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Metropolis Reality Forums Ť IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age ť

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Elizabeth
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IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age
« on: Aug 22^nd, 2008, 11:20am »

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IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age

The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into the age of Chinese gymnast He Kexin, The Times of London reports. Faced with almost insurmountable evidence which suggests that He is two years younger than the birth date listed on her Chinese passport, the IOC has launched an inquiry that could result in the stripping of He's gold medals.

This news comes on the heels of another Times report that details the findings of a New York computer security expert who found official Chinese documents that list He's age as 14 years and 220 days. Mike Walker used a Chinese search engine's cache feature to find He's actual date of birth on spreadsheets from a Chinese government website. The spreadsheets were taken down off the site recently and He's name had been removed.

Assuming the IOC is committed to a real investigation and not some dog and pony show, the revelation that the Chinese government covered up the ages of gymnasts could end up being the defining moment of these Games for the host country. Officials wanted the Olympics to be a coming out party for a new China. But while the Games have been a huge success, there is a legitimate possibility that China's legacy from Beijing '08 will be that of a massive government cover-up, not the magical Opening Ceremony or the transformation of Beijing or anything else positive.

All the good work China did to put on these Olympics could be forgotten because of an unnecessary, arrogant move by the government. Why risk everything to put a 14-year old in the competition when they could have replaced her with an of-age 16-year old gymnast? Sure, He is a better gymnast than the Chinese gymnasts who were eligible to compete, but with the judges they had at the Olympics, would it really have mattered?

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Elizabeth
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Re: IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age
« Reply #1 on: Aug 22^nd, 2008, 11:26am »

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International Olympic Committee launches probe into He Kexin's age

The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into mounting allegations that Chinese authorities covered up the true age of their gold-medal winning gymnastics star because she was too young to compete.

An IOC official told The Times that because of "discrepancies" that have come to light about the age of He Kexin, the host nations darling who won gold in both team and individual events, an official inquiry has been launched that could result in the gymnast being stripped of her medals.

The investigation was triggered as a US computer expert claimed yesterday to have uncovered Chinese government documents that he says prove she is only 14 - making her ineligible to compete in the Olympics - rather than 16, as officials in Beijing insist is her age.

Mike Walker, a computer security expert, told The Times how he tracked down two documents that he says had been removed from a Chinese government website. The documents, he said, stated that Hes birth date was January 1 1994 - making her 14 - and not January 1 1992, which is printed in her passport.

Hes true age has been a subject of swirling controversy since the Games began. Questions over her eligibility intensified after she edged out the US gymnast Nastia Liukin for the gold medal in the uneven bars on Monday, and was part of the team gold triumph last week. She also edged Britains Beth Tweddle out of the medals.

Bela Karolyi, the former gymnastics coach whose wife, Martha, coaches the US womens team, has repeatedly accused the Chinese of fielding underage female gymnasts. The ages of two other team members have also aroused suspicion: Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin. Time magazine reported that government records, that have since disappeared, showed both girls to be 14. Gymnasts must be 16 to compete.

The minimum age for female gymnasts was increased from 14 to 15 in 1981, and up to 16 in 1997, to protect the physical and mental health of young athletes.

Nadia Comaneci was 14 when she won her fist Olympic gold medal in 1976. Yet despite her stardom, there were criticisms that young girls were being pushed too hard at an age when their bodies and bones were still growing, causing permanent damage. Ironically her coach was Mr Karolyi.

There were also concerns about their mental health, because of the pressure of competing on the world stage at such a young age, and that they were vulnerable to exploitation and even physical abuse by coaches.

"They are obviously kids," Mr Karolyi said. "Twelve, 14 max - and theyre telling the world they are 16? What arrogance." Although the US team has deliberately steered clear of the controversy, his wife suggested after the US teams loss to China that the Chinese gymnasts were still losing their baby teeth. "One of the girls has a missing tooth," she said.

Mary Lou Retton, the US Olympic gymnastics gold-medallist in the 1984 Games, told the New York Times last month: "The girls are so little, so young. They say they are 16, but I dont know." The IOC has been accused of deliberately ignoring the issue because it feared offending China.

Yet Giselle Davies, an IOC spokesperson, said tonight that because of troubling new developments, the committee had instructed the International Gymnastics Federation, the sports governing body, to investigate

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"More information has come to light that did point to discrepancies," Ms Davies said. "We have asked the gymnastics federation to look into it further with the national Chinese federation. If there is a question mark, and we have a concern - which we do - we ask the governing body of any sport to look into ... as to why there is a discrepancy."

The man who uncovered the allegations about the underage athlete told The Times that he was not even a sports a fan, but decided to investigate the issue to determine if Chinese authorities were lying. He eventually discovered that two Excel spreadsheets on the Chinese governments official sports website www.sport.gov.cn - that mentioned her name had recently being removed.

"There was a conclusion here," Mr Walker said. "These documents existed, on a state-wide website, and now they dont exist, and this change has taken place recently. I was interested because these were documents that no-one could find. If theres information to be found on the internet Im a citizen journalist - it was a challenge."

He turned to a Chinese search engine, Baidu. In its cache he found both documents. "The listing in there, quite clearly, is He Kexins birth date, January 1, 1994," Mr Walker said.

That makes her 14 years and 220 days old and too young to compete. The lists were compiled by the General Administration of Sport of China.

How aggressive and sustained the IOC-ordered investigation will be remains to be seen. If it did ultimately result in the stripping of gold medals from one of Chinas favourite athletes, it would be an Olympic scandal with reverberations far beyond the sport itself.

In July the New York Times published references to articles in the Beijing press in which He was referred to as only 14 years old.

Chinese officials responded immediately by providing the newspaper with a passport copy indicating He had been born on January 1, 1992, but still doubts lingered, not least because the athlete looks barely past puberty.

When asked about her recently - and before Hes gold medal wins - IOC president Jacques Rogge claimed it was not his organisations role to check the age of competitors. "The IOC relies on the international federations, who are exclusively responsible for the eligibility of athletes," he said.

Under his blog name Stryde Hax, Mr Walker wrote: "Much of the coverage regarding Kexins age has only mentioned allegations of fraud, and the IOC has ignored the matter completely. I believe that these primary documents, issued by the Chinese state ... rise to a level of evidence higher than allegation. How official are these documents? Pretty dang official - they were issued by the General Administration of Sport of China."

He insists that she is old enough to compete. Asked by journalists about the debate, she said: "My real age is 16. I dont care what other people say. I want other people to know that 16 is my real age."

Both China and the US came into the Games determined to show the other who was boss. Although China is generally recognised as the leading nation, with a tally tonight of 46 gold medals to the USAs 27, Americans claim to interpret success by the total number of medals won, which puts their team ahead with 86 to 83. With the scores that close, every last piece of metal is precious meaning this row could follow He firmly into adulthood.

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Elizabeth
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Re: IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age
« Reply #2 on: Aug 22^nd, 2008, 11:27am »

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Does she look 16 to you?

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sportsperson624
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Re: IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age
« Reply #3 on: Aug 22^nd, 2008, 11:47am »

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no.

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Heather
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Re: IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age
« Reply #4 on: Aug 22^nd, 2008, 1:23pm »

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No.

Does it make me a bad person if I say "well, if no one can beat a 14 year old then it's they're fault?"

But yes, there are rules, and all countries need to follow them. Sad

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Sam.
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Re: IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age
« Reply #5 on: Aug 22^nd, 2008, 2:04pm »

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on Aug 22^nd, 2008, 1:23pm, Heather wrote:

No.

Does it make me a bad person if I say "well, if no one can beat a 14 year old then it's they're fault?"

But yes, there are rules, and all countries need to follow them. Sad

Are 14 year olds not allowed at the Olympics? Because there is a 13 (or 14) year old diver for Great Britain doing it. I'm not sure of these rules at all.

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Rhune
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Re: IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age
« Reply #6 on: Aug 23^rd, 2008, 8:45am »

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14 year olds are not allowed to compete specifically in gymnastics for multiple reasons, one of them is they have an unfair advantage of flexibility and size to the older competitors. So apparently getting beat by a 14 year old is not hard at all. Mainly the age change was done because of the severity of the injuries that can occur.

They'll never really be able to prove it, China has been pretty thorough about altering the legal documents. There was one girl in the group thingy that looked much much younger than He. She even has missing teeth in the very same spot my 9 year old is missing teeth right now...frankly she looks about 9 or 10 to me. She still has a lot of baby fat on her face, etc.

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Dixie
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Re: IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age
« Reply #7 on: Aug 23^rd, 2008, 7:52pm »

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I agree with Rhune. At least 3 of those girls are underage. Isn't there some sort of medcal test that can be done? With all the DNA and genetics testing, there must be something and if they can test for drugs, they can test the age. DNA can't lie.

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Isle_be_back
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Re: IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age
« Reply #8 on: Aug 23^rd, 2008, 8:00pm »

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Can't they cut them in half and count the rings? Huh

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Elizabeth
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Re: IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age
« Reply #9 on: Aug 23^rd, 2008, 9:48pm »

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on Aug 23^rd, 2008, 8:45am, Rhune wrote:

They'll never really be able to prove it, China has been pretty thorough about altering the legal documents. There was one girl in the group thingy that looked much much younger than He. She even has missing teeth in the very same spot my 9 year old is missing teeth right now...frankly she looks about 9 or 10 to me. She still has a lot of baby fat on her face, etc.

My brother looked for the cache thing to find He KeXin's name, and it said she was 14...but China will probably say its a different girl with the same name Roll Eyes

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