Is it possible China is cheating in the Olympics?

Question

There have been reports that members of the Chinese gymnastics team are under 16 years of age. A reporter on CNN said the IOC uses their passports to verify their age and go no further. This seems to be insufficient as the Chinese government is the one who issues passports and they are known for their corruption.

Answer 1

Come on, America has far more bronzes than China! Feel proud about something!

Answer 2

I am no fan of the Americans winning all the medals (not 'metals!) going because of the money they throw at athletes but it is clear to me that the Chinese were always going to cheat their way through these Olympics. It is not only American athletes who are complaining - there have been dubious decisions against competitors from a wide variety of nations in favour of mediocre Chinese 'victories' in a range of sports. People seem only too keen to forget that Chinese athletes were found to have been cheating with performance-enhancing drugs as soon as the country entered the international sporting arena.

A country which has proved itself time and time again as having no sprit of fair play or respect for human rights can easily produce forged documents, including passports. I blame the OIC for ever granting to the Olympics to a country and a system that perpetrated the Tiananmen Square atrocity and that continues to terrorise its Tibetan 'citizens'. No totalitarian country with no free elections should EVER be favoured with such a prestigious international event.

Answer 3

I look at it this way...who cares?

If the team was 9 and 10 years old (as MY opinion of their ages was), this is what China thought was their best, let them compete.

The panel of judges is where the issue lies, not with the athletes.

For some reason, they saw that the Chinese team was better than any other team there and gave them the gold...you and I can see that they may, indeed, have cheated on the age requirement, but, is it really worth upsetting the world over this? If this were investigated the way it should have been, they would have no one to compete and this would not be good...not for the hosting country.

Everything boils down to politics....and it wouldn't have been good to push the issue.

Answer 4

They might be or have cheated but that's not important to me.  What's important is my giving huge Kudos to people like Michael Phelps, Dara Torres and Usain Bolt for competing successfully without the taint of steroid scandals and other distractions.  I have nothing but contempt for athletes who (knowingly) cheat and I commend all those athletes who realize that competing with honor is more important than winning at all costs.  I think the Chinese have comported themselves with honor for the most part which is no different than other nations in past olympics.  For those who cheat they have to live with the lie and it will eventually get them in the end.  

Answer 5

Wow, you Americans just can't stand losing one metal..

What about those track and field stars? Some of them are doping, isn't that cheating? We don't whine and cry over this, only you guys do.

Answer 6

It's as likely that China is cheating, by whatever means, as it is that the US or any other country is also fielding cheats.

Answer 7

The gymnastics members can be 15 as long as they turn out 16 by the end of this year.

But this sounds interesting.  

Answer 8

No and from last night they aren't winning Gold medals as North Korea and Romania won the gymnastic events.

CNN? Are they even trust-worthy and BTW they have a history Anti-China bias as well as NY Times and Bloomberg (A blog? Don't think that is credible].

Only trust-worthy news is Anti-War.com and globalresearch.org which implicitly cites the bias of Western media towards the communist nations like Russia and China. Go research and find the bias through Western media's eyes of the Russo-Georgian Confict.

Answer 9

There is no way most of the gymnasts are over 16. I can garentee most of them won't be at the next Olympics because they'd only be 18 or something like that, as in, not 16 at this olympics, and that wouldn't work.

Answer 10

The IOC underwent a thorough investigation of the girls ages and determined that they are not too young. If the IOC says so, then you can't argue with that. People are going by impression and what "seems" to be the case, but the international investigation should be what is correct.

I love your question. To even ASK this type of question just shows that you're a sore loser. How sad that the first thing to pop into your mind when the other team is winning is "oh maybe they've cheated"...typical American.

Answer 11

Did you just started watching the Olympics? This news is so old, but new people come on every few minutes and complain. It's actually worst than complaining, more like crying sore losers.

Answer 12

who cares if they cheating......u cant do anything about it

Answer 13

there is defiantly some tampering going on, just to make sure the chinese medal. its a pride thing, just to show the rest of the world how good they are on a grand stage. skeet shooting (cheating chinese ref), "16" yr old gymnast, boxing scores, the women's pammelhorse(excuse the spelling) finals, firework displays, lipsynching kid in opening ceremony. i'm not saying the chinese aren't good at sports but has anyone noticed the abnormal medal count and extremely high gold count. lets be honest with ourselves.  

Answer 14

People, stop complaining about China cheating in the Olympic games.  The IOC are in charge of age verification, they received documentations and approved them.  So the age thing is a done deal.  The judges that scored the performances are from many different nations, if they are bias towards the US, then that means the American reputation around the world is awful.  If you are judging the ages of the gymnast by their looks, then you're not very smart.  Look at Gary Coleman, does he look 40-50 to you?  

And NO, the Chinese are not cheating or favored by the judges in regards to the Gold Medals.  Look at the stats, the Chinese clearly dominated in Men's Gymnastics, Diving, Weight Lifting, table tennis, badminton and others.   Gymnastics and diving combined is all ready 17 gold medals!    

Answer 15

sour grape

Answer 16

This story has had legs for several weeks, especially with comments from officials from other teams. As each day goes by - though - the probability of the IOC opening an investigation becomes more remote.

Answer 17

There are so many American babies here crying and complaining about others doing better than them. What a sore loser! I would be happy to see Americans fall to the grave and beg the world for money in the near future!