This is turning into an embarrassment, not just for China but for the people in charge who let this happen and appear unwilling to do anything about it even after the whole world knows its a lie.

And I wish this hadnt gotten merged, deserves its own thread IMO. :sad:

 

For the love of God and track, Bolt had better come off clean. This is a fantastic opportunity for the sport to put some of the bad feelings from the past scandals behind and move forward under the banner of Bolt and some of these other young phenoms.

As for the Chinese gymnasts, its just embarrassing really. Who needs documents, just look at them! Any actual "proof" is just further embarrassment really, its rediculous. Right now im watching the divers, and this one chick (16) actually looks it, stark contrast to the others. For that matter, the one gymnast they claim is what, 20, actually looks 16-18. But then again, if they actually came out with that, then no amount of doctored passports could cover it up. And the judging in general was just absolutely terrible, the new scoring system is horrible and not allowing a tie is just moronic. Just glad Shawn got her gold finally and that Horton got a silver on the high bar, he did so well in the team competition I was really pulling for him in an event/allaround.

 

thought this was funny from the comments below:

 

hahahahaha

"-china"

 

Truth is out there. The gymnasts in question certainly look under 16 in an Asian's eyes. You certainly should be able to tell the difference when it's that striking.

If it were really from China, it'd have a "Further reading will lead to imprisonment and/or execution".

 

unfortunately the IOC will do nothing about it most likely.

 

Then the IOC is a joke.


Which shocks me not in the least.

 

I agree that it deserves it's own thread.

When a friggin' country schemes to defraud the world by cheating in the Olympics, it's far different then when an isolated, singular athlete or team does it.

With the way China controls it's athletes, teams, records, citizens, etc, it is clear that they willingly participated in this fraud and should have their medals stripped in gymnastics and be sanctioned by the IOC.



From FoxNews:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,407803,00.html

The plot thickens. China has now apparently expunged some of its records from Google.cn

http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2008/08/olympic-hacking-part-ii-lets-go-for.html

For edification, here is the original story:

http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2008/08/hack-olympics.html

 

You silly Americans are always whining and complaining. YOU LOST! FAIR AND SQ... oh... :shifty:

 

IMO the whole Olympics being in China has brought alot of that countries problems to the public eye. Things are not good over there at all. The government is full of crooks. Atleast in America the crooked politicians are sneaky about it.

 

Dude, it's called communism. What did you expect?

 

That..:up:

 

Wait, so we're going off the back of a computer hacker - a crime in itself. So we're saying that the criminal is right?

The bottom of bottom lines is that America lost. The judges weren't biased. Shawn Johnson wasn't good enough to beat Cheng Fei on the floor. Unless you think Alicia Scaramone was pushed off the beam by an invisible, underage Chinese person.

And Regan assuming that because he's asian automatically means he can guess someone's age is nonsense. I'm white and I can't automatically guess the age of people.

 

The source is very shaky, I agree with you there Boomer. But its been brought up enough times that it should be looked into by the people that run the olympics. I have no problem with USA getting beat, as long as it was fairly.

 

Actually there are some physical characteristics that will distinguish a 14 yr old from a 16 yr old.

I read it somewhere recently but I cant remember what it was .I know that it was
a factor in tipping off some of the experts suspicion even before the competition.

Anyway nothing will be done because the Chineese can manipulate their documents and birth certificates anyway they want .

 

Simon, he didn't actually hack the site. He used Google's and Baidu's cache to find documents that had been deleted by the Chinese. No crime was committed. He accessed the same information that you and can.

I agree that the American team was not as good as the Chinese team in that competition but at least one of their team members who participated was ineligible to compete. That is the issue.

 

Most asian women never develop breasts so it wasnt that....:lol:

 

Gymnastic scoring and judging is subjective. The age rule and date of birth is not.

 

Baby teeth...baby teeth I tell you!

 

But it is. esp. in womens gymnastics. Women are more flexible and limber the younger they are. The joints tighten the older you get and its an even bigger issue for women that are athletic.

 

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1832312,00.html


So to me that is the solution .To be fair, open up the olympics to all ages.

Gymnastics will become a different sport dominated by pre-pubescent pre teens as a result

 

that doesnt make the age rule and requirement subjective. Plus there was a 33yr old 5 time olympian gymnast (germany/russia) over her career. She medalled in vault this year.

if the age is 16 in the olympic year then adhere to it.

As far as the scoring/judging that will never be solved.

 

Honestly, there shouldn't be an age rule period as Crunch brought up.

Assuming? It's like black and white here. If you can't tell a 16 year old from someone younger, then that may be your case but I find it clear as day.

 

plus he's a security expert, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't risk that sweet job just for someone else's gold medal.

 

All you have to do is look at Pagan's Motivational posters....:lol:

 

:lol:

 

It's why I date white women....:shifty:

 

I'd pretty much go along with that my man.

 

Dude, you can't SERIOUSLY believe that that's the case across the board.

 

Thanks for clearing that up Celt.

It is 'believed' that one of their team members was ineligible. It's not fact.

 

Arguably the two greatest women gymnasts of all time were Nellie Kim and Olga Korbut. Korbut was 17 and 21 when she won her gold medals. Kim was 19 when she won 3 Golds.

So I'm not buying that argument. Cheng Fei, who outscored Shawn Johnson is 20.

 

I really have no problem with the girls being younger. Age should not be a factor at all. If the girl is the best, than she is the best.

Now if you want to talk about the judges, than I think you can make a case.

 

Mary Lou Retton FTW! :wink2:

 

Retton was 16.

;)

She was no Nadia Comaneci.

 

This current debate/discussuion is not about what the age limit should or should not be. It is about what the current rules are for the age limit of this olympics is and only this olympics.

Based on this information and other information discussed it seems every other nation in the sport of gymnastics followed the rules except one. If that is true its a shame for all the participants.

 

True, but my point is if a 14 year-old can be in diving, why can't a 14 year-old be in gymnastics?

 

IF the rules were broken they should pay a price. IF. All these reports coming out sure should make someone look into it.

Oh wait, they are... International Olympic Committee launches probe into He Kexin's age

 

for whatever reason the current governing body changed and set this current age limit. it hasnt always been this way.

i believe nadia was 14 when she scored those first perfect 10's.