Associated Press, "Ruling Backs Chinese Gymnasts." New York Times 1 Oct 2008 1-2. 1 Oct 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Chinese Gymnast Controversey
The 2008 Olympics were held in Beijing, China this year in spectacular fashion. Inspiring stories reafirmed our belief that anything is possible if we dream. Records were broken and the U.S. came away with the most overall medals. Should we have had more though? In gymnastics the Chinese women gymnasts won most of the medals, most notably the overall gold. However, their ages have come into question because of their appearence and sketchy birth records. An investigation was made into their ages, but the results proved the Chinese were all at least 16 that year. According to the article, Dong Fangxiao, a participant in the 2000 Olympics, was 14 during the olympics. She worked as a technical officer in the Beijing where her birthdate was listed as January. 23, 1986, but her official birthdate is listed as January. 20, 1983. The reason they have the minimum age at 16 is to protect the still-developing girls from injury. Next year, they will start using a license system to aviod these controversies. I was very interested by this story because I personally thought that they were underage just by looking at them during the Olympics. Some looked like they still had baby teeth or just losing them. I think that the IOC (International Olympic Commitee) should have looked into this earlier instead of at the very end of the olympics. This isn't a matter of sour grapes because the U.S. lost, it is a matter of trust because the Olympics are meant to be a time for everyone to come together and put aside our differences. I would read this again because I wanted to find out how this was going to end.
Associated Press, "Ruling Backs Chinese Gymnasts." New York Times 1 Oct 2008 1-2. 1 Oct 2008.
Associated Press, "Ruling Backs Chinese Gymnasts." New York Times 1 Oct 2008 1-2. 1 Oct 2008
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5 comments:
While watching the olympics this summer I too questioned the ages of the chinese women's gymnasts. I believe they should have done this investigation much earlier. I think this because by the time they did their investigation the medals had already been awarded, and taking away a gold medal from anyone is hard enough; but even more difficult to take from a child. Kyle, you picked a great article to write on, due to the fact that this was a very controversial issue. Your analysis was very efficient and informative, good job!
I am as frustrated with the olympic controversy as you are. It seems unfair to the United States that they may have gotten more golds if everyone was playing fairly. Although it is not officially proven, I personally believe that a few gymnasts were underage like you said. Good job on tacklin this issue! -Andrea L
This subject frustrates me so much. Even though there was investigation done, I still feel like they aren't the correct age. I heard someone make a good point on TV that all we have is paper which you can't always trust... it's not like you can go take a DNA sample of the person and know when they were born. I also heard another good observation on TV where they questioned why China would even do that in their hometown cause they are making money off of this and that would just be plain old embarrasing.
I was also following this controversy closely and was curious on how it would end up. I agree that it was a bad decision to investigate this so late in the olympics, and that a better system should be used before the next olympic games occur. The olympic games have been a union of countries, and losing trust is the opposite of what was intended in holding these games. Good Work!
I completely disagree. If the Olympic commitee said that they were of age then, gosh darn it, they were. However much I hate to say that, the commitee wasn't made up of the Chinese officials; who until this announcement was made, I believed forged the birth certificates. However their was a comical aspect to it. They waited until after the games to conduct the investigation because if they had investigated the Chinese, in Communist China, there would have been a couple more crazed killings. The Olympic commitee did the smart thing by waiting until the Games were over and they were, themselves, out of harms way. I do however believe that the Olympic commitee probablt wasn't presented with enough evidence from the Chinese government. Great article Kyle.
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