WWTBAM Bored

I came across this article while ago: http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijin ... &type=lgns

According to the IOC, the accepted proof of age is a valid passport. The passport was, of course, issued by the Chinese government, and we all know they would never lie...

And i had a little trouble following the story because of the girl's name, He Kexin. I kept thinking He was the masculine pronoun he. I thought for a moment that the article had started talking about the men's gymnastics and had to go back and re-read part of it. Kind of like an Abbot and Costello "Who's on First?" moment.

danielh41 wrote: According to the IOC, the accepted proof of age is a valid passport. The passport was, of course, issued by the Chinese government, and we all know they would never lie...

A friend of mine raises alpacas and makes his own yarns and whatnot. He is a true expert on all things yarn-related, and explained that one should never purchase a cashmere sweater, for instance, that was made in China. China apparently has no truth in advertising regulations...so they can pretty much say that anything is anything and get away with it.

I guess this applies to Olympians as well.

Totalitarian states are much better at getting away with forging documents than free societies.

danielh41 wrote:And i had a little trouble following the story because of the girl's name, He Kexin. I kept thinking He was the masculine pronoun he. I thought for a moment that the article had started talking about the men's gymnastics and had to go back and re-read part of it. Kind of like an Abbot and Costello "Who's on First?" moment.

I'm glad I'm not the only one, I had seen the article earlier in the day and I was having the same trouble! I must have thought to myself at least 3 times, "I thought this was about women's gymnastics?"

And I still don't think they're 16!

sunflower wrote:

danielh41 wrote:And i had a little trouble following the story because of the girl's name, He Kexin. I kept thinking He was the masculine pronoun he. I thought for a moment that the article had started talking about the men's gymnastics and had to go back and re-read part of it. Kind of like an Abbot and Costello "Who's on First?" moment.

I'm glad I'm not the only one, I had seen the article earlier in the day and I was having the same trouble! I must have thought to myself at least 3 times, "I thought this was about women's gymnastics?"

And I still don't think they're 16!

They aren't.

Just nine months before the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government's news agency, Xinhua, reported that gymnast He Kexin was 13, which would have made her ineligible to be on the team that won a gold medal this week.

Another local-level competition roll had the date of birth of Jiang, who is only 32 kg (70.5 lbs.), as October 1, 1993, making her also 14. And from 2004-2006, the biographical data for Yang on the State General Administration of Sport's website listed her date of birth as August 26, 1993, one year later than what Beijing Olympic records show

Age-fixing in Chinese sport has been in the news before. In sports where limber, prepubescent bodies can outmaneuver more mature athletes, kids can be designated as older than they are. Yang Yun, a Chinese gymnast who was listed as 16 when she won double bronzes at Sydney, later went on Chinese television and said she had been 14 when she competed.