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USOC supports gymnastics probe

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BEIJING -- The U.S. Olympic Committee, holding its end-of-Games news conference a bit early, said Friday that it was backing the International Olympic Committee’s request that the international gymnastics federation look into ‘a number of questions and discrepancies’ regarding the age of several Chinese gymnasts.

The IOC said Friday that it had requested FIG -- as the international gymnastics federation is known for the French version of its name -- re-examine documents that state the girls’ ages as 16. A series of articles, most recently by the Times of London, cited documents that put their ages as 14.

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‘We believe that in fairness to all the athletes in that competition the IOC and the international federation for gymnastics should take measures to ensure that that issue is put to rest one way or the other,’ said Jim Scherr, chief executive of the USOC.

‘In that interest we sent a letter to the IOC and international federation today asking them to expeditiously resolve this issue in fairness to all the athletes and the interest of the integrity of that competition.

‘So with the news that we’ve heard recently we do believe that the IOC is going in that direction. We hope they follow through and look forward to a quick resolution.’

-- Helene Elliott

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