China's gymnasts were legit?

Posted By P.J. Aroon Thursday, October 2, 2008 - 8:58 AM Share

KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images

The athletes on China's gold-winning 2008 women's Olympic gymnastics team were not underage, the International Gymnastics Federation has declared after an investigation. Female gymnasts must at least turn 16 in the year of competition to be eligible, and many people suspected that some of the gymnasts were underage due to inconsistent reporting of their ages. In reference to some of the gymnasts' childish body sizes, Bela Karolyi, who coached Mary Lou Retton and Nadia Comaneci, had gone so far to say that China was competing with "half-people."

Not everyone is in the clear, though. It turns out that two members of China's bronze-winning 2000 Sydney team might have been underage. Dong Fangxiao, who was a technical official at this year's games, got her Beijing credential with documents saying she was born Jan. 23, 1986, which would have made her too young to compete in Sydney, the Associated Press reports. Even her blog says she was born in the Year of the Ox (Feb. 20, 1985, to Feb. 8, 1986). Meanwhile, Sydney gymnast Yang Yun said in a June 2007 interview on China Central Television that she was 14 at the 2000 Games. Last week, she told the Associated Press that she had misspoken.

EXPLORE:EAST ASIA, CHINA, OLYMPICS, SPORTS

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