LA Times writer and host of others skeptical of China's pre-teen looking team.
"These Chinese gymnasts are tiny.
Pre-teen tiny. Haven't-lost-all-their-baby-teeth-tiny.
But they are Olympic champions, winning the team gold medal today with 188.900 points, to 186.525 for the U.S. and 181.525 for Romania. Russia was fourth with 180.625.
The U.S. team finished before its Chinese counterparts, who needed to score better than 43.425 on their final event -- floor exercise -- to win. The three girls easily exceeded that. Cheng Fei, the final perfomer, needed to score better than 13.075, which she probably could have done in her sleep.
Or her nap. She looked young enough to still require one every day.
The ages of at least three Chinese women -- Jiang Yuyuan, He Kexin, and Yang Yilin -- have been questioned based on conflicts between online registration records and birthdates on their government-issued passports. Gymnasts must turn 16 in the year of the Olympics or world championships to be eligible for that competition, but records provided for lower-level events showed all three are 14.
FIG, the federation that governs international gymnastics, has said it accepts the Chinese passports as valid. The International Olympic Committee has said the same...."
http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympi...ge=1&track=rss