Posted on 08/21/2008 5:06:02 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
International Olympic Committee launches probe into He Kexin's age
Tim Reid in Washington, Jeremy Griffin and Jane Macartney in Beijing
The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into mounting allegations that Chinese authorities covered up the true age of their gold-medal winning gymnastics star because she was too young to compete.
An IOC official told The Times that because of "discrepancies" that have come to light about the age of He Kexin, the host nation’s darling who won gold in both team and individual events, an official inquiry has been launched that could result in the gymnast being stripped of her medals.
The investigation was triggered as a US computer expert claimed yesterday to have uncovered Chinese government documents that he says prove she is only 14 - making her ineligible to compete in the Olympics - rather than 16, as officials in Beijing insist is her age.
Mike Walker, a computer security expert, told The Times how he tracked down two documents that he says had been removed from a Chinese government website. The documents, he said, stated that He’s birth date was January 1 1994 - making her 14 - and not January 1 1992, which is printed in her passport.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
I do hope that they would not conduct the investigation only to exonerate China "for lack of evidence," now that they opened it.
Ping!
I’m officially eating crow.
the guy who found the cached pages might look over his shoulder for a while.
Hard to imagine china being embarrassed like this and not retaliating against him. :(
Every mother watching the gymnastics knew He was underage. It is/was way, WAY too obvious. I knew from first glance that He was 13/14, as did many others
God good! She looks more like 8.
even accounting for asian differences in maturity rates, i immediately think the right 3 are below ~15. The left 3 I would possibly believe 15 or 16.
Will be interesting to see how the IOC tries to not look like complete fools while covering for China.
“This underage scandal could become a spooky tale of totalitarian machine which exploited a young girl and ultimately ruined her. Throughout her life, she has no say on shaping her fate. None.”
Will any major media outlet dare tell this story? It is one of the major aspects of this which needs to be communicated.
The West has made a pact with the devil in the rush to enter china’s markets.
Several of them looked to be between 10 and 12, even 14 is a stretch!!!
Sweet 16?
Though her passport lists her as old enough for Beijing, several media reports have indicated that He may be as young as 14.
(http://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=1448/bio/index.html)
No, no, she really is 16..
look..
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/6135/bobirthcertificate20chiyd2.jpg
They will find nothing because there is nothing to find and they don’t want to find anything. This is merely for appearances sake.
;o)
I understand what you’re saying but we’re talkin’ NBC here. When have they ever worried about an escape hatch?
The three girls on the right are He Kexin (the one who is at the center of the controversy), Jiang Yuyuan, and Deng Linlin respectively. It may surprise you to know that Jiang Yuyuan is turning 17 later this year and Deng Linlin is 15 going on 16. So both legit.
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/200808b.brief.htm#020
As for He Kexin, there is no “proof” per say as to her age, however a few websites listed her as 13 (14 now) based on a list from the inter-city games in 2007 (Chinese Juniors competition). Whats interesting is that He Kexin is a traded athlete who normally participates for the Beijing program but was transfered to the Wuhan gymnastics program last year in order to represent them for 2007. The 13 year old age may in fact be the one that is falsified as the city games are closed to those above 14 and He Kexin could have been a “ringer” snuck in by the Wuhan gymnastics association to secure a win.
Nice! LOL Hey everyone, check out the proof on post #13
“As for He Kexin, there is no “proof” per say as to her age, however a few websites listed her as 13 (14 now) based on a list from the inter-city games in 2007 (Chinese Juniors competition).”
Actually, once you establish 2 mutually exclusive reported ages from webcached baidu pages (it appears google is letting their cache be edited, interesting in itself) and the new official olympic ages, it is obvious there is some lying going on. Unfortunately, China doesn’t get to tell the western public which age they have to believe, no matter how much the IOC works to verify there is nothing to find.
In other words, it is unclear what relation either of the 2 possible ages have to the real age of the athlete in question. There is no reason she cannot be, say, 15 instead of 14 or 16 or whatever. Both reported ages could be false, having been done to meet whatever event requirement was in place at the time.
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