China: He Kexin and “babygate”

Imagethief picks up the debate on the age issue of He Kexin, the golden girl of Chinese gymnastics, and notices a cold-war double standard in some of the mainstream media report with a story plot of Ours=plucky, heroic achievers. Theirs=manufactured robots/slaves/dopers.

38 comments

  • wei

    As I said Sue, keep on waiting ;)

    do a search on ioc and underage and see what the latest reports say :P

  • Sue

    Thanks Wei! After doing a google search, I found that there has been a request by the IOC this past Friday to do an investigation into the ages of several Chinese athletes.
    This will get very interesting!!

  • m

    Those chinese athletes are totally 16. They looked just like my cousins when they were 16 and they look just like the japanese gymnasts but nobody is complaining about Japan bc they didn’t beat us.

    Most of those girls were about the same height as Nastia Liukin and she’s 19!!! Obviously all gymnasts are tiny because you can’t become a world-class gymnast UNLESS you are tiny.

    I totally love how all these china-bashers are stating “allegations” like they’re “facts”. I’ve read more than ones that the chinese athletes were still “losing their baby teeth”. Really? Because I watched the olympics too! I saw some crooked teeth but I didn’t see any MISSING teeth.

    I know tons of people think there are “documents” online, namely a chinese newspaper, that states the girls are younger. Ok, seriously. Newspapers are never wrong? I’ve caught more NBC mistakes this past two weeks than most people will ever know.

    And do you people HONESTLY think that if the Chinese government is intentionally misrepresenting the gymnasts’ age, they’d just….conveniently leave contradictory, easily accessible information online? You people HONESTLY want me to believe that the chinese government, if it really wanted to, can’t even keep a newspaper from reporting the gymnasts’ “real” age? And that the “REAL” facts on the gymnasts age is publicly available even when both the gymnasts and their passpors say otherwise? Because we all KNOW that the internet is never wrong but the passport and the word of the athletes themselves are ALWAYS wrong (because they’re chinese).

    The IOC will briefly look into the age thing, find documents that the girls are 16 or older, and then let the subject drop. The only reason they’re even bothering is because a CERTAIN group of americans (morons) are complaining like somebody kicked their dog. Nobody else in the rest of the world, as well as the american athletes have a problem themselves. I find it ironic that us couch potatoes have so much sway.

  • m

    btw. Being young DOES give you an advantage in gymnastics. But that’s only if you’re comparining a 40 year old athlete against a teen.

    Even if the chinese athletes were 14 instead of 16, it really doesn’t have much of a difference in comparison to a 16 year old.

    and btw, i DO believe they’re 16. They have thin narrow girl hips, just like mine and i’m 24. And it’s just like how supermodels can be super tall and yet super skinny. That’s just the way they’re supposed to be.

  • wewe

    clearly, babygate happened because
    hekexin won gold, and USA won silver.
    how sad…

  • Sue

    Well “m”, if being young DOES give you an advantage in gymnastics then you must be an expert in it! Wow, we have an expert among us! Being 40 myself, I will not be competing in any tournaments but the expert “m” might be a judge. Congrats “m”!

    Then if you are 24 with thin narrow hips, are you anorexic too?! Obviously you do not know the differences between a 14 year old and a 16 year old. Major development happens in those two years in a womans body. And were there not athletes in other sports at the Olympics who were-dare I say it?-over 30? Oh my gosh! They are ancient and should be put in the nursing home right now!!!
    And models are not “supposed” to be that way. They CHOOSE to be that way.
    babygate is a proper term here.
    Tell me then, why did the IOC impose age restrictions in the first place? Do you know something that they don’t know?

  • Wei

    found on some tombstones 100 years later…

    Them girls were underaged I tell you…

    ;)

  • Charles Liu

    The 2nd investigation brought by USOC exec Jim Schurr has again exhonorated He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan, Yang Yilin:

    http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/sports/chinese+gymnast+declared+old+enough/2484522

Join the conversation

Authors, please log in »

Guidelines

  • All comments are reviewed by a moderator. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.