Just finished watching the women’s gymnastics final out of the corner of my eye while working in my hotel room. I know nothing about the sport, or the event, and I have only a cursory knowledge of the controversy over whether or not the Chinese “women” are 16-years-old – the required age for Olympic competition. That noted – am I the only viewer who noticed that at least one of the Chinese girls was missing teeth? Perhaps she lost them in a training injury, but from here it sure looked as if she was waiting for her adult teeth. At age 16.
[UPDATE: SI has posted a photo gallery of the Chinese gymnasts. Photos 1 and 2 get to the essence of this post.]
[UPDATE 8/14/08: The AP has unearthed a Xinhua story claiming that gold medalist He Kexin is 13.]
Those are not 16 year old girls. Compare them to the Russian or US women. It’s a total joke and the IOC are a bunch of cowards for not challenging the Chinese on it.
If the IOC are trying to not embarrass China, they really have made the wrong call (again). An athlete being disqualified before the event is embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as them being stripped of their medals.
I’m a bit confused, Britain’s Tom Daley (diver) is 14. Is the min. age for male & female different? or different min. age for different sports?
After a bit of searching I found out that Diving & Gymnastics indeed have different min. age (14 vs. 16).
Yahoo sports had a story in which Martha Karolyi complained about exactly the same thing
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news?slug=dw-karolyis081308&prov=yhoo&type=lgns