By Larry Burke
Usually if an athlete is fudging his or her age, it's a Danny Almonte-type-deal -- an older player trying to gain an advantage by lopping off a few years. But China's female gymnasts, who won the gold medal in Wednesday's Olympic team competition, are facing the opposite accusation: That as much as half their team is younger than the minimum age of 16. What's the big deal? The U.S. lost to the Chinese fair and square, regardless of age. Would there be any questions had the U.S. held on and won the gold? I doubt it.
What's your opinion of this controversy? Does it taint China's victory? Should the IOC have investigated the allegations more thoroughly? And with young athletes such as 14-year-old British diver Tom Daley competing in these Games, does gymnastics even need an age minimum?
Deanna Clover
Bar Refaeli
Men's Grand Slam All-Time Leaders
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The COMMENTS counter is at 4236 comments - where are they? I can't see any.
tinka
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China probably erased all the comments, just like they erased evidence that their gymnastics team was underage...
GoJapan
Irvine , CA
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Any talk of food security was banned before and during the Beijing Olympics. Now we find out that 10% of the milk supply was poisoned with melamine! Thanks SanLu for sponsoring the Death Olympics.
tinka
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A lot of Chinese are small sized and China certainly has a broad base to choose their small sized gymnasts from. The second factor is the diet. Generally Americal diet is loaded with milk and animal fat of around 25% of their diet. Girls in America are having their first period as young as 10. In rural China girls have their first period late, from 17 or 18 due to their diet which is almost zero in milk and low in animal fat. Their consumption of animal fat is less than 5% of their diet. (Source: China Studies by Prof. Colin Campbell.) It is therefore not surprising for the Chinese gynmast to look "too young" to the untrained eyes of the coaches of the USA team.
cjhong
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First, China is a big country and the people of diverse size. They have a big base to choose their small sized gymnast from. Second point, in the USA, girls are getting their first period as young as 10 years old. In rural China, girls normally have their first period around 17 or 18. This is due to their diet and in the USA their diet is high in milk, milk products and animal fat making up to 25% of their intake. In rural China it is basically 0% milk and less than 5% animal fat. (Sourcs: China Studies by Colin Campbell.) It is therefore not surprising for the untrained eyes of the American team members and coach to doubt the age of the Chinese gymnast.
cjhong
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