Gymnastics: Too young to compete? - Video

(Getty Images)
Adding fuel to an already burning fire, the Associated Press is reporting the Chinese government's news agency, Xinhua, reported nine months before the start of the Olympics that He Kexin (pictured), who was on the gold medal winning Chinese team, was 13, which would make her ineligible to compete. 

When the report was found Thursday morning on the Xinhua website, a copy of the page was made, but that page is no longer accessible and editors at the agency wouldn't comment on the article.   

NBC's Richard Engel talks to E.M. Swift of Sports Illustrated after the jump about this growing controversy.

Comments

[thisis_pete]

I don't know about the integrity of the Chinese government's news agency (Xinhua) report, but one thing I know about chinese people: chinese people (asians) look very different (physical appearances) than the whites. A 16yo chinese looks really young as compared to a 16yo white. You may surprise to see a 16yo white looks like 26yo nowadays. Afterall, it has this saying: some asians are very cute (becasue they look younger). So, don't jump to a conclusion that the young chinese gymnist is underage, just becasue in your culture (America), people should look that way. You maybe very wrong, remember that the two nations (Chinese and America) are two different cultures.

[rankola]

First, looking back to the Athens games, Cheng Fei (who BTW was robbed of a medal in FX event finals) looked way younger than 16--and NO controversy. Zhang Nan (bronze medalist) looked younger than 16.

Fast forward to 2008: China has legitimate shot at winning (and did), and NOW there's controversy? I think it is very safe to assume that had the US won the women's team gold, we wouldn't be crying over this spilled milk.

Lastly, let's face it, many of the Chinese gymnast start at such an early age and are put through intensely rigorous training. This intensity can delay the onset of puberty. Nastia could take some lessons from Shawn Johnson in sportsmanship after the tiebreaker meant she had a silver. Granted, I feel that is unfair, but Natie, et. al. knew full well the rules--yet she was clearly miffed--while Johnson was very thankful and appreciative of all of her successes, even if they weren't gold (I think Johnson was a better gymnast, and should have won the gold in the AA). Was the scoring questionable? Perhaps. However, it was not as atrocious as Athens. Let's face it Paul Hamm CRASHED his vault, almost fell of the podium, yet scored in the low 9's--UNHEARD of. The gymnasts I recall seeing who crashed their vaults scored BELOW 9--even those with similar start values--Hamm was the only exception. Let's not forget Alexsei Nimov's very poor scoring on the High Bar when he did a high flying and flawless set, yet still was scored less than Hamm who had a similar start value, but was not as spectacular of a routine as Nimov's.

I know an 11 yr old American female who looks like she could pass for 15 or even 16--she's that developed, but she's 11!!!

Just stop crying over spilled milk. The age controversy would not exist if the US won the title.