Why is a 14 year old Chinese gymnast competing in the Olympics? The new rules set the minimum at 16.?

Question

14 year old takes Gold and Beth Tweddle finishes fourth and no medal.

Answer 1

shes over 16

and youd better check your sources

Answer 2

Haaaa.....dude, she is sixteen. It just doesn't show on her.

Answer 3

don't be jealousy, today CHINA leads by 39 Gold gold medals.

Answer 4

she's 16!

Answer 5

Boo hoo.

What a sad state of affairs it is when a nation has to make false accusations and also start malicious rumours just to mask and excuse its own poor performance.

Answer 6

Let's put it simply.  China wants to win in the medal tally.  They will do whatever it takes to put on a good show while crushing everyone in the medals.  If that means that they have to supposedly lie about people's ages, I wouldn't put it past them to do that.

Yes proof is starting to appear that some gymnasts (including He, which has won a few medals so far) are under the age of 16.  But I don't think the IOC will look into this unless a nation protests, then they will conduct an investigation, and if it is found that the gymnasts are under 16, not only will China's reputation be tainted (and they lose all those lovely gynmastics medals), but the Beijing Olympics will be tainted as well.

You are getting a glimpse of Communism at work.  Enjoy this luxury while you can, because after the Olympics China will lock that stuff back up faster than you can blink.

Answer 7

The Chinese say they are all over 16, but I personally think they're lying. Some of those girls look 12 years old.As the respondent above hinted the onus is on the IOC to verify this and act accordingly.

I doubt they'll prove anything, but the Chinese are most probably lying

Answer 8

2 or 3 of the Chinese gymnasts are under 16.  Proof has been shown to the Olympic committee, yet they will not do anything.  Apparently they are 16 only according to their passports.  The olympic committee has been shown the gymnasts' interviews and various reports from previous competitions when they (the gymnasts) state their own age and the numbers just do not add up.  In several instances, Chinese gymnasts are given scores much higher than they deserved.  Case in point:  Chinese gymnast Cheng Fei fell on her second vault, yet scored almost as high as her first vault which was very good.  Put those two together, and the Chinese are not playing fair.

Answer 9

We must accept the fact that Asian do looks a lot younger than Westerners. I have a friend who is over 30, but she is short and skinny. When she goes to a liquor store, she will be asked for document of identification 10 out of 10.

Answer 10

Hard luck to Beth Tweddle for missing out on a medal, I think she is an amazing athlete.

As for underage gymnastics, there has no been any convincing evidence that the Chinese girls are under 16.

I suspect that certain individuals are throwing out false accusations because they got beaten on the medal rostrum.

Answer 11

The result was a fair one

Although Beth did have the highest difficulty score of all the 8 contenders (even higher than both the Chinese gymnasts) she also made more errors than the three medallists, esp her landing. Hence the reason why she missed out by 0.025 of a point.

Answer 12

shes nt 14, shes 16

get ur facts right

Answer 13

The bigger question is why aren't the olympic officials doing anything about it? And why has there been a chinese gymnast that's been registered three years in a row as the same age!!

Answer 14

yeaa but that tom daley who is a diver>> team: great britain is 14 and he is competing!

Answer 15

they are young some of them... its fustrating that cant go by the rules... why wouldnt they say there younger and wait another 4 year so they can win.. fare and square..... i dont get it... the chinese is gonna win but its crazy they both sould of got the -5/8 deduction.. but natia did not move on her landing the HE did....

Answer 16

It's a shame Beth missed out, but you can't go round throwing these accusations about after you've lost.

I assume that gymnasts have to qualify for the Olympics like other sportspersons, by participating in major international championships over the course of at least a couple of years. Surely when they entered and did well in THOSE events, that was the time to query their ages - not once they have taken your medals away and it risks sounding like sour grapes.

I have no opinion on whether or not the Chinese authorities are lying - they have shown a bit of a tendency to fakery at these Games, and that's by no means their worst habit, looking at a wider context - but the time for action was earlier.

Answer 17

I agree with T-1000, much as I hate to say it. It's only too likely that the Chinese ARE LYING about these girls' ages- but if representatives of the IOC try to investigate this, as some in our media have called for, then it's only too likely they will be arrested and put in jail, thrown out of the country, or worse. The Chinese government is giving the IOC a good chunk of money so that they will keep quiet and let them run things the way they want to- and thumbing their noses at the US has long been something which the Chinese have wanted to do. Some have even said that these Games are about one thing- money- and that they prove how weak and ineffective the IOC is at regulating the Games. Most countries have questioned whether or not the Olympics should ever even have been awarded to China in the first place, because of the country's atrocious records on human rights, the pollution in Beijing, and the bullying and mistreatment which their government routinely inflicts on their people, especially athletes and pregnant women.

Don't forget, this is a country where it's against the law for any woman to get pregnant more than once in her life- and if she does get pregnant, they can and will force her to abort the baby. After all, the practice of "partial birth abortion" was invented in China as a means of population control. The inventers of this barbaric practice could have cared less about peoples' feelings- the only thing they were interested in was keeping the government from having to feed another hungry mouth. Even now, there are still women who try desparately to LEAVE CHINA if they discover they are pregnant a second time, because they know that the authorities are going to come after them as soon as the word gets out. Having all these women from other countries in the Village at the Games who don't have to live with such restrictions is something which the Chinese government is anything BUT comfortable about, and it's one reason why the residence halls there are not co-ed, and why parties and co-mingling of the genders is prohibited. The Village even has quiet hours and a curfew, which is something that is unheard of at other Olympic Games. When Canada hosts the Winter Games in a couple more years, you can bet there won't be a curfew or quiet hours at THEIR Olympic Village, and there will be no restrictions imposed on contact between the genders. This just points up the differences between a country which is still a Third World, totalitarian dictatorship, and a democratic, open, free society like the ones in most of the rest of the world.

No, I believe that the Chinese government is LYING about these athletes' ages- and it always has been. This is a repeat of what happened in the 80's with East Germany and its womens' swim team- who were pumped so full of steroids that they broke record after record, after record. The rest of the world was forced into looking the other way and ignoring what was going on, even though everyone knew that the East German government was guilty of forced doping. The reason why was simple- at that time, the Iron Curtain was still in existance, and the Cold War was still very much in evidence. To call the East Germans out on what they were doing would have been to risk a confrontation with the Soviet Union, and NO ONE wanted that, not with both of the major superpowers in posession of enough nuclear firepower to destroy every man, woman, and child on the face of the planet 60 times over, and then some. We now have a similar situation this year, with the gymnastics flap. I know the US doesn't like having its face rubbed in the dirt- but we are going to have to be gracious about it and accept it, whether we like it or not, because there is too much at stake for us to do otherwise. China has nuclear weapons too- and they will NOT hestitate to aim them at us or possibly use them against us if we take this too far. THAT'S probably the real reason the US has been at best, cautious about raising a protest- we really don't want to start World War III. It's unfortunate that the Chinese have chosen this forum to vent their frustrations with the US, but in a way, I have to say that it could have been worse. At least they are doing it with their athletes, rather than with their guns or missles. Besides, even with all the nonsense about the gymnasts, the US still leads in the overall medal count, thanks in no small part to Michael Phelps.

This is just my take on this.... people are free to differ.