Why are so many people whining about the 10-year old Chinese gymnasts?

I think Shawn Johnson looks pretty young - if I didn't know she was 16 I'd think she was bout 13. She's short as well - only 4'8.

Until there is solid proof - real, solid proof, not just "they look young" or "they were missing a tooth" or "we pulled up two newspaper articles saying they were 13 last year!".

I lost my last baby tooth at 15. It had to be pulled - otherwise I could have kept it another 3 years the dentist said.

And, christos, the local paper reported that 3 people had been killed in a motorcycle accident, when in fact the 'accident' was a collision between Bambi and a semi. Casualties? One fawn.

China has used underaged athletes in the past - it came out soon enough. But until the allegations are found to be undoubtedly true I'm not going to bag on them.

It's called ETHICS.

Regardless if they are 10, 14 or whatever age UNDER 16, the RULES state that the gymnasts must be 16 years or older. As for their "passport information," can you HONESTLY say that a COMMUNIST government bent on putting up the "best" team is incapable of creating FALSE DOCUMENTS?

According to an AP story (see link below) the one gymnast, He Kexin, was 13. This was from the Chinese government's news agency, Xinhua... China's OWN GOVERNMENT NEWS agency... not some "western" agency. AND that this report is dated only 9 months ago. In this SAME AP story, it states, "A May 23 story in the China Daily newspaper, the official English-language paper of the Chinese government, said He was 14. The story was later corrected to list her as 16." Corrected... or FORGED?

Now, don't ask ME how this girl could have grown 3 years in only 9 months... unless... dare I suggest... the Chinese AUTHORITIES were ... um... stretching the TRUTH!

I will give credit where credit is due, but if these gymnasts are not following the RULES, they do NOT deserve ANY credit because they should NOT be competing at ALL in these Olympics.

ANYONE with a pair of EYES can see these girls are GIRLS and NOT 16 years old!

True, this is not a drug issue, but there is great advantage to their youth, and, again, the RULES are the RULES. Heck, they stripped a gold medal from a German Equestrian because they had applied some sort of ointment on the horse for a medical condition, but it contained a banned drug! And the IOC even said after wards that they didn't think the violation was intentional, nor really affected the outcome of the event, that the RULES were the RULES, and they STRIPPED the guy of his gold medal.

Why is the gymnastics an exception to this rule and the equestrian is NOT? GIVE ME A BREAK!

As for the US team choking, well... maybe if they knew that they were competing on a LEGAL "level" playing field, they may have performed better... but one will never know the affects the CHILDREN on the Chinese team had on ALL of the rest of the competitors, not JUST the US team.

The CULPABLE people are the ones perpetrating this FRAUD and STEALING MEDALS from the other teams! It wasn't JUST the US team that was affected, but the team that placed third AND FOURTH.

I hope the media, the competitors, and all those affected by this CHEATING on China's part will NOT let this slide. And the ENTIRE Chinese women's team should have their medals stripped because it was a "team" effort and a TEAM deception.

Have an Olympic day.

Sven and Wyomugs are spot on.

Bottom line and take home message here is that 16 is the ONLY LEGAL AGE LIMIT IN THE OLYMPICS. Period. The end. No argument. If you're not 16, you don't play. It's been this way for a very long time, this is not a US advantage deal, this is a matter of playing by rules and following the legal standard. China didn't make the cut. The girls already told Chinese news sources earlier this year they were 12 and 14. And when the BBC found the webpage, copied it and reported it, Chinese press deleted the link the NEXT DAY. It's all documented.

They're lying cheaters. End of story.

Not only that but there are 3 main gymnastics events. They won 1, the US wiped the floor with them in the other one and the last one remains to be seen. The fat lady hasn't sang yet.

Should we also mention that a Chinese girl fell flat on her bottom and was only deducted half of what she was supposed to be deducted? And then Nastia went after her, landed to perfection and got a lower technical score. The scoring was rigged to hell and back. The Chinese girl who got bronze couldn't even do a triple pirroutte on the floor while the Americans and Russians danced circles around her. The Us will continue to wipe the floor with them, they are clearly not ready for the heat.

People are not solely questioning their ages based on their looks. Three of the gymnasts have been listed in previous competitions. And on various gymnastic registries as having birthdays that make them underage. Not just in newspaper articles. The fact that China has lied about the ages of it's gymnasts in the past does not help. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney Yang Yun won a bronze on the uneven bars. Her passport stated she was of age. A few years later she confessed the truth in a television interview. Stating that she only 14 year old at the time and that her coaches told her to lie. If you do not follow the rules, it is cheating, good performance or not.

The age limit is there for the PROTECTION of the athletes. So young gymnasts do not get pushed more than their still developing bodies can handle.

In 10 years time when they are older they will be even better than they are know. And STILL miles better than us!

The only issue i can see is that some of these gymnastics clubs really push young gymnasts whilst there bones are still forming to allow them to fall easier into difficult places for when they are older.

A lot of them probably have pushy parents and coming from someone who has been a gymnast its very physically straining and painfull to try and get to a high standard.

xxx

It's not about whether or not they are good enough to compete. It's about the fact that the IOA set a minimum age limit of 16 to compete and most of the Chinese women's gymnastics team looks underaged. Bella Karoyli said it and I agree that setting the age limit was stupid because there is no accurate way to enforce it. Countries can forge documents listing an age older than the actual age. If there were no age limit then it wouldn't matter. But there is, and there had been reports even in China well before the games (including China's offical athletes website) that listed members of their team as underaged.

The actual problem is - there is no real physical and indisputable proof that these girls are 10.

What people do have is a website that had one written as 14 - not 10 - which could easily be explained as a mistake. Lord knows the amount of times I have hit the number next to the one I wanted to, or just the wrong number entirely with the amount of different things I am thinking about.

The newspaper article claiming 13? Journalists have been known to be wrong - often.

The girl who claimed to be 14 when she won bronze in Sydney. Not proof that these girls are not 16.

What we have is a google search disputing an official passport and the assumption that because they are "short and young looking" that they are not 16. Its not proof, and if the USA team really do feel hard done by, then they are going to need to find the proof that the IOA will act on - not a "supplied" date of birth on a website.

I don't think it takes a whole lot of brains to work out - in a court of law - which document will be given more weight. A print out of a sports website, or an official Chinese passport.

Because there are rules in life and the rules of the Olympics say an athlete must be 16 to compete. So if someone is suspected of breaking a rule don't act all surprised when people start to question that person and the country they're from. And we didn't choke for you information.... we got silver! Without cheating!

And by applauding people who break the rules it's not "giving credit where credit is due" it's saying hey go ahead and break the rules and cheat.... morality means nothing to us.

to the person above. Don't be accusing without hard evidence.

Take a look at the Japanese gymnast. they look like they are 12, and they weight exactly the same as the chinese ones. No one said anything about those girls. It's good to be a USA ally, or didn't win a competition USA had a chance in :\

also on another note.

There's no way those girls havn't been out of country for other competitions. All they have to do is check the passport for other countries stamp or verfication to see if the passport is real.

Cheating has no place in the Olympics.

But did they cheat?

And should there be an age limit anyway?