Protesting Chinese Gymnasts

Now that the Olympics are officially over, I guess the controversies can continue and boil over. At one point during the games I can remember hearing something like 77 formal protests were being reviewed over dubious calls or shoddy judging that resulted in outcomes that not everyone was happy about. The reactions varied from begrudging acceptance to kicks to the face. However, one protest that has been brewing since even before the games was over the apparent ages of the members ofthe Chinese Women's Gymnastics team.

According to the IOC, women competing in the Olympics must be 16 during the year the Olympics take place otherwise they would be considered underage and therefore illegal. Web documents uncovered in the past few days have revealed that several of the gymnasts on the team, such as Kexin He, were actually born in 1994 as opposed to 1992 and therefore she and a few of her teammates are actually underage and should therefore be stripped of their medals. Much of the gymnastics community point to these attempts by the Chinese government to purposely misrepresent the qualifications of their gymnasts as an attempt to subvert the sanctity of the sport and prove that the Chinese government only wants to promote dominance in any given sport over fair play. While there is some merit in that reaction, I don't think it's all that complete in its scope.

Many gymnastics coaches say that it is unfair to have such small and diminutive girls performing gymnastics as it isn't fair competition. Now having never been a gymnast I can't speak from experience but I would assume that the main objection would be that if an 11-year-old takes part in the Olympics passing herself off as someone older, it's seen as 'unfair' since she has less weight and less height to support compared to her competition. Now being of lesser stature myself I find it humorous to think that many people are actually complaining about someone being too short. Usually it's the other way around isn't it?

Okay, so supposing we accept the fact that Kexin He is indeed only 14 years old, heck, let's say she's not even 13 yet, and she has taken part in the Olympics, she has competed against girls who are older and more experienced than her and still managed to do well. She's in her home country, a country which takes kids from their parents at the first instance of showing signs of potential in any sport and subjected to intense training. Some Chinese gymnasts are separated from their families for years in what some people consider inhuman or cruel but what I tend to think of as 'selective breeding'. In the face of so much competition and pressure, a kid was able to perform and perform well enough to get scores that put her in the top place categories and high enough to win a medal, isn't that in and of itself significant?

What are we really objecting to? It's quite likely that the Chinese government pulled a fast one on the IOC as they did with the singers at the opening ceremonies but is the fact that some Olympians could be underage that we are objecting to or that the people we considered to be the best were the ones who turned out to lose? Are we being sore losers and by we I'm including the entire world, not just the United States. Michael Phelps was probably the story of the Olympic games and will be for years to come but if he had lost in the butterfly, would there have been as much objection? Perhaps so. It was damned close to call and though he is the winner, I don't begrudge his competitors filing protests over his victory.

If we object to the Chinese sending kids into a competition that is usually limited to older teens and adolescents then perhaps it's time to implement the changes that many gymnastics coaches have been espousing which is to eliminate age restrictions and implement weight classes. After all, in boxing you won't ever have a super-featherweight fighting and heavyweight so why not have gymnasts of equal weight competing? The Italian gymnastics coach stated this week that although he is in agreement with the need to look into the circumstances surrounding the Chinese gymnasts and their ages, it's also necessary to look at the sport as a whole; even he wondered whether gymnasts are doping considering some (cough cough... Americans) are much more muscular than others. Perhaps it's conditioning but could it be something else? I'm not saying it is but we need to see it from the other side as well.

If China has attempted to cheat (and it certainly appears that they have) then they should be penalized and proper action should be taken by the IOC but to use this as a means of pouncing on the rules of the country is a different matter. Cheating in sports is not a matter of national scrutiny. Certainly it has bearing on the lengths the government is willing to go to paint a rosy picture and make everything appear to be on the 'up and up' but it isn't a means for politicians to go in and raise objections to the way the government is run. Diplomacy is the answer between nations and fair play is what is needed in Olympic competition. I applaud Kexin He for her achievements and if she truly is only 14 or 13 or even 11 years old, then I applaud her and her team all the more for competing against the world's best and still doing remarkably well.