Track - see my reply to Lil Pun above Basketball - you've never been in GARM? Football/Soccer - yeah, only if there is no penalty kick, no foul, no nothing Baseball/softball - like other team ball, it's only one medal per event Race walking - knee bending is all too common Shooting - I give you that, but China doesn't do too shabby in that category Weightlifting - whether it's snatch or clean and jerk, it requires athletes to hold weight above shoulder for a few seconds, that's judging there Volleyball - who touched net? Many others - like what? Well, gymnastics and diving used to be Americans' strong suits too. You think NBC allocates heavy coverage time Olympics after Olympics just to show Americans to be beaten by commie? Don't be sour grape, how about that?
As I stated before: The results are not judged though. Your analogy is poor. Nobody is given a 2 second head start or anything like that. There is no real penalty because EVERYBODY has to start over. It is nothing like the gymnastics, diving, etc. judges. You have already acknowledged a failure though so why keep trying?
Wrong again wnes. More loss of face: http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/question702.htm The most common way to detect a false start in major track meets is by a device called ReacTime. The ReacTime unit sits on the back of the starting block. It is connected either by wires or by radio signals to a main computer near the race starter (usually an individual with a starting gun). The device measures the pressure that an athlete exerts on the starting block when in a set position and relays this information in real-time to the main computer, measured down to one-thousandth of a second. When the starting gun is fired, the main computer marks the exact moment of the start, and also calculates the time it will be one-tenth of a second later. Each pressure-sensitive unit continues to relay information back to the main computer as the runners leave their respective starting blocks and begin down the track. As the runners leave the blocks, the pressure exerted on the blocks increases and then decreases; on a graph, this rise and fall of pressure forms a parabola. The computer analyzes the data for each runner and determines the exact moment when the pressure begins to increase at a certain rate. This is the split-second at which the runner reacted. If this split-second precedes the exact start time, a false start has occurred. If the computer detects that the runner's reaction time was less than the one-tenth of a second allowed under IAAF guidelines, this is also a false start. In either case, a signal is relayed to the starter via a small earpiece. It is then the starter's responsibility to fire the gun again, signifying a false start and bringing the runners back to the starting blocks. The starter then verifies that the equipment worked properly, determines which runner committed the false start, informs the runner and then gets the runners back in place to try again.
Thanks for clearing that up Sam but I'm willing to bet he'll b**** about computer errors and what not.
I was checking the blog of the guy who exposed the TRUTH and found this comment: It made me wonder what site we can go to to see the Chinese talking amongst themselves instead of some CCP drones getting all huffy and puffy. BTW, what city in China do you live in wnes?
Tianya.cn is a popular site. Its politics forum does critisize the government a lot and posters have learned all kinds of tricks to circumvent the censoring. Posters do see both good and bad sides of CCP, and do not agree with the evil image portraited by the western press. In recent years more and more posters have claimed that the western media are not much more trustworthy than the CCTV.
Apparently it would be very easy and quick to determine the real ages if the Chinese government would allow it: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5961628.html How do you tell the age of a Chinese gymnast? Don't bother with those new passports or birth certificates. Go for the X-rays. For all the global hand-wringing over how international gymnastics officials will ever figure out whether all six members of the Chinese women's team are at least 16 years old -- as Olympic rules require -- doctors and forensics experts said it's actually not too difficult. The science of determining age is a well-established craft, honed after decades of treating patients with growth disorders, identifying murdered children and determining the deportation status of illegal immigrants. ``It would be relatively easy,'' said Dr. David Senn, a forensic odontologist at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center who has analyzed numerous X-rays of immigrants apprehended at the border. The science is based on measuring the growth of bones and teeth as children mature. Decades of data have been distilled into detailed tables recording the precise size and shape of skeletal components broken down by age, sex and race. The task is so quick and straightforward that Dr. Peter Hampl, president of the American Board of Forensic Odontology, said the Chinese government should just consent to X-rays and let them speak for themselves. ``If there is nothing to be afraid of, let their kids be X-rayed,'' he said. ``It's almost incriminating if they don't.'' It may seem strange that amid the outsized pageantry of the Beijing games, the biggest controversy has surrounded three tiny Chinese gymnasts whose combined weight is 216 pounds. The ages of He Kexin, Yang Yilin and Jiang Yuyuan came into question weeks ago after the discovery of online registration records listing birth dates that would make all three girls 14 years old. The government attempted to put the issue to rest by producing passports that declared the girls were 16. The controversy reached Olympian proportions after the Chinese team beat the American gymnasts in the team competition. In addition to the team gold, He edged American Nastia Liukin for the top prize in uneven bars by a tiebreak, and Yang won the bronze medal in that event and in the all-around competition. After new complaints surfaced, the International Olympic Committee announced Friday that it was asking the international gymnastics federation to re-examine the Chinese gymnasts' age. Instead of searching through documents, the matter could be settled with X-rays, said Dr. Gil Brogdon, a professor emeritus of radiology at the University of Southern Alabama in Mobile and author of the textbook ``Forensic Radiology.'' Bones fuse together according to a well-documented schedule. For girls between the ages of 13 and 17, the best places to look are in the knee, wrist, elbow and iliac crest on the pelvis, he said. The younger they are, the more obvious the evidence. ``Those bones fuse in this age range,'' he said. ``A Caucasian girl is going to fuse her knee centers at about age 15, they're going to fuse their iliac crest at about age 16, and part of the elbow will start fusing around 13 or 14. That's the way you do it.'' For the Chinese gymnasts, investigators would have to consult growth tables for Asian girls, Brogdon said. ``I imagine the Japanese radiologists have those.'' Brogdon said that by comparing multiple bones, ``you could come pretty close'' to distinguishing a 14-year-old from a 16-year-old. Teeth are also key identifier. U.S. immigration authorities often rely on dental X-rays to determine the ages of illegal immigrants. Senn said he can pinpoint ages within 18 months using images of a person's wisdom teeth, which start forming around age 9 and are not fully developed until around 19. For the Chinese gymnasts, Senn said he would also look at their second molars, which grow until age 15 or so. Times staff writers Mary Engel and John Johnson Jr. contributed to this report.
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/columns/story?columnist=caple_jim&id=3548749 Not sure if this has been posted.
http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/story/8601930?MSNHPHMA 2008 team cleared, 2000 gymnasts under scrutiny GENEVA (AP) - China's Olympic gold medal gymnasts at the Beijing Games were old enough to compete, but the team that won the bronze medal in Sydney eight years ago still faces questions, the international gymnastics federation said Wednesday. The FIG closed the Beijing case after a 5 1/2-week investigation into the ages of the women's team. "Originals of official documents received from the Chinese Gymnastics Association, specifically passports, identity cards and family booklets or Household Registers, confirm the ages of the athletes," the FIG said in a statement. But two members of the 2000 squad — Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun — remain under scrutiny. "The FIG does not consider the explanations and evidence provided to date in regards to these athletes as satisfactory," the federation said in a statement. Dong got a Beijing Olympics credential with documents that suggest she was only 14 in 2000, said Andre Gueisbuhler, secretary general of the FIG. Her blog also indicates she was underage in Sydney. Yang, who also won a bronze medal on the uneven bars in 2000, said in a June 2007 interview that aired on state broadcaster China Central Television that she was 14 in Sydney. Gymnasts must turn 16 during the Olympic year to compete. "I would hope that the whole world in sport realizes that the FIG is serious about these rules and the ethics and moral questions," Gueisbuhler said. Calls to Yang and Dong's mobile phones rang unanswered Wednesday, a national holiday, as did phone calls to the Chinese gymnastics team's media officers. "We are satisfied with the information provided by FIG, and we now consider the (2008) matter closed," said Emmanuelle Moreau, spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee. "Clearly they feel that there is more to be looked at for Sydney," Moreau added. "We encourage them to pursue their inquiry and shed some light on these cases. We now rely on them to get to the bottom of that and get back to us." Doubts about the ages of China's current gymnasts swirled for months before the Beijing Olympics, with media reports and online records suggesting some girls could be as young as 14. Three days before the games ended, the IOC asked the FIG to look into the matter one last time. The investigation was expanded after questions were raised about the 2000 team. China provided the original passports, ID cards and family registers for He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan, Deng Linlin and Li Shanshan, all showing the girls were 16 or would turn 16 this year. "For the FIG, the age of the Chinese team is well documented and proven," Gueisbuhler said. Underage gymnasts have been a problem since the 1980s, when the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to protect young athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997. The FIG's statute of limitations in disciplinary matters is five years, and 10 years for criminal cases. Now, the international federation is trying to determine whether Australia or Switzerland would have jurisdiction. If cause is found, the punishment could be as severe as stripping the medals. "In our statutes, our code of discipline, we have a range of sanctions. It can be from a suspension, it can be taking medals away, it can be taking the rankings away," Gueisbuhler said. Gueisbuhler said the documents Dong used for her Beijing credential list her birthdate as Jan. 23, 1986, which would have made her 14 - and 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 birthdate in the FIG database is listed as Jan. 20, 1983. 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.
And maybe in 4 years, we'll find out about underage Chinese gymnasts from the 2004 Olympics. Then in 8 years, we'll find out about underage Chinese gymnasts from the 2008 Olympics. Great.
Post #612 is from 10/01/2008. Where does time fly? It really seems like last week. I remember the title of this thread like it was recent.
Damn... I hope they can prove 2008... it seemed like they had quite a few underaged girls, not just one.
