Comments on: Age of Deception

By: Beijing Olympics 2012 - let ‘em have it | Foundinchina.com

Beijing Olympics 2012 - let ‘em have it | Foundinchina.com — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 03:08:52 +0000

[...] opium pipes perhaps. On the athletic front, Liu Xiang would have a second chance on home soil, and He Kexin would get an opportunity to compete as a legally-aged gymnast. Further, Beijing taxi drivers can [...]

By: Great picture; great goal | Foundinchina.com

Great picture; great goal | Foundinchina.com — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 05:04:26 +0000

[...] the Chinese love to watch the English Premier League and this story involves a young sportsman not telling us he’s older than he really is. I’m not a huge fan of football these days and I swear allegiance to no tribe. But I love [...]

By: stuart

stuart — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:25:34 +0000

Charles – nobody was putting He Kexin and her team mates ‘through the ringer’, but rather the officialdom that forced deception upon them. Everyone, myself included, was at pains to point out the girls’ innocence in this matter.

Exonerated, you say? Hardly! Here’s the money quote from Andre Gueisbuhler, secretary general of the FIG:

“We have received all we could possibly ask for,” Gueisbuhler said. “All of them confirm the age that they should be, so what can we do?”

What can we do, indeed!

He knows. Chinese documents produced by Chinese authorities do not represent proof that these gymnasts were not underage (passports, ID cards and family registers for He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan, Deng Linlin and Li Shanshan all showed the girls were 16 or would turn 16 this year). It’s just all there is; except the far more compelling evidence to the contrary linked to above and in a thousand other online articles.

The truth will out eventually, as in the case of Sydney bronze medallist, Dong Fangxiao:

Gueisbuhler said the documents Dong used for her Beijing credential would have made her too young for the Sydney Games. Dong was a national technical official in Beijing, working as the secretary on vault. She was not part of any judging panel.

“If that document is the correct one, that would suggest she was 14 years old at the Sydney Olympic Games,” Gueisbuhler said.

Dong’s blog also says she was born in the Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac, which dated from Feb. 20, 1985, to Feb. 8, 1986. Dong has not denied that, but she refused to answer any questions about her age, telling the AP last week, “I’ve left the gymnastics team.”

“If the FIG wants to investigate this matter,” she added, “I will provide every form of documentation.”

The FIG also has a copy of Yang’s 2007 interview, in which she seems to contradict her official birthdate. Yang’s birthdate is listed as Dec. 2, 1984.

“At the time I was only 14,” she said in the CCTV interview, done in Chinese. “I thought that if I failed this time, I’ll do it again next time. There’s still hope.”

But Yang told the AP last week that she had misspoken, declining further comment.

“Everyone has misspoken before. On television shows, there are always slips of the tongue,” she said, declining to comment further.

And so it goes on. Pressure applied from above in an endless cycle of denial, falsification, and obfuscation.

I reiterate that China isn’t the only country guilty of such obvious, if ultimately unproved cheating, but at some point we need people to stand up for fair play and integrity. On these counts, in this instance, China failed spectacularly.

By: Charles Liu

Charles Liu — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:39:42 +0000

Well, the 2nd age investigation prompted by USOC exec Jim Schurr has again exhonorated He Kexin and her teammates.

Do we hate China so much, that even after two investigation by international body, we’re still gonna throw He Kexin under the bus?

I hope your daughter or sister will never be put thru the ringer like this.

By: stuart

stuart — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:15:38 +0000

“..if she is in fact underage she is an innocent pawn.”

That is absolutely correct, and I made that point.

“If I was a betting man I’d say that everything is actually just fine and its some bullshit stirred up by bitter, resentful whites.”

If there was definitive proof you’d lose, MW.