Anthony Tao, who writes over at the Heart of Beijing blog, has just returned to China from North Korea, and he has some amazing footage from this year's mass games. more ›

Following the Chinese Olympic gymnastic team's age scandal back in 2008, many reports have come out revealing the brutal lives of the child gymnast in China. These children live and breathe gymnastics, most of them boarding permanently at their training schools at the behest of their parents, who are spurred by dreams of national glory. I'm all for athletic pursuit for home and country, but most of these kids go into intense training before they turn six. Is this child abuse? Take a look, and let us know what you think. more ›

It took a decade, but this April, the International Olympic Committee disqualified China's team (third place that year) for violating competition age requirements. And yesterday, the U.S. team was awarded their "exact replicas" of the Sydney medals at a ceremony in Connecticut. The Chinese team has returned theirs. "This is a huge statement by the IOC and international gymnastics federation that fair play is important," said Steve Penny, the president of USA Gymnastics. more ›

The FIG, the international governing body of gymnastics, has recommended that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) strip the Chinese women's gymnastic team of their 2000 Olympic bronze medal for violating competition age requirements. The two gymnasts at the center of this investigation were Dong Fangxiao (董方霄) and Yang Yun (杨云). more ›

In a recent interview with a German gymnastics magazine called Leon, the President of the International Gymnastics Federation, a.k.a. FIG, Bruno Grandi criticized the female Chinese Olympic gymnasts as lacking aesthetic beauty and being underage. Grandi said, "The Chinese gymnasts were robots. From a geometrical point of view the moves were very well done, but compare with the way [Nastia] Liukin performs a single movement with artistry. You can see how she continues to move through to the end point. The other is a perfect geometric figure. But a Code [of Points] will never be able to completely reflect aesthetic moment." He went on to say that there was "strong circumstantial evidence" that some of the Chinese gymnasts were underage. Grandi is now serving his fourth four-year term as FIG President. more ›

Officials from the International Gymnastics Federation have ruled that China's gold medal gymnasts were old enough to compete in the Beijing Olympics but two members from the Chinese squad that competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics — Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun — remain under scrutiny. more ›

According to the NY Times the IOC team has asked the international gymnastic group F.I.G. to investigate the ages of the controversial Chinese women's team. "According to online sports registration lists in China, half the team — He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan — would be under age." As many as six medals won by the 'women's' team hang in the balance. Also read NY Daily News and The Telegraph.
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For those of you still dwelling on the age of a certain Chinese gymnast, we've got good news for you: Someone is more obsessed about the controversy than you! A blogger has done some internet sleuthing (see here and here) that has some people convinced that He Kexin (何可欣) is all of 14 years old (Olympic rules state that gymnasts must be 16). All the cyber-digging might be in vain, however — we doubt the IOC is going to do anything about this. more ›

Victories in men's gymnastics yesterday helped China add to its gold tally. The host country, as of noon on Wednesday, has 43 gold medals. Here are two gymnasts who had huge performances yesterday: more ›

And those reports were published by China's state-run media. On November 3, Xinhua listed He Kexin as being 13, referring to her as "this little girl" (an apt description for any of China's diminutive gold medalists). A May 23 story in China Daily listed He as being 14. Gymnasts must be 16 the year of the Olympics to be eligible to compete. He's birthday is officially listed as January 1, 1992, a rather eye-opening date we must say, signaling that either He is truly 16 or someone is a very lazy liar. He helped China win its first ever women's team gold on Wednesday. China's denies the age-fixing allegations (the ages of two other Chinese gymnasts have also been questioned) and the offending state-media stories have either been "fixed" or erased from the internet. The questions remain: How much of an advantage do you get from using underage gymnasts? And is it better to say you lost to a bunch of really young looking 16-year-olds or to admit you lost to 13-year-olds, some of whom are reportedly missing teeth? [Source] more ›

Although it's not official yet, according to this Xinhua article, the following gymnasts are expected to be named to the Chinese Olympic gymnastics team next week (in ranking order): more ›

As Jake Newby told you in our previous post:

With backing from a live Icelandic brass section (the ingeniously named Wonderbrass), songs such as the horn heavy ‘Wanderlust’ demonstrated Björk’s gift for spectacle and her incredible delivery, before she closed out the set with the anthemic ‘Declare Independence’, chanting the name of a huge piece of real estate west of Sichuan and Yunnan amongst a hail of streamers.

UPDATE 3: more ›

According to the official countdown, the Beijing Olympics are about 240 days away and the pressure is mounting for China's athletes to bring home the bacon, especially in China's strongest events like ping pong, diving, and gymnastics. In traditional Chinese business fashion, gymnastics coaches are making their gymnasts sign a contract to stay injury-free and drug-free in preparation for the Games, according to this article from China Daily. In an unusual move to secure a... more ›

"Train hard or go home". That's what we read on the Singaporean gymnasts' T-shirts yesterday at Shanghai's World Cup Gymnastics competition. more ›

This weekend is the next stop for Olympics hopefuls at the Gymnastics World Cup stop in Shanghai. The action begins tomorrow with the preliminary competition, which will determine the eight finalists that will compete on the four apparatuses for the women and six for the men. Since this is a World Cup event, there will be no all-around competition. Tomorrow's preliminary competition will be followed by the event finals on Saturday and Sunday. With the... more ›

Great news. Wang Yan, the 15-year old Chinese gymnast who was widely tipped to be paralyzed for the rest of her life from her fall at the National Gymnastics Championship two weeks ago in Shanghai, is said to be making remarkable progress, improving beyond her doctors' expectations and surprising even the surgeons that made the initial diagnosis. According to China Daily, the gymnast is "able to relieve herself on her own, and as her muscular sense is gradually returning, she can swing her left arm that at first she could not move ideally, lift her legs up and down and has regained some hand mobility", and her coach has even expressed confidence that she will soon stand up again. Wang Yan's injury was a high-profile one that captured the attention of worldwide media and since then there has been an ongoing debate on whether there should not be an upper cap in the difficulty levels used by panels in judging the performance of gymnasts. Sure, we all want to be producing the next Olympic gold, but at what cost? more ›

Although the Olympic Games are over a year away, a preview of what's to come next summer has arrived in Shanghai this week. Shanghai is the host for this year's Chinese National Gymnastics Championships, featuring some of China's best and brightest gymnasts. China's men's team AND women's team are the defending World Champions. The preliminary competitions finished up last weekend, with the team finals finishing today and tomorrow, and the individual competitions (all-around final and... more ›

Shanghai is fast becoming George Costanza’s dream city. First, there is a sandwich craze that is sweeping through town and now the 34th Annual Miss Bikini International Pageant is being hosted by our fair city. Yesterday at Taipingqiao Lake in Xintiandi, there was a promotion for the festival that included Julia Liptakova, last year’s winner and Yang Lei, the runner up. more ›

Shanghaiist has a lot of guys on the staff (for a reason we just can't fathom — we really want more female contributors). So, naturally, a tip posted in our Shanghaiist Forums about Shanghai playing host to an International "Miss Bikini" Competition caught our attention. more ›

But bars, saunas, nightclubs and mahjong parlours, serving people aged over 18, will be exempted from the ban till mid-2009. London, Dublin, New York, Hong Kong -- one by one, they all fall down. Can Shanghai be far behind (there's only one correct answer to that one).

The majority of Chinese parents are well-versed to the phrase "when in doubt, beat it out", choosing to physically discipline their children, and the poor little tykes are also not getting enough sleep. more ›