Chinese girl gymnasts' underage ...13 not 16 as required...Should gold metal be returned?

Question

Why does the committee ignore such low character and disregard of the rules of fair play?

Answer 1

The IOC has received official documentation from the Chinese government, that shows these girls are of age.  The IOC uses the passports of each athlete as proof of eligibility.  Since we have no proof that these girls are underage, the IOC has no recourse but to accept the passports as the truth.

Answer 2

Look, if your really going to believe that the Chinese women gymnastics has underage girls due to the fact that they seem to be missing a few teeth you should consider this first..

1) Gymnastics is a physically intensive sport and injuries are not uncommon. It should not surprise anyone if one of those injuries could have caused the loss of an adult teeth.

2) Had they really been underage, China would not have let them compete. They would be risking a whole lot by placing underage athletes for possibly 1 gold medal. If you look back in recent Olympic history a single gold medal , although a great honor in itself, is not of utmost importance to them.

3) Although there are clear cultural differences between them and the western world, honor and pride are not amongst those differences.

Answer 3

I really think the US...both our Olympic team and us as citizens and fans need to drop this subject...can't you just be proud of them getting a silver and happy for the Chinese team for performing so well?

Answer 4

No, because I doubt it was their own doings, other people put them into it, but they did win so why lose that over something so stupid as age? If you aren't competing against the best and you take the gold, do you still consider yourself the olympic champion? So let them keep it.  

Answer 5

I think we should deport all Chinese from the U.S.A.

VOTE MCCAIN '08!!!

Answer 6

After a partial, indepth and transparent investigation and they are found out to be not qualified age-wise, the should be stripped of their medals. If they are allowed to cheat, nothing will stop anyone from wanting to cheat too. This is no longer about the medal but the consequences of what happened.

Answer 7

They have ignored What all the other gymnastic organizations records say.  There is records showing them younger.  So did they lie then or are they lying now.  I don't care if the US gets the Gold or they don't give it to anyone.  I just want to see justice done.  As far as whining.  I guess we should allow the athletes who tested positive for drugs be allowed to.  It is the same thing.  Cheating is Cheating!!!!!!!! When there has been issues before they were investigated.  Some where striped of the medals and some issues were put to rest.  Just do the investigation and resolve this issue once and for all.  

Answer 8

Why do you Americans always complain when you lose. Americans had cheat before, and we don't complain...

Answer 9

Well, it does'nt matter if the girls are 5 or 50.  They still won.  I don't really care for the minimum 16 age rule anyway.  If that rule was in effect in the 1970's we would never see Nadia Commenic score perfect 10's as she was 14 when she competed.

Answer 10

theres nothing you can do about it so stop whining

Answer 11

They should suffer the chinese finger cuffs!

NO RICE FOR A WEEK!

Answer 12

ok, first of all, i don't care what they say, those girls are not 16. They haven't developed AT ALL. im not saying USA deserved the gold, but come on, it's a little obvious with all the other girls having muscles and hips and actual figures that some of the chinese girls weren't 16. and their birthdays being January 1st? but i doubt anything will be done about it so there's not much use complaining.

Answer 13

I am sure you watch and listen to a lot of american media just recently.

Answer 14

It's one thing to have an ugly Chinese girl sing while a pretty girl that can't sing pretends to, but to cheat at the events is shameful.

If China can't follow the rules of their own games, what does that tell you.  Maybe the 13 year old is good but so would other country's 13 year olds maybe.  And there seems like plenty of evidence to support the claim, documents were changed etc.

To have any credibility, the olympic committee has to investigate this cover up..

Answer 15

I totally understand!

They should give Gold to the team that did't lie!

The REAL winners earned it, those "kids" didn't!

They lied!

We should have known this was going to come out of China.

Answer 16

I dont understand this though i mean is a young girl is capable of winning goal Then give it to her she just did something a girl that has trained more years then that little kids age sure be achamed and that little girl is a real athlete is she wins that.

Answer 17

Ok I'm Korean so I'm not a supporter of China ever since they did c**p to us during the archery competitions but hey the 13 year old did win it and they were the best. If I was an American I would be so ashamed and not even speak about LOSING to a 13 year old.

What you are trying to do is like taking candy from a child.

That's just not right. I'm speaking candidly without political stuff fogging up my opinion unlike the guy who said we should deport all Chinese people and vote for mccain.

Answer 18

I agree, the chinese should be penalized for their cheating and rule breaking

Answer 19

I agree it's about morals. All it's teaching our children is that it's ok to cheat to be or win in the olympics. My children love the olympics, and I find it disgraceful that they are lying about their age. If I was them, I couldn't live with the lie. Why can't they just wait like everyone else until they are of age? Then they could win it fairly. Being under age, they have an unfair advantage because they are more nimble. Personally, I don't care if they are stripped of their medals. It's not my call. I do know that the truth will eat at those athletes. By lying about their age in this event they are making a whole mockery of the olympics in general. This whole age thing shouldn't even be being discussed. It's too bad it's making so much news. I myself ignore it, quite honestly. I'm not the one that has to live with the truth, those girls do, but they are ruining it for everyone else. =)

Answer 20

i'm not whining about it but that's extremely unfair.

for all you people saying i'm a sore loser, i'm not. i didn't lose anything.

but there ARE Olympic rules that each athlete pledged to follow.

what would be the point of having them if everyone could get away with breaking them?

for people saying we need to drop the subject....

what if you heard that every athlete from China was on some kind of steroid that made them really good (only kidding) but b/c they SAY they aren't on steriods, it's OK.

see how silly that is?

Answer 21

again..show me where it says they are 13.

Char..once again...show me proof! You;d send an innocent man to the electric chair I'm sure...fawking moron. My Asian friend is 50 and she doesn't look a day over 20!! Girls are getting their periods at age 7-8...grow up...what the fawk do you do in the "medical profession" anyways....empty bedpans???

Answer 22

They are now being forced to investigate.. 16 year olds do not have baby teeth or missing teeth.. It is obvious they are under age.. They will be stripped of their medals in the end

Has nothing to do with whining .

Don't expect to get those medals we do not deserve them what we do deserve is truthfulness and morals.. Cheating is cheating and they should be punished

Answer 23

US is bichin about it because they got beat by a girl years younger

Answer 24

The Chinese media is now too busy idolizing Liukin. Both Liukin and Johnson are hot stars there now. The Chinese media calls Liukin "American gymnastics genius", and "American beauty", and they write that Chinese gymnasts need to improve more to be as good as the American all-around stars. They also write up praises of Johnson and updates of Russian gymast Khorkina, whom many still admire. So refreshing to read something positive about athletes!