Today's Links: Crotch kicks, confiscated Bibles and kiddie gymnasts

• A crotch kick shames the host nation [IHT]
  "As usual, jokes about the Chinese team flew fast and furious around the Internet: "The Chinese team just won two red medals." "Our soccer team won the gold medal in martial arts." "The Chinese team wants to make sure its opponents get to compete in the Paralympics.""
• You think NBC is bad? You haven't seen CCTV. [Slate.com]
  "...what's on television in China right now shows what happens when you combine tight state control with typically overwrought, patriotic sports coverage. CCTV is like NBC on steroids … and growth hormone, and EPO, and albuterol."
• The naked truth [DPA]
  "Thousands of young Chinese women applicants for the 200 jobs to lead each country's athletes into the National Stadium for last week's opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games had to be at least 1.66 metres tall, have a pretty face - and strip naked for the job recruiters."
• China confiscates Bibles from American Christians [AP]
  "The Bibles were taken from the group's checked luggage after they landed at the airport in the city of Kunming, said Pat Klein, head of Vision Beyond Borders. The group, based in Sheridan, Wyoming, distributes Bibles and Christian teaching materials around the world to "strengthen the persecuted church," according to its Web site."
• IOC turns blind eye to controversy over China's kiddie gymnasts [CNN | Sports Illustrated]
  "The Chinese gymnasts could have picked out their leotards from Thumbelina's closet as they performed gymnastics in miniature on Wednesday. Wearing blue eye shadow with their hair pulled back, He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin looked like girls who had just rummaged through their mothers' makeup. "

Photo from Charles Frith.