well changing DOB happens in a lot of countries for at least schooling reason. My mom along with a lot of older indian people I know who were born later in the year have their "official documented" birthday changed to be in January so that they can enroll in school early or at least on time since there is an age cut-off for registering in school. China may have a similar thing (i cant say for sure since I am not chinese) but maybe they dont just roll back the month (for example my grandfather made my mom's 'birthday' jan 19th since she was born on a 19th) maybe they just say jan 1st. either way if that picture you posted is real and not doctored in anyway..the FIG and china have a real issue at hand.
bump. Curious as to the reaction of those who were initially claiming that it was lots of smoke, but no fire. We found ourselves the inferno.
They will just say..... "It's only the Oylmpics, who cares if they used underaged girls?" or " Hey if you aren't Cheating, You Aren't Trying"
Now, Shawn Johnson looks young. When girls even younger show up, there has got to be something wrong with that.
Since you tried so hard, and posted the same thing all over the place, here is my take: Possibility No. 1: This was indeed a snapshot of one of the past registration sheet during some Chinese tournament. There are a few possibilities under this scenario. 1) Ms. He was indeed born on 01/01/1994, maybe IOC and FIG can inquire to investigate Ms. He's age to see whether any rule is violated. 2) It was a mistake in document or the website, as we all have experienced error information online or on paper in the past. 3) False information was submitted by some local sports committee, to fit her into certain age group for the competition, which also happened before as well. Possibility No. 2: This was a forged screenshot or link, then we don't need to discuss this at all. Not sure what your take is, and what your suggestion is.
My take? You're really reaching. My suggestion? You need to drink a little less PRC kool aid. The screenshot means nothing. THE LINK holds the goods. Not that I expect anyone from china or the IOC to give a ****.
Oh, I am sorry if I offended you to ask about your opinion. No need to be so rude. I thought you want some kind of discussion after you posted same thing in 3, 4 threads. I was wrong. I apologize.
lol. A little sensitive are we? My opinion is that this is further vindication for those convinced the chinese have cheated. As far as I am concerned, the ball is in china's court. The IOC is too chicken to do anything, so it's up to China to either produce good documentation or be the laughingstock of anyone who can access an uncensored internet.
I thought you were really sensitive with your previous response. But anyways, not sure what kind of good documentation you were asking, care to elaborate more? As for the laughingstock, I think China is always a laughingstock in the eyes of some people, no matter what they do or not do.
My feeling is that you shouldnt be penalized or at a disadvantage being a "woman" competing in women's gymnastics. Therefore I approve the 16 year age minimum. Prevents those very talented but "girly" 14 year olds taking spots of actual women who could be fulfilling their dreams. Besides, the 14 year old will have their chance in 4 years at the age of 18. Nastia Liukin seemed to do allright as a legal adult. (yes its alot of semantics but you dont see 14 year old boys competing in men's gymnastics)
What happened to World Championship? Were "women" penalized or at a disadvantage, when Johnson won the gold medal at age of 15?
We've had this conversation before. Repeatedly. If the girls are really 16, there should be loads of evidence (birth records, state records, enrollment papers, newspapers, gymnastics listings) showing a consistent birthdate in 1992. Everything so far has pointed to the opposite. And Chinese authorities are actively censoring it! And no, the passports are not sufficient anymore. That is the whole point as to why the IOC is just a puppet group of twits - who better to make a new chinese passport with a fake age than the chinese government!!?? They ain't helping themselves with this stunt. China gets an abnormal amount of lumps, no doubt - but they just keep asking for it. Until they start acting like a "grown-up" nation, don't expect anything to change.
you didn't actually click on the cached link, did you? a cache is basically a old screen shot of a webpage, stored at the google or baidu server. it's safe to assume that google and baidu did not doctor them, which renders possibility No. 2 as impossible. I like 1.1. 1.2 is possible, but the burden of proof is on the Chinese site to show it to be a mistake, as opposed to us to prove that it is not a mistake. This is directly addressable. Though the burden is on us to prove the passports false, the truthfulness of the passports is something that we, as outsiders, can not directly address. 1.3 looks like a set up for "even though they did it in the past, they're not doing it now". I find it a difficult position to defend. And to keep things on topic, I feel that the debate should be swirling on "Is China abiding by the rules or are they not" as opposed to "Do 14 year olds have a competitive advantage over 16 year olds". Whether we like the rule or not, the rule in place is 16 years old, and there's mounting evidence that China is 1. breaking the rules, and 2. trying to cover it up.
I was making a general statement, which was brought out even further by the Chinese team's issues. I honestly wouldnt mind a seperate bracket featuring a 16 and up and a 15 and under for the world championships. But for Olympics, 16 and up only, since world championships happen every year. And I would be just as disappointed by those 14 year old Americans who won previous golds in Olympic competition. I think in today's age of specialization and exclusive clubs, the age thing is even more of an issue than 30 years ago.(so many more gymnasts to scout and choose from)
