So an intrepid reporter managed to find an article on a Chinese sports website reporting one of the Chinese gymnasts age as 13. Within an hour, the specific article has been removed and could not longer be found, but the reporter had copied it. The Chinese will not and have not responded to it citing that the Olympic uses passports to establish age….coz you know…those can’t be falsified.
I cannot understand why nothing is being done about this. This is tantamount to cheating. If we test athletes for steroids as a mandatory post-medal step – not to mention question athletes who win too many golds at one Olympics – then why are we not enforcing and testing aging of athletes.
If the rules says you must be 16, then you need to be 16. As far as I am concerned, the women’s team should have their medals completely stripped off of them.
EDIT: There is some screwy judging going on with the women’s individual all around. I am reminded of the last winter Olympics and the controversy of the pairs skating scores. I am getting the same feeling as some gymnasts are getting either higher or lower scores than they deserve…and it seems to be favoring the Chinese and screwing over the Americans. I am no expert, but when you do more body checks than your competitor on the balance beam and end up with a higher score for a less difficult routine…that sends signals that something is not right. This would not be the first time that there has been a issue with gymnastics judging as they changed the scoring methodology specifically because the previous system came under so much criticism and suspicion.
There is some serious shadiness and I hope someone lodges a complaint or asks for an investigation. Dis be fukked up yo.