Beijing: 08-08-2008

[DreamfulSpirit]

Originally Posted by honeychile

Seems that there's finally substantial proof that the Chinese gymnastic team lied about their ages: Hacker exposes alleged Olympics age fraud.

It will be quite interesting to see what's done about it!

Wow...all I can say is there was no doubt in my mind they were younger than they were saying!! How'd they think they were going to get away with this???

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by DreamfulSpirit

Wow...all I can say is there was no doubt in my mind they were younger than they were saying!! How'd they think they were going to get away with this???

They DID get away with it.

[lilzetakitten]

Those metals can be stripped at any time.

[ZTABullwinkle]

Originally Posted by lilzetakitten

Those metals can be stripped at any time.

What stinks is if those medals "ARE" stripped, the new winners won't get to enjoy the medal ceremony they deserved. While I would be happy that they did get the medals, I hate that it is a delayed response to something that was known about before the wedding started!

[epchick]

So it seems the IOC is going to do an investigation and possibly strip He's medals.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/bei...urn=oly,102564

What sucks is it isn't this girl's fault. It is the government's fault for forging her age. Even if it is proved she's underage, she's a hell of a gymnast and did help get her team gold.

[SOPi_Jawbreaker]

I think this is the key part: "Assuming the IOC is committed to a real investigation and not some dog and pony show"

This is an article from July about the Chinese gymnasts' ages.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/sp...=1&oref=slogin
"Zhang Hongliang, an official with the Chinese gymnastics federation, said Friday that perhaps Chinese reporters and provincial sports authorities made mistakes in listing He’s and Jiang’s birth dates differently from the dates given on their passports."

So if the IOC isn't doing a real investigation (i.e. they're only going through the charade of an investigation to try to quiet criticism of the IOC), I could see China claiming that the spreadsheets on the Chinese government website also had typos...even though it's clearly obvious to everyone around the world what the truth is. And with the Chinese government control of media and documents, who is going to be able to prove for sure that the government website didn't have typos? Unless, there is a whistle-blower from inside...but we all know that that's going to be highly unlikely.

[LeslieAGD]

Originally Posted by epchick

So it seems the IOC is going to do an investigation

Actually, you'll notice in the article that the IOC is NOT performing an investigation...they're asking the FIG to conduct the investigation. Then they can say, we're not the bad guys (and taking kick-backs from the Chinese)...it's the FIG who did it.

It's probably going to be a total bullshit investigation and likely nothing will happen, but it's better than nothing I guess.

[pbear19]

I'm really not loving the NBC guy at the track and field events, the one who is asking the post-race questions. It's a bit too sensationalistic and a bit too disrepectful of the athletes for my taste. Not just the bit just now with Jeremy Wariner, but the whole past week. He's been my least favorite part of the whole games.

(I should say I am assuming it's been the same guy all week - I don't know for sure, I just know that the NBC guy at the track is the only one of all the post-event reporters that has rubbed me the wrong way. So if there have been multiple people, then all the track people are the ones that bug me.)

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by lilzetakitten

Those metals can be stripped at any time.

Would you like to make a wager whether those medals are actually stripped?

I don't mean a "friendly" wager either - I'll send cash to escrow, I think Kevin would be a fine candidate.

[AGDee]

The age of the girls in China will be impossible to prove/disprove. The government can fabricate any documents that they want and it's far easier to say other things were wrong but the 'official' documents are correct. It's he says/she says. Those medals won't be stripped.

[LeslieAGD]

Wow...they didn't even pretend to care...the "investigation" is already over:
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/bei...yhoo&type=lgns

[DaffyKD]

Looks like China feels that the only reason their "women" are having their ages questioned if because of the close rivalry with the US. What happen to good sportsmanship in the games?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olym...cs/7575929.stm

DaffyKD

[epchick]

Originally Posted by LeslieAGD

Wow...they didn't even pretend to care...the "investigation" is already over:
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/bei...yhoo&type=lgns

That link doesn't work. It says the article is expired/unavailable.