Do you think the Chinese government is being dishonest about their girl gymnast's ages?

Question

It just seems a little weird to me. Especially that one named Deng. She looks like a ten year old. I don't want to get anything started but I just noticed that I'm not the only one who thinks they look too young to be 16.

Answer 1

almost everyone thinks that and i totallly agree!!!!!!

Answer 2

In a word, yes.  :)  The Chinese government is dishonest about pretty much everything.  :P

Answer 3

It's possible.

I agree with geek_girl. Most governments are dishonest, so it's not fair that China is just getting all the wrong attention.

Also keep in mind that unlike other ethnicities, Asian girls tend to look younger than they really are.  

Answer 4

Well, you see.... there are already lots of questions and posts regarding this issue.  If you looked and searched you could find those questions and see what thousands of other people have already answered.

Answer 5

What Kenichi and Ledia say is true. They are not only under 16, they are not even close. The unfortunate thing is that it isn't the girl's fault and they are getting a lot of negative attention because of it. They are simply trying their hardest to perform the best that they can.

The real shame is the judging. I know how to read that a performer's starting score is 7.00 and know when the person slips, bobbles, takes a large step, falls on their ***, etc. What I cannot appreciate is when there are two competitors with matching starting scores, where one performs what appears to be a flawless routine and yet scores significantly lower than the one who makes several mistakes.

I think the attention needs to be focused on the judging not on the age of two little kids who cannot control how old they are.  

Answer 6

Pretty much all governments are dishonest.  They just pick and choose the things they want to be truthful about the things they wish to cover up differently.

If the government is wanting to hide the real age of someone, making a different set of government-issued proof-of-age is almost a non-issue.  They're pretty good at making authentic-looking documents for some odd reason.

Do I think it's quite possible that the Chinese government picked lying about some of their female gymnasts' ages?  Sure, it's quite possible -- I'm waiting a few months to see if anything ends up developing from the story so far.

You also have to take into account that Asians don't tend to look the same at the same ages as Europeans do since too many of the telling facial features are proportioned differently, so that's where a Western audience watching them has a harder time guessing.

Personally, I think the gymnastics age should be 18.  I know a lot of people probably aren't as good at that age, but at least they'd be on par with most of the rest of the Olympic athletes who at least are college-aged.  Those who want to cheat will always find a way, but the creepy-guy factor would be less if most are 18+.

Answer 7

We will never know. since all the documents (birth certificates, passports) were issued and certified by the Chinese government.

China is known for training athletes at their superior quality.  With population of 1 billion, they can scavenger the best of the best athletes by start the training at a very young age like 3.  

The gymnast girls could have been small due to growth stunt from training so early and so hard for years.  

But the question of possibly age falsification stems from reputation of China---how they always falsify products, how their communistic government controls and feeds news to Chinese people, their view of human rights, and how they cheat & steal.

Plus they have been caught---many times---lying about their atheltes' ages.  So with their long history of dishonesty that gives them even higher possibility of lying.

If they did not lie about their ages it is great, and they deserve their medals.  However if there is a secret they will need to bury it with them to the graves.  Forever the Chinese government will not be able to proudly announce that their gymnasts were the youngest ever to win a gold medal in the Olympic---because they are only 13 years old, Their medals will be stripped off and that would hurt their pride very badly.

Answer 8

Yes, I believe that the have at least two that are 13 and 14

But, they only need a passport with the age of 16 on it, and they have that

Birth certifies should be require, by are not

Answer 9

seriously, you don't have baby teeth at 16 and have a figure like that.  I hit pubery at 15 and a 1/2 but I lost my baby teeth way before I even hit puberty.  Also notice their pelvic bone!

This is what they do to those gymnast!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXaLdtB5l...

If you don't know anything about gymnastics then you will know that the younger the better!(less BMI, more flexibility, less weight to menuver, etc)

Answer 10

So what's the big deal??

Can't stand getting beat by a bunch of Asian Children??

Answer 11

China government dishonest about their products, foods, drinks, air-quality, environment, human rights .... why not on some girls's ages???  

Answer 12

Absolutely! The Olympic governing body must investigate the actual ages of all the Chinese athletes and remove any medals that a minor obtained by competing illegally. Only then will the integrity of the Olympics be restored.

Answer 13

Just last year, there were articles published about those girls, saying they were 13 year old prodigies.  Then when the rest of the world found out about those articles, they were either deleted or changed (to say they were 16).  Even if you consider the fact that Asian girls might look a little young, the issue is very sketchy.