Results tagged “hekexin”

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.

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.

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]

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):