Investigation Concludes That Chinese Gymnasts Were Not Underage

by Jon Azpiri | October 1, 2008 at 08:42 am

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The International Gymnastic Federation (FIG) has cleared five Chinese gymnasts suspected of being underage. He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan, Li Shanshan and Deng Linlin were accused of competing at this year's Olympics in Beijing while underage after being exposed by a blogger. Some Chinese gymnasts were believed to be as young as 14, well below the Olympics' 16-year-old age limit.

But the FIG announced earlier today that the Chinese gymnasts were not under-aged when competing during this year's Games, and that the matter was now closed.

"Originals of official documents received from the Chinese Gymnastics Association, specifically passports, identity cards and family booklets or 'Household Registers', confirm the ages of the athletes," FIG said in a statement.

The Chinese gymnastics team is not out of the woods just yet as two gymnasts from the 2000 Olympics are still under suspicion.

FIG general secretary Andre Gueisbuhler added that a fresh inquiry into the ages of the Sydney team would indeed take place in the future.

He said: "It will probably still take a while before we can unravel all the legal matters.

"We have the (statute of limitations), and you have applicable law is also a factor. If we want to remain credible, then we have to look into things."

The current uproar is part of long line of age-related controversies surrounding gymnasts.

Underage gymnasts have been a problem since the 1980s, when the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to protect young athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997.

North Korea was barred from the 1993 world championships after FIG officials discovered Kim Gwang Suk, the 1991 gold medalist on uneven bars, was listed as 15 for three years in a row. Romania admitted in 2002 that several gymnasts' ages had been falsified, including Olympic medalists Gina Gogean and Alexandra Marinescu.