couple of the girls were no where near fourteen. There was one and when my husband said she looked twelve, I said fourteen. I did see one girl who was sixteen, but I could tell a lot of the girls were no where near fifteen. I mean they were almost flat and their faces were too young. Oh I used to live in Vancouver, B.C. and there were a lot of Chinese there so I can tell if someone is pretending to be older. I do think that if they find out that these girls are not sixteen, the Olympic Committee should take away their gold medals. How can anyone compete against someone underage whose bones have not hardened as of yet and can bend themselves back farther than a regular sixteen to twenty year old? It is unfair. But what do you expect from a Communist country where the State owns the people.
@twoey68 (13627)
• United States
9 Mar 09
I didn't see the Olympic's this year but I've read quite a bit about it and there does seem to be some issues with the age of some of the girls. I think there should be a national center where ppl competing have to register and they should have to provide some kind of proof of their age other than just their say-so that they are of age. A phsical will give most Dr's a good idea of a persons age just by bone development. I also think that once it is found out that they broke the rules then they should have to give up any medals and the person/persons involved should be banned from competing again. [b]~~AT PEACE WITHIN~~ **STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS**[/b]
@CatsandDogs (13963)
• United States
16 Aug 08
When it comes to China, nothing and I mean nothing surprises me. Their past reputation has shown that they have no morals. Look at what they did with the singer girls. That just takes the cake from me.
@shrashira (438)
• United States
15 Aug 08
I watched saw the girls on TV and many of them could not have been of proper age. Rewind, fast forward, even pause on the DVD could not make me believe that they were of proper age. I hope that I am wrong, because cheating in the Olympics is just foul.
@mitija (82)
• United States
18 Aug 08
I agree. There was one Chinese gymnast in particular who doesn't look close to being 16 regardless what her passport says. My daughter looks older than she does and my daughter is only 10. It also wouldn't be the first time China lied about a performance. Look what happened with that little girl singing in the opening ceremony. It was actually another girl singing backstage while the one on TV was lipsyncing. When I heard that China lost all credibility when saying that all the gymnasts were at least 16. If it does turn out that they weren't 16 they should lose any medals they received for gymnastics.