International Olympic Committee Promises to Investigate Chinese Gymnast's Age

I agree that it is a sad thing, but the even sadder position is that they would think committing fraud brings pride. The two do not equal each other and those "kids" out there who have poured their hearts out for something they love are the ones who are hurt.

Yes, we are dissapointed, but those that competed are left with anything but fairness, accomplishment and sportsmanship.

My own fear is that this will turn ugly - the element of trust being gone - an us against them at a level other then just competing....

I agree it is all a "sad thing"....

Whichever country's athlete doesn't win, raises issues against those who do win. The only reason Bela Karoly is upset is because he didn't get to use them and win(which he would have)...

Also looking back to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, it seems I remember a Korean athlete truly winning on points in the men's all-around, but they had incorrectly given the medal to Paul Hamm of the USA. Hamm didn't earn the Gold, he didn't deserve the Gold, yet he STOLE the Gold from the Korean with no problem whatsoever. He didn't give it back to the person who earned it. Sad...

Where was his character, his coaches character, and the character of anyone close to him???? What a joke the whole thing is! Subjective sports suck! Anything that is judged by stuck up, paid off judges is a waste of the athletes time, and the fans time.

Whoever is cutest, whoever's country it is, or whichever parent's have "donated" the most money to "Gymnastics USA" will continue to win medals and think they WON something.

Now THAT is sad....

If this were America- do you think here would be a "see no evil" atittude? Rules are rules, and ALL should abide by them. If China did, indeed, break the rules- they should have realized they may get caught and be willing to pay the consequences for their deception. Above all- the Olympics are for the efforts of athletes, and those that deserve reward- should get it.

yeah the judging was a little easy on some of the chinese women gymnasts. even big steps didn't seem to lower the score as much as it did for americans and other countries.

The judging was terrible across the board for these games. The judging for the Womens Gym was the worst.

Even if she is to young she still won. Age is but a number it means nothing. I say whats done is done. If you were Nastia would you want that medal knowing you are not the best? Just getting it because of DQ. I highly doubt it

It is indeed a shame that a government would exploit children in the name of national pride. I don't know who is worse the government ( china) or the olympic judges. Bias judging backed by rotten officals from host country hurts all the athletes. Please don't blame the "child" as we all know how china really treats it's people. All this has left such a bad taste in my mouth I'm not going to watch any more of the olympics. Let china choke on all the medals.

i dont see what the big deal is with the olympics. so what if their the best in their country, big whoop. They do it for the fame and the cash, they're not ending world hunger. They aren't lowering gas prices. So why do ppl spend their time watching crap like that. Seriously

Well, ???, Nastia actually was the best, but the scoring is all freaky now... she totally should have won...

China will not care how they get medals all they want is to e make everyone look bad. They want into the 21'st century but don't want to be fair not only to the world but to it's own people. It's to bad but they still hold grudges and still have that superrior than thou attitude and don't want to look bad and they wont admitt the girl is under age. To bad so sad. Mao is still in control.

Gymnastics is one of the only events I watch during the Olympics, and I was deeply upset at how these Olympics turned out for the women. The scoring never seemed right--often too low for gymnasts from other countries, and mistakes from the Chinese team members seemed to be overlooked one too many times. A lot of their gymnasts do look too young for the age they claim to be, but it's tricky--this is common in gymnastics. After all, at 5'5" Svetlana Khorkina was considered a giant. Some people are saying that age isn't anything but a number and that it would actually be embarrassing to find out that a bunch of underage girls beat the US team, but what a lot of people who aren't familiar with gymnastics don't know is that the older you are, the harder it is to perform those difficult tricks. And unfortunately in this sport, 20 is considered old. While I do suspect that something about the entire competition was a little fishy, I admit I wouldn't know what to say if it turned out that all our suspicions were wrong and that China did everything fairly. I just hope everything gets settled out.

Cheating is cheating. It really doesn't need an explanation. If she's too young, it's cheating! Take the medal away.

HERE IS AN INTERESTING TWIST TO THE AGE ISSUE....IN CHINESE TRADITION, BABY AT BIRTH CONSIDER A YEAR OLD....UNLIKE WESTERN STANDARD, A BABY REACH HIS/HERS FIRST BIRTHDAY IS ONE YEAR OLD....
THIS MIGHT EXPLAINS AGE DISCRIPENCY.....

Whether or not this is fraud is a mattrer of perception. Traditionally, Chinese considered themselves 1 year old when they were born, and they all became a year older on Chinese New Year's day. So if Chinese New Year was on Jan. 1 and a child was born on Dec. 31, they would be conted 2 years old on Jan. 1, but by Western measure would only be 2 days old. This isn't comon practice any more, but it could be used to bend the rules and call a 14 year old 16.

If she was proved to be 14 china will be proven to be the cheats we thought they were, its illegal to have a 14 yr old compete in Olympics..and if you dont realize that you need to educate yourself...this is a travesty, since many ppl thought they would pull this crap and sure enough they did across the board in gymnastics, this isnt sportmanship its cheating period...they have no right to gold or anythng else if this is what they did, but everyone is keeping silent becaUse of Chinas PRIDE...they dont want to ruffle anyones feathers..how sad for the rest of the athletes that compete legally and fairly and have to be subjected to this ...typical of this country to pull this...ie: human right violators among many other things that are unsavory ...disgraceful

Well lets break down the ruling here from an indifferent logical standpoint. Why is the age limit a rule?...
Plausible answer, difficulty, you wouldn't allow a four year old to learn to hunt with a shotgun because the gun would be to hard for him to use. The fact that shes under age only strengthens the fact she deserves a medal, she is that good at that age.

As for rules themselves, I'm no criminal but rules do need to change. Killing someone with a knife is murder, no accidents.
Killing someone because you couldn't hold the tension on a bowstring can be seen as something different. The copyright laws in general need to constantly change, in the sixties steeling an album meant Physically taking a record, now it means to leave the owners copy intact and creating an exact replica in the same binary format as the original in a mechanical method (downloading) everything is subject to change upon situation, Including rules.

Honor is something completely different with a close relation to the modern word "Spirit" it is different for every person. But it can be described as you're ability to not be embarrassed where ever you go.

If you've read all of this at least try to understand it.

Thank you..you said it perfectly.