Interesting you should bring this up.
I was talking with a guy today who is interested in doing business in China. He saw a video on China featuring one of these girls. They made a point of stating that she was twelve. The video was made in 2006.
There were also a bunch of articles in the Chinese media about the girls that had them at a younger age. It also must be a conicidence that two of them were born on the first of the month according to the Chinese government issued passports.
“I was talking with a guy today who is interested in doing business in China. He saw a video on China featuring one of these girls. They made a point of stating that she was twelve. The video was made in 2006.”
Over the past two weeks I have read several articles about the Chinese women gymnasts. At least three of these little girls were competeing in 2006 as 12 year olds. Suddenly this past spring they began showing up with passsports saying they had turned 16 years of age. The news article had checked the rosters from previous competitions to come up with this information.
If our girls had not made mistakes in the two last rotations they may have pulled out this win and won gold, but they did not perform up to par, especialy the otherwise dynamic Alicia Sacramone who fell off the beam and later fell during her floor routine. Also, Shawn Johnson stepped out of bounds during her otherwise fantastic floor routine.
Wait until Tursday evenning when Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin go for the all-around title. Both are top ranked. It would be a shame if a 14 year-old wins a title by bending all the rules of the Olympic and gymnastics federation.