Chinese Gymnasts Age Update: IOC Begins Investigation on He Kexin
August 21, 2008
In an interview with The Times of London, the International Olympic Committee has officially ordered an investigation on He Kexin’s age. Any official evidence proving that Kexin did not meet the age requirements for gymnastic competition in the 2008 Olympic games could ultimately strip the Chinese gymnastic star of her medals.
The investigation came about as US-computer security expert Mike Walker claimed that he had uncovered official Chinese government documents, which have been previously removed from a website, that cites Kexin’s date of birth as January 1, 1994, making her 14, rather than 1992, which is printed in her passport.
Walker told The Times of London that he wasn’t even a sports fan and that he was investigating this matter as “citizen journalist.”
Walker explains, “There was a conclusion here. These documents existed, on a state-wide website, and now they don’t exist, and this change has taken place recently. I was interested because these were documents that no-one could find - it was a challenge.”
“Because of troubling new developments, the committee had instructed the International Gymnastics Federation, the sport’s governing body, to investigate,” said IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies.
“More information has come to light that did point to discrepancies. 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.”
AsianWeek will be following the investigation closely. Stay tuned for updates!
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Comments
25 Responses to “Chinese Gymnasts Age Update: IOC Begins Investigation on He Kexin”
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Finally!
This rule does not make any sense. They impose this rule so that gymnast do not feel the pressure at such a young age, yet they state that young gymnast have an advantage because they don’t feel as much pressure. Shawn Johnson won all kinds of awards in international competition at the too tender age of 13. It seems the older gymnast gets hurt more than the younger ones.
The truth, Asians trained from an early age and peaks at about 16. The West trains at an older age and peaks later.
This rule was impose to handicap Asian gymnast. When we start changing the rules to win, it’s called cheating.
Soo…wouldn’t that be called hacking, Mr. Walker?
Here is my musical tribute to He Kexin, with apologies to Ringo Starr
“You’re Sixteen?”
You do flips and you twirl, ooh, what a girl!
Eyes that sparkle and shine.
You’re fourteen, you’re beautiful and you’re mine.
(mine, all mine, mine, mine!)
You’re my baby, my Chinese doll,
You beat USA without a single fall
You won the gold, my heart went cold,
Ooh, when we lost, I gave Giselle a call.
Your Olympic dreams, are now on hold
Soon the IOC will divine…
You’re fourteen, you’re beautiful, pay the fine.
(fine, big fine, fine fine!)
You’re my baby, my Chinese doll
your paper trail’s as long as China’s Great Wall
For goodness sake, your passport’s fake,
Ooh, what a mess, you’re about to make!
The truth has come clean… Miss He Kexin;
Your name can no longer be used online.
You’re fourteen, you’re beautiful, and you’re mine!
He Kexin is no more that 12 years old. Her hip and muscular structure are those of a very young girl. China should immediately give back the gold medals and remove the entire cheating Chinese gymnastics teams. Of course, the Chinese Gymnastics coach will have make a full apology to the world. He may have been under intense political pressure to win gold. I feel sorry for him.
The rules is simple the Chinese may have broke that rule. The rule was not put in place to give the US an adavantag no matter what conspiracy theroists think. When you fallsify documents inorder to break the rules and give yourself an advantage that is cheating
I don’t think it is He or any of the girl’s fault. If the government in China has enough power to move thousands of people from their homes and then to conveniently discourage any protests during the olympics and if insists on micromanaging everything, then, they absolutely have enough power to force a small gymnastics team and the families they represent to go along with the government’s lies. I wonder what the told the girls… say this, or else?? unfortunate… those are sweet girls who just love gymnastics. and being manipulated by silly politics. China is a great country, but could it be greater if it gave more freedom to the people?
Guys:
No matter how you slice this one, it’s ALL “politics.”
Both ways.
With or without the “gold” and every shade of viewer reaction, little He Kexin remains a “champion” in this single view.
P.S.: Welcome back, Huang Fong.
I think the fairest thing to do is to punish China - not He. Stripping her of her medal does nothing - make China responsible for its cheating. Put sanctions on China - they can’t participate in the next olympics. that would send a message to everyone - cheating is not going to be allowed.
i think they should take away the medals and ban china from the olympics for good. no need to think twice here, why would any of the chinese athletes train, compete so damn hard only to be pressured by the chinese goverment to win or else.
>little He Kexin remains a “champion” in this single view.
Sweet little “sixteen” is a champion liar, that’s for sure, but give the coach some credit.
I think a gymnast should be able to compete anytime that they or their country feels ready. That way any country can enroll their athletes when they feel they are at peak performance. I also feel sorry for He, she is just competing in a sport she loves. Shame on China for cheating.
Can we at least wait for the final outcome of the IOC investigation before grilling China for cheating? damn.
Look, stripping He Kexin of her medals is only too fair! If she really is only 14, she has plenty of opportunity to compete in other gymnastics competitions. She’s famous and underage. The olympic’s rules are rules, and she can win them when she’s old enough. What aout Nastia Liukin? She won the competition without lying about her age, she deserves the gold. He Kexin has shown a fantastic performance, and has the exposure to compete wherever she wants, and she’s shown she can win.
I think it would be best if the team itself turns over the medals, and does so soon. The way it stands, even with a huge medal count lead, everyone is just going to look on China at the closing ceremonies as a nation of institutionalized cheating. To be seen doing the “right thing” before this happens is the only way to regain credibility.
Huang Fong, changing the rules means petitioning and actually changing the rules. It doesn’t mean ignoring them. And remember that Nadia won at 14. A lot of people gain advantage by competing young. We’ve no idea who would have won had they all competed. This is flat out cheating.
I know, people on here and all over the internet are talking like they know everything about China and the Olympic. Why not let the IOC do their job and let them decide if the Chinese have cheated.
If they have in fact cheated, China will lose face. If they didn’t cheat, the rest of the complainer will look foolish. Simple as that.
Marcus, if those were the only two possible outcomes I’d agree with you. But quite frequently official channels don’t work. Another likely outcome is that we all know damn well they did cheat, and yet for years no action is taken.
The IOC didn’t take action earlier for political reasons, and for the same political reasons they will likely continue to make no real progress. I’ve lived and worked in China and believe me, the authorities won’t do anything unless there are real and continued pressures.
And even if the IOC doesn’t take action, certification will be required of all gymnasts next year, so these girls will have a hard time competing in international competitions without better documentation and freedom to investigate. Further, I suspect many countries will deny their passports as “falsified” and require further investigation.
But relying on the IOC to take action without pressure is unlikely to yield much in the way of results.
LM is absolutely correct. All these people attempting to silence everyone from discussing this issue seem to have absolutely no idea how legal process works.
I think the age limit is stupid. If age is such a deciding factor, EVERYONE would only have 16 year gymnasts. Anyone not born on the right year need not bother training if they won’t be 16 on an olympic year. If age was a big factor it’s very unfair to someone who’s age 15 this olympics but won’t be eligible until age 19 on the next one.
Mike, I agree there are problems with the age limit and perhaps it is not correctly placed. But most orthopedic specialists I know believe that gymnastics as a sport should be at least seriously modified, if not out-right banned.
The age limit decision was made for a number of medical reasons. It may not be right, and it may not be fair. But it’s even less fair when some stick to those rules and others don’t.
The age restriction is a question without easy answers. Maybe the rules should change. But where do you draw the line on the age limit? If you understand the medical issues involved (both physical and psychological) the implications of no age limit are frightening.
But then where? A decision has to be made, and someone will always be unhappy. But almost every sport has an age limit, this one is just more difficult for those who don’t know the issues to understand. The decision was not made lightly — it was discussed and debated for years by people who know a lot more about the problems than most who argue now.
Many changes could be made in the sport, and I’m sure this question will be continuously revisited. But it has little bearing on the current question — whether a team who cheats to it’s advantage should be allowed to keep the gold. This question applies to several other incidents that have taken place over the last several Olympics, but none of those resulted in as high profile wins or were as blatant at the time of competition. The truth is, if it’s not about a high profile gold, no one cares. And if it is, and it involves tricky politics, no one will investigate.
Let me state for the record they I don’t even believe that there should be a “team” effort in gymnastics. It’s not inherently a team sport, but about individuals. Making teams sports out of individualist ones I find disingenuous. But this is also irrelevant to the discussion, which is about both fairness in sport and government and media responsibility.
It’s common knowledge to those living in China that if anyone actually tells the truth about the age of the girls and makes the government lose face, that they will end up in jail. So, forget about anyone from China helping to shed light on the subject. The passports were issued by the govt., so saying that the girls are underage is a big “insult” to China, even though it is a Big Cheat that they succeeded in bullying through.
i think some of you people shouldn’t judge china until the results are in. We don’t even know the truth yet and everyone is badging on China. Yeah, China’s government doesn’t give a lot of freedom but still a great country, and some of you were saying they should ban China from competing forever is so ridiculous and unfair, why punish all the talented athletes, And everyone is just so jealous that China did so well with the gold medals and wish that the Chinese will have their medals stripped off. I just still think we should not judge until the results are in. Asians were always small tiny and petite, so it’s really hard to tell.
They cheated the American and the rest of the countries out of their medals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111
Soooooooooooooo when are the results going to be published? Long after everyone has moved on and it’s all been forgotten? They know the attention span of the average person wont keep this in their minds very long, so better to let it ride as long as possible, me thinks.
What came back? How did the investigation go? It has been some time now.