Agaliha
August 14th, 2008, 10:38 AM
As the Chinese Olympic women's — "girls'" may be a more appropriate term — gymnastics team celebrates winning its first-ever gold medal on Wednesday, questions surrounding the athletes' ages continue to plague them, the International Herald Tribune reported.
In what has been referred to by many as sour grapes after the Americans finished in second place, the U.S. national team coordinator, Martha Karolyi, voiced her concern over the Chinese team’s eligibility to compete because some of the girls on the six-member team may not be over 16.
"One of the girls has a missing tooth," Karolyi told the Tribune, suggesting she had lost a baby tooth and did not yet have an adult replacement. "I have no proof, so I can't make an affirmation."
A photo of gymnast Deng Linlin, who is on record as being 16 years old, shows a wide gap in her teeth. To be eligible for the Games, the gymnasts must turn 16 this year, the Tribune reported.
China’s coach, Lu Shanzhen, defended his team after they upset the Americans, and reigning world champions.
"It's unfair that people keep saying the Chinese are too young to compete," Lu told reporters in Mandarin on his way out of the National Indoor Stadium. "If they think they can tell someone's age just by looking at them, well, if you look at the foreign athletes, they have so much more muscles than the Chinese. They are so strong. Do you then say that they are doping?"
Another gymnast, Yang Yilin, whose passport says she will turn 16 at the end of the month, said, "It's unreasonable for people to think I'm too young." She will compete in the all-around final on Friday.For the rest of the story (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,403584,00.html)!
Here's the one that looks the youngest--
http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/8650/023081408linlinrw9.jpg
Do you think she's 16?
My family was watching the gymnastics and couldn't help notice how young she looked :2G:
Seems like this has happened before:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_controversies_in_gymnastics
Most recently, with China as well:
Yang Yun (CHN): Yang competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and won an individual bronze on the uneven bars. At the time she competed under documents listing birthdate as December 2 1984,[24] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_controversies_in_gymnastics#cite_note-23) which would have made her 15 years, 9 months old during the Olympic opening ceremonies. She later revealed in a television interview that she had been 14 years old in Sydney. Her competition of age of 14 was later confirmed by sports officials in Hunan province.[14] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_controversies_in_gymnastics#cite_note-nytnew-13)
Also see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/sports/olympics/27gymnasts.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
In what has been referred to by many as sour grapes after the Americans finished in second place, the U.S. national team coordinator, Martha Karolyi, voiced her concern over the Chinese team’s eligibility to compete because some of the girls on the six-member team may not be over 16.
"One of the girls has a missing tooth," Karolyi told the Tribune, suggesting she had lost a baby tooth and did not yet have an adult replacement. "I have no proof, so I can't make an affirmation."
A photo of gymnast Deng Linlin, who is on record as being 16 years old, shows a wide gap in her teeth. To be eligible for the Games, the gymnasts must turn 16 this year, the Tribune reported.
China’s coach, Lu Shanzhen, defended his team after they upset the Americans, and reigning world champions.
"It's unfair that people keep saying the Chinese are too young to compete," Lu told reporters in Mandarin on his way out of the National Indoor Stadium. "If they think they can tell someone's age just by looking at them, well, if you look at the foreign athletes, they have so much more muscles than the Chinese. They are so strong. Do you then say that they are doping?"
Another gymnast, Yang Yilin, whose passport says she will turn 16 at the end of the month, said, "It's unreasonable for people to think I'm too young." She will compete in the all-around final on Friday.For the rest of the story (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,403584,00.html)!
Here's the one that looks the youngest--
http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/8650/023081408linlinrw9.jpg
Do you think she's 16?
My family was watching the gymnastics and couldn't help notice how young she looked :2G:
Seems like this has happened before:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_controversies_in_gymnastics
Most recently, with China as well:
Yang Yun (CHN): Yang competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and won an individual bronze on the uneven bars. At the time she competed under documents listing birthdate as December 2 1984,[24] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_controversies_in_gymnastics#cite_note-23) which would have made her 15 years, 9 months old during the Olympic opening ceremonies. She later revealed in a television interview that she had been 14 years old in Sydney. Her competition of age of 14 was later confirmed by sports officials in Hunan province.[14] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_controversies_in_gymnastics#cite_note-nytnew-13)
Also see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/sports/olympics/27gymnasts.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin