I've read a lot of the blogs and looked at some of the throwdowns on this topic. Gymnastics is a sport that usually doesn't get a lot of conversatoin here or anywhere in the United States. So you know that it has to be a big deal...or is it? The thing that has so many people upset is that they believe that the Chinese used gymnasts who are younger than the age of 16. 16 being the youngest that an Olympic gymanst can be.
The people who are saying that China should be investigated have two main pieces of evidence that they like to point to. The first of which being that the Chinese gymnasts simply don't look 16. That's a pretty flawed argument. People look younger or older than they really are. It happens a lot. The second thing that people like to point out. When one of the Chinese gymnasts was going to do something, when they list the age of the athlete apparently for one of the Chinese athletes it said 15. Does anyone really believe that the IOC would be that blind to what's going on? I for one don't think that at all. That was more than likely just a simple typo by the NBC production staff.
I"ve heard people say that the Chinese gymnastics should be investigated. What does anyone honestly believe will come of that? I'll tell you what would come of that investigation...absolutely nothing. Remember this is China..where they aren't exactly open an honest. If this did really happen I will guarantee that the Chinese government has made all related paper work disappear. Investigating this would just be a complete waste of time. No one will ever know the truth about this, if there is anything to find out.
Our gymasts, just didn't do a very good job. I give a ton of credit to the Chinese gymnasts for performing well under the pressure. Does China deserve the benefit of the doubt? I think we all can agree they really don't. But, as I've said before you're not going to get anything out of an investigation. The IOC would only find what the Chinese want them to find.
Just my opinion on this...if there's anyone on the other side of this feel free to try and convince me otherwise.
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The problem is there is more to the story than you think. Try investigating and reading a little more about it before writing a blog like this. A year ago an article in China talked about one of the alleged underaged gymnasts and cited a hospital database record that said she was born on Jan. 1, 1994. Her passport issued by the government for the Olympics says that she was born on Jan 1, 1992 and the news article has since disappeared. It is one thing to lie about the age but to deliberately falsify records completely goes against what the games are about. And that is my issue with this thing.
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Nothing will come from the investigation. You are right about that but for the sake of the other athletes who did not cheat it would be the right thing for the IOC to do. Unfortunately the IOC has turned a blind eye to this matter so as not to upset the host country or any sponsors.
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That's the exact problem though. All of the evidence that could possibly indict China disappears.
badgerfan07 back in…
Whitewater , WI
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That's the exact problem though. All of the evidence that could possibly indict China disappears.
badgerfan07 | 08/15/08, 04:36 PM
It isn't all gone. The problem though is the IOC who has turned a blind eye to this and seems content to just let it fly. What does that tell other countries for the future. That kind of treatment only encourages future cheating.
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Like you said though, the article that pointed this out is gone now. You said something interesting..you agreed that an IOC investigation would be useless and would show nothing, but then you said that it should be investigated for the sake of the athletes who didn't cheat. The IOC can't investigate something that isn't there. No matter how flawed their system is the Chinese government is intelligent...as I've said you're not going to find anything...it's an absolute waste of time.
badgerfan07 back in…
Whitewater , WI
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Like you said though, the article that pointed this out is gone now. You said something interesting..you agreed that an IOC investigation would be useless and would show nothing, but then you said that it should be investigated for the sake of the athletes who didn't cheat. The IOC can't investigate something that isn't there. No matter how flawed their system is the Chinese government is intelligent...as I've said you're not going to find anything...it's an absolute waste of time.
badgerfan07 | 08/15/08, 04:53 PM
But as I said it can't all be gone. How did the NY Times and other publications find this information if it wasn't there. We live in an age where information is so readily available that there could in fact be some remnant of the evidence. After all nothing put on a computer is ever really deleted. The main thing is the IOC only encourages more cheating in the future if they let this go. That is my biggest problem with this.
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