It's kind of funny, but all the disadvantages that you named are exactly the weaknesses that the Chinese team had over the American team. They perform higher-rated routines, but cannot do them as cleanly or consistently. Hence the two teams were considered about equal coming into the games. Probably? Are you implying there's a chance that cheating won't happen in sports again. I do pray that day will come, but not holding my breath. Someone posted some photos of the Korean/Japanese(allegedly perfect democracies with great human rights records) girls a few pages back... and I don't know how anyone can say with a straight face that they don't look younger than 16. I can't really say myself because there really wasn't all that much footage of them. But if I were a betting man, I'd bet they're not all 16.
Karolyis’ sour grapes makes bad whine By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports Aug 13, 6:12 am EDT Buzz Up Print Related Video Dawes on China's team Dawes on China's team More 2008 Olympics Videos More From Dan Wetzel Karolyi accuses Chinese of age-old problem Aug 11, 2008 BEIJING – Martha Karolyi kept staring over at these tiny Chinese opponents, their faces caked in makeup, and the disgust would rise within her. “Little babies,” she kept telling her team in the middle of the Olympic women’s gymnastics team final. “Oh, look at the little babies.” The Americans would laugh about it, laugh at their coach bashing their opponents. But for Martha, the U.S. national team coordinator, and her husband Bela, the NBC commentator, this was no joke. The Chinese had figured out how to upset their gymnastics dynasty, churning out these little athletic machines, perhaps so young they couldn’t even sense the pressure of the moment. The Karolyis couldn’t handle the results on Wednesday, a precise Chinese team, powered by three girls under suspicion for being just 14 years old, blowing out a stumbling crew of Americans. Courtesy of a 188.9-186.525 score, China took gold to the Americans’ silver. What kills the Karolyis isn’t that the Chinese would risk the health of their children by throwing them out here before their bones and muscles mature. It’s that the Americans won’t allow the Karolyis to do it, too. This isn’t a morality play here. In truth, no matter Martha and Bela’s bleating, no one knows how old the Chinese girls were. This was a myopic focus of the Karolyis on someone outfoxing them. Win or lose, they have to be the center of attention – from carrying Kerri Strug around for the cameras in Atlanta, to carrying on and on here in Beijing. It feeds their machine, increases their power in USA Gymnastics and convinces another generation of parents that they alone are best to make their tumbling daughter’s dream come true. “One little girl has (a) missing tooth,” Martha sniffed with indignation at the Chinese, although she would offer no name and admit she “has no proof” of anything. Later she’d claim, without any substance and lacking facts, that Olympic judges delayed Alicia Sacramone from starting her beam routine in an effort to shake her concentration. “There was no reason for it,” she said. Martha had all sorts of conspiracies going, a bushel of sour grapes. American media accounts have alleged, citing birthdates on old documents, that China was using gymnasts under the mandated age of 16. The Chinese produced passports that showed the girls were old enough, the International Olympic Committee accepted them and everyone says the issue is closed. Not with the Karolyis it isn’t. Earlier this week, Bela declared the Chinese were using “half people” and hammered them for cheating and arrogance. During the NBC broadcast of Wednesday’s competition, at least three times he reasserted the charge. Martha was no less diplomatic. Her team had crumbled under the pressure, made mistake after mistake after mistake and, to their credit, took the result with dignity. “They had a great meet,” Shawn Johnson said. “They deserve that medal.” Martha would have none of it. For whatever faint praise she would offer the Chinese, there were wild accusations of delay conspiracies and cheat birthdays to put smaller, more nimble girls in the competition. For each acknowledgement of her team’s own foibles, she stood in the middle of the media backstage swinging around, tossing out bombs, seeking more questions so she could offer more fuel to the fire. “So much talk about this,” she said. Even in the unlikely event everything Martha could dream up was true, even if the Americans had just been on the wrong end of this historic cheating, it was neither the time nor the place for pouting. Not after all the falls and stumbles. Yet she kept claiming it was “a close fight.” It wasn’t. This was all a losers’ lament, an embarrassment. The U.S. had no credibility left. The gymnasts understood that. They rightly accepted the blame for only winning silver with a team that is beyond reproach. The Karolyis couldn’t just lose with dignity. They couldn’t accept their gymnasts’ best. They look across the way and lust over a system that might allow them to trot out a 4-foot-6, 68-pounder who bends and flips with ease. Bela coached Nadia Comaneci to seven perfect 10s in the 1976 Olympics. She was 14. With glory like that, who would remember all the other little girls who were injured? Who would care? This was a nightmare for Martha. She had to watch Sacramone, a 20-year-old woman, crumble under the pressure and stumble off a beam. Meanwhile, the Chinese kept sticking their landings. “Little babies,” she barked. It was too much to bear. The little babies had gotten her. The little babies were driving her and her husband nuts. The little babies were winning gold. http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news?slug=dw-karolyis081308&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Dominique Dawes has it right http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/be...wes-on-age-of-Chinese-gymnasts?urn=oly,100557 theSAGE
ITA. This is the part that bothers me. It's the idea that, since you are the host country (or even more disturbing, the murmurs that it's due to China's growing economic influence) you are allowed to cheat and the rest of the world has to just sit there and take it. If you're going to allow the games, which are supposed to be about a celebration of the purity of sport, to be that tainted, that crooked, why even have them? Now this I disagree with. Is a crime still a crime if you don't get caught? Is murder not murder if the killer is never found? Cheating is cheating is cheating. Whether or not the cheaters are caught and/or punished. Just ask the 1972 mens basketball team.
You've said that twice in this thread already.. but with the research and amount of posts you put in here... I would say... you care?
An American can't just call up the passport office and have a birth date changed. Besides, we have a free press. Reporters make their living trying to uncover conspiracies like this. Wayne Dolcefino would turn this into a six night expose on the nightly news if he could uncover some Olympic athlete getting special favors from the government to have passport information altered. It would be a huge fiasco. Ever heard of Danny Almonte? The Olympic creed... The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well. I think we'd all be more accepting of "if you're not cheating, you're not trying" if this were professional sports. Even then though, we still call people cheaters even when they get away with it.
I don't really see much wrong in using 14 year olds. I mean, it doesn't say much for the American team and the rest of the world if you can't beat a bunch of middle schoolers.
I see the America are ignoring the spirit of the Olympic Games.... Let's set up a different situation: USA wins gold China wins silver. Would USA complain? Heck no we're number 1. China wins gold USA wins silver. WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE! Could you Americans honestly say that your team would have won even if you were allowed competitors under the age of 16?
I agree that some of the European girls look like there 14-15. But c'mon, the chinese girls look like they are 9!!! I'm 100% sure that the chinese government gave them fake passports. They are so desperate to win the most medals and be infront of the USA to "prove they are the number one athletes in the world." I wouldn't be shocked if someone discovered some evidence in the days to come...
The only people that I see complaining that the US team lost to the Chinese because they were cheating are the Karoyli's. Their flamboyant attitudes about this situation does not speak for everyone, so stop generalizing. But if China cheated, they should be punished, plain and simple...or a more thorough investigation should have been conducted in the first place. And believe me if that were to happen, I wouldn't want the US team to receive the gold, because they honestly did not have a performance worthy of it. But the point of the matter is, China may have cheated and gotten away with it, and that is not right. If China indeed let underage athletes perform, then they are just as guilty of ignoring the spirit of the games as Martha and Bela Karolyi for their incessant whining on the matter. --- The other issue here are the girls; they are just doing what their team and country is asking (demanding maybe) of them. Cheating is cheating, but it's is a little bit different, imo, of someone who uses performance enhancers. They performed brilliantly (using their natural talent and skills) and based on that alone, they (the girls) deserve that medal. The people who allowed them to compete aren't deserving of it.
look at me look at me, I'm not from America so I have the right to be a b**** about everything that they do. I'm so cool.
Good one.. The more I follow this situation the more convinced I am that those Chinese gymnast are underage but I think this situation is going to go down like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire smashing the home run record. Everyone knows they were juiced but since the country, media and sport organization is so caught up in the moment they let it go.
Just read that and it is very interesting. What are the chances that the Chinese team gets disqualified?
