Quote:
Originally Posted by texas*princess
They won't lie about their ages their whole life.. probably only for the competitions. The "shelf life" of gymnasts probably isn't that long anyway since they [the country] will want to send their younger girls eventually since they are smaller, lighter, less afraid and all those other reasons they pick young girls.
There were many websites found with the real ages of some of those girls, and at least half of them are under 16. But they had passports (issued by the Government of course  ) so they are able to compete. They will probably only use their fake age for another year or two for competitions only and by then China will have the next best girls to put in competitions. |
I guess I'm too cynical.
I can't help but picture some ambitious journalist doing a 'where are they now' segment, or a helimom who can't let go making some effort to track them down in the future. I know they won't be gymnasts for much longer, but I don't think it's completely unlikely that someone will try to prove they cheated in the future, in which case the girls would have to continue living an alleged lie.
I guess if there is some kind of statute for having a medal taken away for cheating, then it wouldn't matter. But if it's proven in 4 years that one of those girls wasn't 16 (which like it or not, is the rule, and breaking it is technically cheating, even if they won on merit), wouldn't the IOC have something to say about it?
I don't know, I still feel sorry for them for the possibility that they may be under 16, but I tend to feel empathy for people in odd ways sometimes.