Is CHINA Setting A New Gold Standard?

Kel Varnsen

spyguy wrote:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,407803,00.html

A determined U.S. computer expert has delved into cached pages on the Internet to unearth Chinese official documents showing a gymnast who took gold in the uneven bars competition, edging the U.S.'s Nastia Liukin, may indeed be underage.

Controversy over whether He Kexin is under the minimum age of 16 has surrounded her participation in the Beijing Olympics. The latest challenge over the age of the tiny Olympian comes from the discovery through a cyberspace maze of Chinese official documents listing her date of birth.

She may not look as if she has reached the minimum competing age of 16, but China said her passport, issued in February, gives her birthday as Jan. 1, 1992. The International Olympic Committee said proof from her passport is good enough.

Personally I am kind of tired of hearing about this whole age controversy. The whole age limit is stupid. If the best gymnast in the world is 14 then let the fans see the best gymnast in the world. If the government is training her, and they are the ones producing the Passports and the Birth Certificates, there is no way you are ever going to prove they are fake (because essentially they are not). Plus the age limit totally screws over an athlete who is 15 on the cutoff date. They have to now wait until they are 19 before they can be in the olympics, and with the short careers of gymnasts that means they might never get to compete (even if they are the best ever).

spyguy

Kel Varnsen wrote:

Personally I am kind of tired of hearing about this whole age controversy. The whole age limit is stupid. If the best gymnast in the world is 14 then let the fans see the best gymnast in the world. If the government is training her, and they are the ones producing the Passports and the Birth Certificates, there is no way you are ever going to prove they are fake (because essentially they are not). Plus the age limit totally screws over an athlete who is 15 on the cutoff date. They have to now wait until they are 19 before they can be in the olympics, and with the short careers of gymnasts that means they might never get to compete (even if they are the best ever).

so its ok to lie and cheat?

eyedclaar

spyguy wrote:

so its ok to lie and cheat?

Shit I hope so or else I'm all turned around on these subjects...

BrotherLoveBone

spyguy wrote:

so its ok to lie and cheat?

Yes, unless you get caught. Otherwise many medals would have to be taken away from their original winners. Sadly mom's cooking isn't enough for succes in most sports anymore.

spyguy

BrotherLoveBone wrote:

Yes, unless you get caught. Otherwise many medals would have to be taken away from their original winners. Sadly mom's cooking isn't enough for succes in most sports anymore.

are you serious?

Kel Varnsen

spyguy wrote:

so its ok to lie and cheat?

I never actually said that. What I said was it is a stupid rule that should be dropped because it is impossible to find out if someone is breaking the rules. It is not like drug testing, you can't take a blood test to determine how old someone is, and if their official government says they are 16, how can anyone prove for certain otherwise. And if one country is going to do it, why not let everyone do it to level the playing field.

BrotherLoveBone

Maybe half joking half serious.

Marion Jones was able to do amazing things for years before the balco lab was revealed. She was tested dozens of times and they found nothing, once they did she withdrew her participation from one Golden League event and was eventually cleared in court. Yet we all know she used a lot of dope for years.

Angel Heredia, the whistleblower in the Balco case, has stated that he knows at least 20 different performance enchanching drugs that can't be detected in tests. Before these games they tested dna for a group of Russian athletes who had been tested just before the games and all tests had the same dna. This is something they haven't even tested regurarly before.

One interview with Heredia
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/athletics/article3908470.ece

"Though he appreciates the investigators have done a good job, Heredia doesn’t see much changing in the sports world. “At one time, between Victor Conte and me, you could say we had the whole of US track and field in our pocket. Conte was sent to jail, I don’t know what is going to happen to me but I could go to jail too. But I can tell you, nothing is going to stop. Athletes are still going to South Africa to train, they’re still doping.”

Just saying that the grey area in testing is so big and will always remain big enough for foul play, that i for one can't seriously believe that decades of systematic use just simply goes away from sports without having a big affect to the results. The sport gets cleaner but the results get better doesn't sound right. If there's a way to improve your performance and fulfill your dream without getting caught, it's pretty human to take that chance especially when you're pretty sure your competitors are doing it already.

I still enjoy watching the Olympics and new records being made, but certainly will tell my kids right after they have lost their belief in Santa that eating their vegetables won't make them world's fastest either. Eating them will most likely help them live longer than most top athletes tho.

g under p

POLITICS aside there's good reason why the Jamaica is dominating in the sprint events, USA is now having to run on a level running field. With the likes of Marion Jones and others now known to have used steriods.

Other countries will now have the oppertunity to dominate in track and field sprint events as the USA tries to adjust themselves to losing.

Peace

g under p

Everyone is playing sleuth over whether China cheated in women's gymnastics. The hope is that the officials who govern Olympic competition will conduct a straightforward investigation, but regrettably, such a thing seems to have been beyond their scope and spine at this point. Who are you going to believe, the Chinese government, or the Chinese government? The authorities at the Beijing Games have considered the question, and for the moment have decided to believe the Chinese government.

Great article by Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post This *Inquiry* Falls Flat

Peace

g under p

Olympic Kisses

Peace