IOC to investigate ages of China's gymnasts

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BEIJING (AP) -- The International Olympic Committee said Friday it had asked gymnastics officials to investigate whether the Chinese women's gymnastics team that won the gold medal had underage athletes, saying "more information has come to light."

"We've asked the gymnastics federation to look into it further," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. "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 it."

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NBC's Stromotion compares Nastia Liukin and He Kexin's uneven bar routines during event finals.

It was not immediately clear what new information prompted the IOC to act now, three days after the gymnastics competition ended.

Messages for the International Gymnastics Federation were not immediately returned.

The FIG has said repeatedly that a passport is the "accepted proof of a gymnast's eligibility," and that China's gymnasts have presented ones that show they are age eligible. The IOC also checked the girls' passports and deemed them valid.

A gymnast must be 16 in an Olympic year to compete at the games. But questions about the ages of at least three of the athletes have persisted. Online records and media reports suggest three Chinese gymnasts -- He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin -- may be as young as 14.

The IOC had said previously that it had verified the passports of all athletes competing at the games.

"We are not in a position to say 'It's good, it's not good.' It's a government document," FIG president Bruno Grandi said earlier this week in an interview with The Associated Press.

The Chinese women won six medals, including the team gold and a gold on uneven bars by He. The media reports include a Nov. 3 story by the Chinese government's news agency, Xinhau -- that suggest He is only 14. She was asked about her age again after winning the uneven bars title, beating American Nastia Liukin in a tiebreak.

"I was born in 1992 and I'm 16 years old now," He said Monday. "The FIG has proved that. If I'm under 16, I couldn't have been competing here."

Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s after the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to protect young athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997.

North Korea was barred from the 1993 world championships after FIG officials discovered that Kim Gwang Suk, the gold medalist on uneven bars in 1991, was listed as 15 for three years in a row. Romania admitted in 2002 that several gymnasts' ages had been falsified, including Olympic medalists Gina Gogean and Alexandra Marinescu.

Even China's own Yang Yun, a double bronze medalist in Sydney, said during an interview aired on state broadcaster China Central Television that she was 14 in 2000.

Its all about politics, and selling Coke. Personally I wouldn't want my tax dollars going to pay for
athletes to train, there are more important things in the world, then medal bragging rights.

Its funny, even with all the politics, and controversy, I am still glued to the tv for 2 weeks, these Olympics have been fun to watch, I don't normally watch tv at 3 or 4 am, but I have been doing that since they started.

You don't know about the 1980 Moscow Olympic boycott, there also
seems to be alot of favoritism amongst the officials of certain countries.

the age limit of 16 was put on gymnastics while other sports such as bobsledding is 14? It used to be that gymnastics were competing at age 12 and 13 and winning medals. Nadia Comaneci (Romania) won a gold medal in the Montreal olympics in 1976 at age 14.

Cheating is cheating though which has a very nasty effect if you're caught cheating to win medals in the Olympics.

Do you take an interest in Tae quondo Jerry? Some people are saying the English lad got stitched up by the judging when he went up against a Chinese contestant. He was in tears afterwards saying 'what do i have to do to get a point!?'