Gymnastics' ageless age issue

BEIJING –- Some Western media outlets here for the Games have been discussing the issue of some Chinese gymnasts reportedly being underage.

Some blogs have been especially active in the last few days, including at least one that shows a spreadsheet that, when broken down, helps to detail the ages of some athletes at the time of various competitions, including last year’s world championships. The blogs make it sound new. It is not.

There have also been discussions on this blog about whether Bela Karolyi was being unfair in his constant challenges about the Chinese ages.

To discuss whether Karolyi used a poor choice of words in his imperfect English when he called the Chinese girls “half people” is absolutely fair game. But in those same discussions it has been suggested that news reporting about the age issue has unfairly targeted the Chinese because of their small size and young faces.

And that’s not quite the case.

On Monday, July 28, before the Olympics began, I used documents that were confirmed as registration lists from Chinese sports provinces, stories printed in Chinese media and various websites including government sites that were taken down from the Web and a spreadsheet of the constantly changing tableau of Chinese gymnasts’ ages.

That story and one written by the New York Times a day earlier were not based on physical appearances but from printed documents and data.

Suddenly, now that the gymnastics competition is over, bloggers are back on to the underage story using online “screen grabs” of many of the same documents used in the Los Angeles Times story.

The bottom line is two newspapers published articles based on documents that indicated certain athletes were underage. And the Chinese government, in response to those articles, produced passports, to prove the athletes were old enough. The International Gymnastics Federation, FIG, has played dumb, saying it is not an investigative unit and that it will accept passports issued by entering nations as the gospel.

Even other evidence reported in the Los Angeles Times story about a 2000 Games Chinese gymnast named Yang Yun who said herself that she was an underage 14 at the Sydney Olympics was brushed off by FIG President Bruno Grandi as being worth less than a passport she was issued in 2000 that listed her as 16. There is a YouTube clip of Yang saying she was 14 in Sydney. No documents. Just Yang.

Believe the documents or don’t. Believe Yang or don't.

That’s what presenting evidence is about, making a case. But some readers have e-mailed to complain that we in the media have ignored the age issue. At least in this space, that’s not the case. And others have suggested by presenting the information we were making judgments based on natural racial characteristics or nationalistic biases. Again, at least in this space, that’s also not the case.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: He Kexin is one of the Chinese gymnasts whose age has been questioned. Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times.

Comments

[HARVIN GWIN]

One might be able to make a case that none of the gymnastic performers/creatures are entirely human.None of them looks or sounds human.Like animals in a travelling circus these tiny beings are trotted out every four years,stared at and then at the conclusion of the Games,immediately returned to the netherworld they exist in between Olympics.Only heaven knows what really goes on in these bizarre creatures' lives,what they eat,how they do in school,if indeed they have ever attended an academic institution.The whole creepy business of training these kewpie dolls stikes me as closer to a horror film than a reality picture.

[Tim]

Screw it. It doesn't seem like the Olympics are really going to check up on ages, so just kill the rule and let them trot out anyone who can do a triple flip dismount. It's not like the kids won't be going through the same harsh training and getting injured permanently when you don't let them go to the Olympics. They'll be doing the same thing, just without the promise of corporate sponsorships if they're successful.

[kep]

Normally I don't respond to virulent bile-spewers like Mr. Gwin, but I can't resist. Gymnasts are small, naturally strong people even before they start training, like a flyweight boxer (that would be my grandpa). Then they train a lot and get even more muscles. When I was in high school I got a lot of grief for my lats and six-pack, and the mean girls called me a freak, but I liked my little, strong, flexible body. I was not a spectacular gymnast, but like Shawn Johnson, I went to public high school, trained 20-30 hours a week, had time to get good grades and go to prom, had friends, had boyfriends. I don't know what lies in Ms. Johnson's future, but I ended up an MD/PhD with a good marriage and children. And I still have bunchy little muscles and can still do the splits. Hardly a horror film. If you want to want to talk about age-cheating, consider those bearded "boys" in the Little League World Series. If you want to talk about abusive behavior on the part of coaches, consider the Martial Arts official just fired for sexual abuse of his young female teen athletes (known for years, only recently acted upon by the federation). Wherever there are elite youth sports there is abuse, no doubt, but as far as I can tell, gymnastics is neither better nor worse than any other sport for that. That's the reality picture.

[Marlena Munoz]

The Chinese girls may very well be underage but also, it is possible that they have been trained to be malnourished which can cause delayed puberity which can result in them not developing into women until they around 16 years or later. I had a neice who was very sickly, hardly ate, was considered malnourished and did not begin puberity until she was well over her 16th birthday. I have also read articles over the years about female gymnists and ballet dancers who starve themselves so they can remain thin and small. Too low body fat always results in no periods.

[Carlos]

I've been watching the Olympics since I was a kid and I've never seen such tiny little girls as the ones the Chinese trotted out at these Olympics. The totalitarian government in Beijing can say all they want and put out as many documents as they want about the age of these little girls. But the fact of the matter is that there will always be doubt about He Kexin and her little teammates.

[Kevin]

Whenever I see dolphins perform, I think, "Humans suck." Then I see women's gymnastics and I think, "Maybe we're not so bad after all."

Then I read online comments and I think, "Yeah, we suck."

Oh, and He Kexin? To me, she looks clearly underage, and I'm Asian and I grew up surrounded by Asians. Nothing Bela Karolyi said was offensive to me. It was not racist, but a comment on how young they looked. Maybe he should have said that they look like skinny Hobbits, since "half-people" has the offense police in such a tizzy. Or like Tinker Bells, "You must believe in their passport ages, or they will die!" The (misplaced imho) indignation just distracts from the real question: Why do multiple examples of Chinese documentation give ages for two of their top Olympic gymnasts that would make them currently 14 years old? The documentation in the NY Times article really needs to be answered by the Chinese team.

[Tim Warfield]

One of the most interesting human aspects of this story, which nobody has touched on yet, is that Nastia Liukin, who lost to He Kexin in a heartstoppingly close uneven bars tiebreaker, was unable to compete in the last Olympic games because she was only 14. She probably could have won the uneven bars competition. Marta Karolyi said at the time that if Nastia were old enough, she'd be on the team. Instead, she played by the rules, waited her turn, and dealt with the inevitable challenges of puberty, growth spurts (she is now one of the tallest on the US team, while four years ago she was one of the shortest), injury, and burnout. Now a 14-year-old pipsqueak comes along and edges her for gold. She was very graceful in defeat and said that He Kexin deserved her medal, but she must have been seething inside.

I agree that the age rule is unenforcable, and the IOC and FIG should not have rules that they cannot enforce equally. However, the fact remains that the rule is the rule, at least for now, and now that a blogger has uncovered caches of official government documents with He's and Yang's real ages, they should be stripped of their medals. It is a sad thing. The Chinese girls are beautiful gymnasts. But there are also many great gymnasts who are of age who were left behind in favor of this new talent. If Chinese coaches had so chosen, I'm sure they could have shaped Xiao Sha, He Ning, and Pang Panpan, and others into a gold medal winning team. Instead, they took the easy way out in an effort to assure gold for their home games. They were also gambling on the fact that the IOC would not want to insult the home country. Now they are going to lose face big time.

[B.T.]

C'mon, is this story really 'news'? The Chinese will lie, steal & bribe their way for top metal position and an artificial image of global superiority this Olympics.

*Lip singing 9 yr olds
*Computer Generated fire works
*Not pollution - "Mist!"
*56 Paraded children proudly representing their individual ethnicity's when the truth is all 56 are 'Cherry Picked' Han Chinese
The list goes on and will continue to even after the games.

This country is nothing more than the insecure girl stuffing her bra with toilet paper before the prom dance.

[Ricky Rocker]

China lies! Shame on you China! You should be banned for 2012 Olympics!!

[Agent Duke]

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Sounds to me like He is barely old enough to contribute to this forum...maybe...

[Phan]

It is popular, in this relatavistic age, to opine: "who cares" and "why does this matter" on issues such as this. But it isn't up to us spectators or even national governments to determine the importance of whether it matters that a 12 or 14 year old competes in a competition limited to 16 and above. Ask any one of the athletes who complied with the rules - it matters. These are their competitions and the least they are owed - in recognition of the entertainment and pride we all feel at their accomplishments - is to know that those who won deserved to win and were not doping, age enhancing or any other form of cheating. According to Diane Pucin's July 28 article, He Kexin's age was an open fact and discussed on Chinese websites for months leading up to the Games. The fact that the Chinese government condones and lauds cheating will serve China no better in the long run than it has any other nation - and provides fair warning to foreign investment and tourism. Frankly, I am most impressed with the sportsmanship and dignity shown by Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin as they competed. It's trite, but I'm going to say it anyway because it's true - a golden character is better than a gold medal.

[Tony Su]

This age controversy was only stirred up by some US media because of jealousy and ignorance. Now even HACKER got involved in this campaign. How desperate! Since when hacker discovery can be treated as solid "evidence"? How painful is losing the gold medal race!

It's so convenient to denounce Chinese government media at one time, then treated it as the most authoritative at another (100% correctness?!). Those posted age information could be just the mistakes made by some lazy or careless Chinese reporters or web page creators. How about those Chinese web sites reported correct age information? They were conveniently ignored by the US media.

An old video circulated on Chinese web sites clearly showed that those girls were recruited when China was awarded Olympics and it mentioned they would be 16 years old in 2008.

BTW, many Chinese girls do look very young comparing to Westerners, and some even appear younger than most other Chinese girls. If you don't know that, you have not seen enough. There are Chinese girls in their 20s look like 12-year-old to even Chinese.

[ripper]

He Kexin honestly doesn't even look 14yrs old. By Caucasian standards, I'd peg her at 10 yrs old, tops. So I wouldn't even debate if she is 14 or 16, but rather if her age is in single or double digits.

And Bela Karolyi is a known slave driver. He was totalitarian in his training methods, starving and abusing his athletes. But hey, why do we care, it's the US, we can do as please, and not lead by example.

[chamber]

I wouldn't put it past the Chinese or any other country to fake an age, I mean nothing against them but it would be the easiest thing to do by the government. It takes Ten minutes to make a passport so if thats the only basis they go on then there is no way to prevent it. I don't know if this girl is really 14 but with china controlling all their local media there is no doubt they can do this and easily get away with it,

I don't know much about gymnastics so im not sure if being younger really gives a lot of advantages i heard the younger you are the more flexible but not really sure if there is a big difference between 16 and 14.

Not to take anything away from the chinese cause those people are extremely talented.

[John]

The British use a legal 14 year old male synchonized diver.
Why can't 14 year old female gymnasts compete?
Is the IOC practicing age and sex discrimination?

[Anon]

Great entry. So many of the stories in the aftermath of the controversy have just screamed, "They look 10 years old!" It is clear, however, that the original stories were based on government documents, NOT on how the gymnasts look. Yet the Chinese government is getting away with a lot of misdirection on this issue.

I keep seeing "conversations" in the media that go like this:
Media: "Government documents show that He Kexin's age has been falsified."
Chinese government: "Chinese girls just look young! Looks are not proof of age!"
Media: "The Chinese government today said that Chinese girls just look young and looks are not proof of age..."

Don't let them get away with this! Reporting their comments without noting that they ARE NOT ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS is bad reporting. I'm glad to see you keeping the debate focused on the real issue.

[zenzmurfy@hotmail.com]

If age is such a factor, are all the other countries completing only with 16 year olds then?