Since the chinese gymnasts are underage, why don't we do away with the age rule next time so they won't cheat?

Question

"Earlier this month, the AP found registration lists previously posted on the Web site of the General Administration of Sport of China that showed both He and Yang were too young to compete. He was born Jan. 1, 1994, according to the 2005, 2006 and 2007 registration lists. Yang was born Aug. 26, 1993, according to the 2004, 2005 and 2006 registration lists. In the 2007 registration list, however, her birthday has changed to Aug. 26, 1992."

There was also an article about a television special in china that talked about the "13 year-old prodigy" that aired last year and suddenly this girl is 16.

Answer 1

they should.a communist government can forge documents whenever they want.get rid of age limit.they did that however to protect the athletes which is also good but if you cheat age u suck,ohio why cant i add u?your brain lied to u dean

Answer 2

Don't be silly. Why would the IOC implement an idea which makes so much sense? I'm not really sure what this age thing is all about. What happened to the adage "If you're good enough, you're old enough"?

Answer 3

They should.  A Chinese girl who won a bronze medal in 2000 said she was only 14 at the time and a Korean girl competed as a 15-year-old for three years.  Just do away with the age restrictions and let everyone have the same advantage.  

Answer 4

What China has done is despicable and even if nothing is done about it legally I think the shame of knowing that the whole world knows what they did will follow them around for years to come.  And since they are a proud people, that alone will be punishment.  If we follow your thinking we may as well make shoplifting legal so we won't have to arrest any one for it again.  The rules and laws have reason behind them and it has been determined that growing bodies can be damaged when they try to do too much.  Apparently the Chinese coaches don't give a d**n about their athletes, only how many medals they take home.  

Answer 5

The Olympics are not about who can perform better than who, its about who can dope and get away without being caught.

The Olympics are so corrupt its really not funny, and people that say the Olympics are not doped need to shake their head.  High School sports are even doped now.

Why don't we just get rid of the Olympics and then nobody has to cheat.

Answer 6

Either they scrap the age rule or they better come up with an accurate and indisputable age verification system. This kind of controversy has to end. If not, other countries will just use underaged gymnasts as well and they can just point to China as an example.

Answer 7

more lies from sore losers.  do you really find AP or NBC credible.  they just make up stories to ease the pain of losing.  they also convinced you idiots that iraq had wmds and you idiots believed that too.

Answer 8

Because rules are put in place for a reason, namely for the safety of the participants.  If China wants to use underage gymnasts then fine, that's their call....at least be man enough to admit to it though.  

Answer 9

People cheat on taxes, I would rather do away with them and nuke China.

Answer 10

Gymnastics in the Olympics used to have 14/15 year olds competing but the IOC raised the age to 16 because they didn't want the young ones to sustain a lot of injuries.

I would just say that as long as you compete on an Elite level as a Senior Gymnast, you can compete in the Olympics - most Elites are 15+ .

Answer 11

they won't do away with the rule because of why it's in place, i think.

you have to be 16 because although younger gymnasts may be more nimble, their bones and bodies are developed, and the harsh training would be very hard on them.

Answer 12

OK. There reason the rule was implemented was to protect children. In female gymnastics there is a distinct advantage to pre-pubescent contestants. It is one of the few sports that this is the case. So what happened? In the pursuit of glory and the fact the contestants perform better as kids - government regimes would identify many children as talented, send them to military style schools, and force them to train 8 hours a day, whether they wanted to or not, from the age of 4 or 5 - thousands of them, for the sake of getting a child ready by the time they are 13 or 14 to compete. Doesn't even have to be governments regimes, but a glory seeking mother / parent  - but it was based on stories from the soviet block, and the damaging impact the regime had on there bodies / education etc.

So the rule was implemented to prevent and protect against that. If you want all ages allowed - what you are actually saying is China - take many thousands of kids - train them as hard as possible until they are 13 or 14, dump most of them, select one or two - and hey - you will get a gold medal. Nice one - lets exploit kids - may as well send them to work in a sweat shop.

Answer 13

so far no solid proof has been found, so she isn't proven underaged yet. however, i think they should do away with the age restriction thing. it is just so that young ppl won't have too much pressure on them. well, any gymnast usually starts out at 3 or 4 years old, so this age limit is only delaying many extroardinary gymnasts competing.

Answer 14

perhaps this information will be brought to the IOC and if it turns out to be true, they will have their medals stripped.

Answer 15

the rule was put in place for the safety of younger gymnasts thinking their bones aren't quite developed yet and they hurt themselves so they dont want a risk for the younger gymnasts but whether they are in the olympics or not if they are that good they are going to be training those skills so i think the rule is stupid and should be taken away even bela said that he doesnt think its right the chinese are using under age gymnasts because of the rule but he said the rule should be taken away because obviously those gymnasts are better than the older ones

Answer 16

I think the critics have lost perspective on their own ideology, 'innocent until proven guilty.' Saying someone is underage just by looking at them is like accusing someone of being a criminal because he has a crooked mustache.

What about the Gymnast Paul Hamm of the U.S.A. who kept his gold medal despite the IOC declaring that he did not win it.

Let the IOC carry out their investigation. If you don't have faith in them, don't participate in the Olympics the next time.