The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has asked the International Gymnastics Federation to launch an investigation into the ages of Chinese gold medal winners.
China has been asked to provide extra documentation regarding five athletes, He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan, Li Shanshan and Deng Linlin, to prove that they are, in fact, old enough to compete.
Since 1997, gymnasts must be 16 years old in order to compete. Rumours that some of the gymnasts were as young as fourteen have persisted for some time and the IOC has already carried out two investigations, one in the spring of this year and another just before the games began.
The Chinese have always vigorously denied, as they would, that any of the athletes are under-age, providing all sorts of documentation in support of their case, but the rumours persist. The Chinese put the latest allegations down to sour grapes by the Americans, who finished second to China in the team event.
Nine months before the Olympics, the Chinese government’s news agency, Xinhua, apparently ran a report in which it talked about up-and-coming star He Kexin and how she was 13 years old. This report is said to have been available on one of their websites up until Thursday morning but then later in the day became ‘unavailable.
In addition, it is also alleged that a May 23rd article in the China Daily newspaper, the official English-language paper of the Chinese government, stated He Kexin was 14. The story was later (allegedly) ‘corrected’ to list her as 16 years of age.