Olympics: Gymnastics Age Debate

[Jennifer]

Interesting arguments over the age of a member of the Chinese gymnastic team, due to discrepancies in chinese news articles where the ages were later changed.

I saw the girl (He Kexin) when she fell on Sunday. We were watching her on the big-screen at a local sports bar, so we didn't miss anything. It was agonizing. Some a-hole hicks at the next table were heckling her for slipping off the bars. I was furious. I'm an American, sure; but I'm also a parent, and I could see the look on her face when she went down. That experience for her was "psychological scarring" material, and I came within an inch of leaning over the back of the booth and giving these jokers a piece of my mind. (Aside from the other aspects of it -- they being adults, she being a little kid; they being fat slobs, her being an Olympic quality athlete; and so on.)

Now there's an ongoing argument over whether or not she was only 13 (or perhaps 14).

China of course now seems to have produced paperwork supporting her being 16. So I can't say for sure either way. There's no way to prove anything, although it was convenient that she merely had to be 16 during the year she competed, and her birthday is now listed as Jan 1, 1992 -- doh! (Can't the Chinese be craftier than this? Like picking a "random" date?)

But I can honestly say when she fell, the girl I saw there, the look on her face, and her emotional coping mechanisms were not the face of a girl in her late teens. This was before I had realized there was an age requirement... and I assumed she was around -12- based on her response to her terrible failure. That's around the age of my kids. My 13-year-old son would have had a different, more mature response. My 10-year-old daughter's response would have been much more similar to He Kexin's.

The FineLines and I even had a conversation about it, speculating on her age, before we knew it was being debated.

Sigh. Always has to be SOME sort of drama going on.

[scantilyclad]

As soon as i saw this girls i immediately thought she couldn't be any older than 12, and my friends and i debated about it for awhile in my living room. Then we heard them say that the age requirement was 16, and i was baffled. I felt the same way you do about her fall, and the way she reacted, she seemed much more immature than the other girls. I'm just going to assume that she is 16 years old, looks young and is a bit immature, since i can't prove that she is actually 12,13, 14 whatever.

[sassafrassquatch]

pwned!...possibly...

David Flumenbaum: Scandal of the Ages: Documents Reveal Underage Chinese Gymnast

[Jennifer]

I love how her birthday was still January 1.
Even that sounds fake.

Our daughter was adopted from China. Her "official" birthday is 5/5. But they had no idea what date it was since she was abandoned on the streets at a young age, so they just assigned her one. They tend to assign dates with national significance.

[Little Linguist]

Oh, man...I don't know what is lower....

a) Lowering a child's age to compete and put pressure on her when she *totally* is not ready.

b) Americans laughing at her because she fell.

Crap!!!! I know it's China. I know we're all freaking out because of their human rights problems etc. But c'mon folks.

That's just evooooo...

[Jack Flak]

It was pretty god damned obvious the first day of competition that the youngest of the gymnasts was closer to 12 than 16.

[booyalab]

Originally Posted by Jack Flak

It was pretty god damned obvious the first day of competition that the youngest of the gymnasts was closer to 12 than 16.

kthx, pedobear

[runvardh]

Last I heard, they tend to not care about that stuff over in that part of the world. Unless the family keeps accurate reccords a kid's age falls through the cracks and the just assume the child is how old the think she is or needs to be. Some family of a friend of a friend is having that entertainment with a cousin brought in from Thailand. Right now her age is being debated as being between 12 and 19. How sad is that?

[MacGuffin]

What's wrong at laughing at Olympic athletes?

If you are good enough to be one, you should be able to handle getting laughed at.

If you aren't old enough to handle being laughed at, you shouldn't be allowed to compete.

Anyway, this is a prime example of why women's athletics will never be the equal of men's athletics. No world-class male athlete in any sport gets his ass handed to him by 12 year old boys.

[Jennifer]

Originally Posted by MacGuffin

What's wrong at laughing at Olympic athletes? If you are good enough to be one, you should be able to handle getting laughed at. If you aren't old enough to handle being laughed at, you shouldn't be allowed to compete.

Nothing's wrong with laughing.

But how they did it and in what context to me showed them to be real assholes. I probably wouldn't be very impressed with how they treat the women in their lives... at least, if they have any other females in their lives other than the canine variety.

Or the kids. These guys were total pr*cks.

Anyway, this is a prime example of why women's athletics will never be the equal of men's athletics. No world-class male athlete in any sport gets his ass handed to him by 12 year old boys.

lol, dude, she could hand you YOUR ass five times over!