seriously, I think this is key. stupid rule or not (and I'm of the camp that it is stupid), they agreed to abide by it. either way, it's no surprise to me if they did cheat. I'm no conspiracy theorist but I expect this from a lot of organizations, including the USOC to an extent. The IOC is just a joke and has been for a while.
The problem with what you're asking for is whatever documents the Chinese produce in support of her case the doubters will just say the documents are forged. Honestly, if they produced all these documents today would you believe them, or would you still doubt them? Anyone serious about making a formal complaint needs to produce these documents, showing that they are underage. The burden of proof lies on those making the complaint and China obviously isn't going to help in complaints against itself. As the article you linked said, these girls didn't come out of nowhere, they went to schools, took part in competitions, have parents etc. Shouldn't be too difficult to dig up. I pointed this out earlier: on He's supposed 1994 birthdate she's listed as born on 1st Jan, and you said having so many girls born on 1st Jan is highly unlikely. Is it possible that this 1994 birthdate isn't her real birthday? This obviously isn't evidence that she is sixteen, but it makes this 1994 listing dubious. Totally hypothetical scenario: her parents registered her as younger to enter junior competitions or appear as having advanced skills for her age, making her a better prospect to get into sports school, provincial team or whatever. I think this is what Yi Jian Lian has been accused of. (She might still be underage in this case, for example she could be born in 1993) Another way of looking at it of course is that she is even younger than 14, but I don't see the advantages of doing this given that the olympic year is this year etc. If you are faking age to appear older, you'd go for 1991 to make the Olympic squad.
1) Proof of them being underage has been dug up. Repeatedly. The latest link I provided is just one more data point. (A really good one though, since it comes from the Chinese Sports Authority). 2) As for the difficulty - that's a stupid argument. If they are really 16, there should be an overwhelming amount of data showing them to be said age. There isn't - just some strangely conveniant passports. What data exists shows the opposite. AND ITS BEING CENSORED. No argument. But that does not help the argument that's she's 16. All it does is cast further doubt on whatever age the chinese government is claiming. If you change ages at will for your own internal competitions, whose to say the dates were not altered again? Frankly, if you cannot show a consistent age at all, your arguments are moot - and the medals should be returned. In conclusion (since this has been beaten to death)... There is loads of evidence they are underage. Obscure scenarios are possible that might still correlate with the claimed ages. No data has been found to validate said scenarios (except for the one david wu found, but that only really helped one athlete, who was not as suspicious to begin with). Data from the chinese sports authority showing He as 14 exist. It is being actively censored. Why do that if the data is so blatantly erroneous? At a minimum, He is underage. The chinese team should give back their team medals, and He should be stripped of her individual medals. This, of course, will not happen because the IOC is a pansy-ass corrupt organization and China, for all it's improvements, is still way too envious of percieved western superiority. It also helps that the chinese authorities will never have to answer to their own people/press.
As I said earlier no matter what the Chinese do it will never be enough for the doubters. If they produced all the documents that you've asked for tomorrow all saying she is 16, would YOU believe them? This is probably why IOC FIG don't bother going futher than passports. If passports can be doctored every other document can. I never said it proves she's sixteen but it does devalue this web page as evidence. A cached webpage of a DOB which is false doesn't make great evidence. Like I said, to build a case for stripping of medals the burden of proof lies on the accusers. China has already provided the mandatory passports. I disagree, at the minimum the DOB listed on that website is erroneous. Why censor data if it is erroneous? Simply because the erroneous data shows her as underage and disqualifies her from the olympics. I agree with you that there is a lot of smoke but what I've seen so far probably won't won't be enough for the IOC. Or any other officiating body imo. Passport DOB or cached webpage of false DOB, obviously they'll take the passport DOB. However, if this girl is indeed underaged I think the truth will eventually come out just as it did with the other Chinese gymnast who participated at a previous Olympics. He is a living breathing human. She has and will continue to leave a paper trail. All those teachers, classmates, teamates, coaches, parents etc. there are just too many people to silence even for the Chinese govt. Eventually someone will leak the information.
This is what happened to the underage gymnast that China used in the 2000 Olympics - she leaked the information herself. Nothing was ever done about it though since it was several years after the fact.
Strawman. No documents have been produced. Conjecture. There is no compelling evidence that the linked data is false. Proof has been provided, regardless of whatever contorted explanation you and others provide next. Conveniant. Care to provide proof to that dubious assertion? Not only have all those media reports been erroneous, so are the official records of the CSA? This is what is known as "reaching". If it's erroneous, where is the readily available correct data? Surely they did not erroneously censor the non-erroneous birthdate data? Of course, if I thought as you did, the chinese media/reports/data are capable of such vast erroneousness that it's likely He Kexin is really a 52 year old peasent man and the girl we've been watching is named Jim and hails from Topeka, Kansas. Well duh. They won't even investigate. But that's ok. Everyone in the world outside of China knows, and is laughing. There seems to be a startlingly consistent lack of evidence for any of your claims. I'm shocked. Yep.
You still haven't answered would you believe? More documents have not been produced because it hasn't been asked of them. I'm merely arguing why IOC doesn't bother asking for more. Conjecture which you started: If it's not false, its at least highly doubful. Proof which isn't sufficient to strip them of the medals. I was making the same assumption you were making, all those 1/1 DOBs listed on that page including He's is highly dubious. Actually the readily available 'correct' data is that she is 16. I haven't bothered searching, but I'm sure thats what she's listed at currently. Which is why I've been saying if people are serious about stripping them of the medals they'll have to do some legwork and come up with something more convincing, which I honestly think wouldn't be hard for reasons I've already stated. Way too many people involved in this to cover it up forever. Actually sounds like a lot of people outside China are angry lol.
This is seriously my last post on this topic. I'm not determined to change your mind. Fair enough. I've always argued that it would behoove China to produce said documentation so as to avoid having the proverbial "asterick" next to their medal count. As for whether I would believe? I suppose. But the whole "constantly changing DOB as conveniant" thing has jaded me considerably. If your defense of their current birthdate is that past birthdates were changed for competition enrollment purposes... Well - let's just say that ain't exactly helping your case. Good point. But it really does not help in regards to the 16 year age limit. if anything, it makes it even more suspicious. Says who? A group of nerds (myself included) on the internet? Whatever. So is the "current" DOB. You know, just the fact that I have to throw around the adjective "current" speaks volumes to credibility. Really? On her chinese government issued passport, I presume? There's that "currently" again. hmmmm. The IOC could do this, but won't. It's politically unfavorable. Maybe. Not me. good day to you!
Well the IOC is now looking into it. http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/be...estigation-into-He-Kexin-s-age?urn=oly,102564
See here's the thing: I don't blame the poor little girl who may lose her medal. She had no choice in the matter. It sucks that the only way to punish China is to punish the poor little girl who just went out and did what she was told. That being said, I'm glad they're at least acknowledging the evidence.
this could get interesting. so would they give the gold to team America women and Nastia for the uneven bars?
How hard is it to carbon date the little lolita. Better yet put her in some stirnups and have a camera aimed at her vagina for one month. If she bleeds she's legal, if not take that medal.
I doubt there's any clearly established rules of evidence or procedure, leaving plenty of room to claim there's no definitive proof. I really can't imagine them embarrassing China by taking away the gold. If they did, it would surpass 1936 as the biggest Olympic propaganda backfire.
Honestly I hope you are not serious, otherwise, it's probably just not a matter to report to Clutch, but somewhere else.
Wow - another serious embarrasment for the PRC may be in store - really if they did cheat, it's amazing that they cheated in such a clumsy matter. Perhaps it was just arrogance - which may cost them a huge loss of face.
