Posted: Monday, 18 August 2008 7:00AM
8/18 - Chinese Gymnastics Team: Underage? Here's Proof!
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When the US Women's Gymnastics team took the silver medal last week, there were rumblings that maybe, just maybe, the Chinese team had... uh... nudged the rules a wee bit by using team members who were under the minimum age of 16. Apparently the rumors say the gold medal winner, He Kexin, might only be around 14 or so. Here's more on the story:
China has a rich history of age falsification in Olympics competition, especially in gymnastics. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, three years after the minimum age was raised to 16 in gymnastics, Chinese gymnast Yang Yun competed and won a bronze medal in the uneven bars (coincidentally this event is also He's specialty). Yang's passport said she was born on December 24, 1984 and turning 16 in the year of the Games, making her eligible. She later confessed in a television interview that she was only 14 at the time of the competition and that she and her coaches had lied about her age.
And now, here's the proof. Yes, it's a close-up of He before the medal round...
Not that I'm a conspiracy theory kinda guy, but she DOES look a little young... And it's not just her, either. Here's the entire team at a practice earlier last week...
I think we're on to something here... Stay tuned for more details as they happen!
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