Summer Olympics?

[treat24]

The IOC is launching an investigation into the ages of 3 chinese gymnasts after government documents were uncovered proving at least 1 of them is 14. If found to be underage the US would claim the all around and Nastia would claim the uneven. Saw it on the news this morning, no link... someone will have it find it and post it i'm sure.

[knapplc]

Update on the story Treat talked about - the IOC's investigation is over, and they're declaring that the Chinese are all clear.

This is not over yet, not by a long shot. Apparently an American and a British paper have uncovered "evidence" they say proves she's under-age, and a blogger has more that he's willing to bring up. That's not looking good for the Chinese.

[treat24]

Update on the story Treat talked about - the IOC's investigation is over, and they're declaring that the Chinese are all clear.

This is not over yet, not by a long shot. Apparently an American and a British paper have uncovered "evidence" they say proves she's under-age, and a blogger has more that he's willing to bring up. That's not looking good for the Chinese.

They launched a new investigation this morning knapp. The old one was over... this is a new one with the evidence you discussed in your 2nd paragraph and also a spreadsheet found...

[knapplc]

Groovy. The IOC was about to lose every shred of credibility they had left if they dropped it after a couple of hours.

[knapplc]

You know, if He is 14 years old, I may even be more impressed than if she were 16. I could barely walk upright when I was 14. I was growing so much that I was all out of balance and gangly and awkward. I remember losing my balance just standing still. How a girl at that age can twist and contort her body to that degree is absolutely amazing to me.

[bobbing_headz]

You know, if He is 14 years old, I may even be more impressed than if she were 16. I could barely walk upright when I was 14. I was growing so much that I was all out of balance and gangly and awkward. I remember losing my balance just standing still. How a girl at that age can twist and contort her body to that degree is absolutely amazing to me.

Ya but you're not a chick

[Canucks_Fantasy]

You know, if He is 14 years old, I may even be more impressed than if she were 16. I could barely walk upright when I was 14. I was growing so much that I was all out of balance and gangly and awkward. I remember losing my balance just standing still. How a girl at that age can twist and contort her body to that degree is absolutely amazing to me.

I was actually reading up on this and apparently girls under 16 are barred because they're more flexible. However, they also have the mental advantage because they don't recognize the risk of injury/failure.

All the same, I agree with you. I don't see how being younger (or at least that young) would be an advantage.

[bobbing_headz]

You know, if He is 14 years old, I may even be more impressed than if she were 16. I could barely walk upright when I was 14. I was growing so much that I was all out of balance and gangly and awkward. I remember losing my balance just standing still. How a girl at that age can twist and contort her body to that degree is absolutely amazing to me.

I was actually reading up on this and apparently girls under 16 are barred because they're more flexible. However, they also have the mental advantage because they don't recognize the risk of injury/failure.

All the same, I agree with you. I don't see how being younger (or at least that young) would be an advantage.

Not to mention there's probably some advantage to being lighter and smaller.

[Canucks_Fantasy]

Yeah, it decreases the difficulty of many maneuvers.

[beanoX3]

There's no way to prove any of this. The stuff found on the internet from some Chinese website is even more suspect than if it had been from some other website because of the strict control the Chinese government has over internet access in China. People asking for an investigation seem to forget that China is a communist country. They don't provide free access to any sort of investigation, especially anything that can implicate the government. They're not going to be happy with anything the Chinese government provides and there's no such thing as damning proof when it comes to verifying age. Might as well accept it and move on.

There's an funny article up at Yahoo's Olympic gymnastics page about how the parents of the Chinese girls are indignant that nobody believes that their girls are 16. The article suggests that perhaps there's a racial element involved, that asian girls are naturally smaller than caucasian girls. There is some truth to that, plus non-asian people have a difficult time guessing the ages of asian people. I'm Korean and 27 years old, but I routinely get mistaken for a high school kid. Asian people are generally better at guessing ages of asian people, but even to me a few of the girls on the Chinese team look younger than 16. Indignant, yea right.