China Cheating? No way!

[Andy]

For those of you who have been watching the Olympics, you've probably had the age of some of the Chinese competitors on your mind, especially for gymnastics. There's been speculation that one or more of China's athletes are underage, and now the International Olympic Committee's doing an investigation.

If correct, China could lose some of its medals. And also that welcoming, open feeling they've been trying to promote.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/IOC-orders-investigation-into-He-Kexin-s-age?urn=oly,102564

[Gandalf the White]

Wow, I have been watching the olympics for a good while now and those chinese girls that do gymnastics are NOT 16. There's no way. They look more like 13. I hope they lose some medals and give them to shawn johnson or nastia for the USA. But, good post.

[Ichigo]

I love the gymnastics! It's so fun to watch.
China's done some strange things jeez. First the ugly girl not being allowed to sing and now this? (potentially this anyways...)

[Zombified]

"Welcome back to the Beijing Olympics. We are gonna take you back to the Gymnastics now where Chinese competitors are now up."

"What the...? How old is that girl?"

"It says she's 16."

"Bullshit! That bitch gotta be at least 12!"

"You know them Chinese, under age workers now under age gymnasts. I bet they get more than ten cents an hour though."

"Word."

That was retarded...why did I write that?

My point is, THOSE GIRLS ARE NOT THE AGE THEY SAY THEY ARE!
They look like they are about 12!

[Starry]

Can I point out that most of the gymnasts look like they're about 12? Not just the Chinese ones. It has to do with them all being so small, I suppose. I have no idea whether the Chinese gymnasts are actually underage, because I haven't really been following this, but you can't just assume that they're that young because they look that young. Thus the investigation.

[Andy]

Even the commentators on NBC called their age into question - and sounded like they believed it, too.

Anyway, once (not "if") China's caught, they're going to have a really hard time convincing everyone that they're willing to play fair. I mean, honestly, they do this when THEY'RE the host country? Are they just dying to have some bad media attention? And they have a billion people in their country. Couldn't they find some athletes who are both good AND of qualifying age?

Wow, that sounded harsh. :P

[Carraka]

YEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS -gaspgasp-

I feel sorry for those Chinese athletes, but whattheheck I'm Taiwanese.

Okay, no. I'm American. But I guess that's still good because ... medal count?

Okay, the medal count only matters to me because my parents are Taiwanese.

Hmm.

Well, whether they're legit or not, the rules oughta be followed. So there.

[Shaun]

This isn't even the worse of the China scandals. They demolished homes to build the Olympic staging areas, not to mention when you see all that pretty Olympic stuff, if you go just beyond the blue walls there are actually slums where people are living...China did a good job creating a fantasy...

[Lykaios]

Isn't Tom Daley (British diver) only fourteen?

So how did he get in if there's an age-limit? :confused:

[Shaun]

There may be different age limits for different events...

[jordanisonfire]

So people in America and England don't give a fuck that underage Chinese people are working in factories and just about everywhere else that they're incredibly underpaid, but they will in the Olympics? How sad.

[Phantom]

They gymnasts are so under age.
Yeah, Shadow, that is true.

[Starry]

Isn't Tom Daley (British diver) only fourteen?

So how did he get in if there's an age-limit? :confused:

I think the age limit on most of the sports is sixteen, but for some weird reason, for diving it's fourteen. A bunch of the divers are fourteen, and then there are still some who are like in their late thirties. *shrug* Go figure.

[Phantom]

For diving it is fourteen because you need to be really small to make no splash...

[Shaun]

Not true at all, Shadow, there's just nothing we can do about it.

[Phantom]

Shaun's reply makes more sense then mine... :(

[jordanisonfire]

I know that, but activist groups are constantly saying: "Don't buy such and such, it's from little children in China" and "We should go over there and campaign!" but they don't take any notice. But when there's accusations of underage athletes, they throw their hands up. I wasn't saying we COULD help them.

[thededone]

Personally I'm not willing to believe this. Gymnasts, from any country, look younger than they are. They are petite. It's part of what makes them Gymnasts. I think that this could be caused by some peoples unhappiness with the fact that china is beating us in golds right now, and americans' general dislike of the chinese. And in my opinion even if they are under 16 it shouldn't matter. The point of the Olympics is to test and display human potential and human unity, there is nothing in there about the potential of humans over 16, or how everyone but children are unified by a national sporting event. It's everyone. And if the "Legit-aged" people can't compete then too bad, its called competition. someone always loses. But we don't have to make a big deal out of it.

[Carraka]

I'm not going to debate about whether there should be an age limit, because I don't have any scientific evidence about injuries/bone development/eating problems/mental maturity etc.

The point is that if they are cheating, they are cheating. If one country is following the rules and another country is not following the rules, which country should be receiving the medals?

--

But I'm not gonna deny that I despise the Chinese government. I actually thought I was pretty alone in that. Most Americans I know have more of a fascination than a dislike. And I know I dislike because of my parents and my Taiwanese blood.

[thededone]

Growth and Development is not the issue I speak of when talking about the age limit. As far as I know, the point of the age limit, at least in Gymnastics, is that younger children can more easily perform their routines because they have smaller bodies. But this makes no sense because a 40 year old could just as easily claim that it is unfair that all the young, fit 20 year olds are making it unfair for them to compete in the olympics. most of the olympic games have an age window in which most people perform the best. Why should we ignore the age window of gymnastics just because it's so low? If you can't beat a 13 year old on the beam, than you don't deserve the gold, because there is someone in the world better than you.
I'd like to say more, but I have to go to work now. ttyl.

[jordanisonfire]

If they were cheating and got away with it, I would applaud them, seeing as they could fool all the nations of the world. However, I'm not saying that them cheating is a good thing. I'm just saying that, if they could cheat and get away with it, then they're pretty smart.

[Crocolyle]

A lot of you are saying that they look young just because they're petite. According to the Daily Show a couple nights ago they also have prepubescent facial construction, which if true, would mean that they definitely can't be sixteen.

[Phantom]

But they could also be, 12 or 14.