Are The Chinese Girls Gymnasts Underage?

If you ask me, I’d say “yes.” At sixteen and younger, you can tell simply by the way their bodies seem underdeveloped. There have been numerous unconfirmed reports about a discrepancy in the ages of three of the girls on the Chinese gymnastic team.

This morning, I read the most damaging report to date and wonder if it will lead to a further investigation:

Earlier state media report listed gymnast He’s age as 13

BEIJING — Just nine months before the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government’s news agency, Xinhua, reported that gymnast He Kexin was 13, which would have made her ineligible to be on the team that won a gold medal this week.

A report in China’s official Xinhua news agency nine months ago listed gymnast He Kexin as being 13 years old. But she told reporters Wednesday that her real age is 16.

In its report Nov. 3, Xinhua identified He as one of “10 big new stars” who made a splash at China’s Cities Games. It gave her age as 13 and reported that she beat Yang Yilin on the uneven bars at those games. In the final, “this little girl” pulled off a difficult release move on the bars known as the Li Na, named for another Chinese gymnast, Xinhua said in the report, which appeared on one of its Web sites, www.hb.xinhuanet.com READ MORE

Do I think that China could be desperate enough to win that they’d doctor a few passports to pass these girls of as sixteen-year-olds? Yes, I do.
Do I think that the ages of these girls made a difference in the all-around team competition the other night and affected the outcome? No, I don’t.

Whether or not these girls are underage doesn’t matter. They still out performed and out matched the US girls gymnastics team. And if the Chinese girls in question are underage, well that only adds salt to the wound. Sure, when you are younger you are more nimble and flexible. But with age comes experience, and the US lost the competition all on their own. They did pull in silver medals, though, which is an accomplishment in itself.

Tonight is the single round girls gymnastic competition. And I’ll be live blogging during the event.

Stay tuned to see if the US can perform better than they did the other night, or if the Chinese continues to dominate.

Photo provided by Newscom