(Letter) He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan, Yang Yilin Innocent of underage accusation by USOC
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http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/sports/chinese+gymnast+declared+old+enough/2484522
“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had specifically asked the FIG to investigate double Olympic gold-medallist He, who was registered as 16 although online media reports suggested she may have been 14.
Gymnasts must turn 16 in the year of an Olympics to take part.
“Originals of official documents received from the Chinese Gymnastics Association, specifically passports, identity cards and family booklets or ‘Household Registers’, confirm the ages of the athletes,” the FIG said.
“The FIG has shared its conclusions with the International Olympic Committee, which originally requested the inquiry. It is considered that the case is now concluded.”
Let’s see if Mike Walker, the “computer expret/hacker”, will post an apology on his website, now that the news has been pointed out to him by multiple bloggers.
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October 2nd, 2008 at 10:12 pm
It doesn’t matter.
Thanks to CNN, USATODAY, NY Times, AP, Reuters etc, most of the casual western readers would’ve already believed that those girl gymnasts are under-aged, and that’s one more confirmation to their already held belief that China = “fake”.
Once the impression is established, it’s hard to accept the opposite that would challenge their normal thinking. And how many of those same readers are going to read this new revelation, which is surely to be tucked under some back pages?
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:32 pm
@Charles Liu – Let’s see:
1) Age faking has been proved by a Chinese athlete’s own admission
2) State-issued documents listing He Kexin as 14 years old did exist as late as the beginning of this year.
3) The head of the Chinese sport authority described He Kexin as 13 years old in his speech at the closing ceremony of the Chinese city games last year.
I do not see that Stridehax has anything to apologise for – can you tell me what he should apologise for?
October 3rd, 2008 at 12:03 am
FOARP, can you prove 1)? As to 2) the authority has acknowledged mistakes in the paper work; 3) if you are talking about Cui, he’s since made another statement addressing the misunderstanding.
October 3rd, 2008 at 12:17 am
@FOARP #2
Thanks for proving my point in #1.