By It looks like the North Koreans have learned well from their Chinese allies on how to cheat at the Olympic Games:
International gymnastics officials are investigating another case of possible age falsification, this time of a North Korean gymnast who listed three different birth dates.
North Korea and Hong Su Jong will be given a chance to explain the discrepancies at a hearing and in written statements, the International Gymnastics Federation said Saturday.
Hong’s birth date is March 9, 1989, on the entry list for the world championships this month in Rotterdam, Netherlands. But she had a March 9, 1985, birth date at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2006 world championships, and a March 9, 1986, birth date at the 2007 world championships, where she won the silver medal on vault.
If Hong was born in 1989, she would have been ineligible to compete in Athens. Gymnasts must turn 16 in the calendar year of an Olympics to be eligible.
The FIG’s investigation of Hong comes six months after China was stripped of its bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Olympics for using an underage gymnast.
Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s, when the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to help protect still-developing athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997. North Korea was banned from the 1993 world championships after the FIG discovered Kim Gwang Suk, the 1991 gold medalist on uneven bars, was listed as 15 for three years in a row. [CNNSI]
7:44 pm on October 3rd, 2010 1
Was Chinese cheating in the 2010 Olympics ever substantiated by the Olympics authorities or is this still only a suspicion on the part of Westerners?
8:00 pm on October 3rd, 2010 2
LG DACOM Stinks, Royally makes an excellent point. If North Koreans had learned well from their Chinese allies on how to cheat then they wouldn't have gotten caught.
Putting down 3 different dates and thinking you're not gonna get called on it is about as stupid as turning in a homework assignment with whole pages cut and pasted from the internet.
Students of my Graduate English class at !@#$%^ University – I'm looking at you!
Duh… who's gonna know?
9:14 pm on October 3rd, 2010 3
Maybe Kim Jong-Un will reform North Korean gymnastics.
10:31 pm on October 3rd, 2010 4
Maybe he'll take a cue from his father and coach them by cell phone…
12:22 am on October 4th, 2010 5
#4: Gotta love on the spot guidance
!
12:45 am on October 4th, 2010 6
#1,
2010 Olympics? Don't you mean 2008? Gymnastics are not considered a winter sport by the IOC.
Suspicions that at least one of the Chinese gymnasts was under-age in 2008 were not only based on her physical appearance, but also on the fact that online records and one previously published online article by the Chinese newspaper China Daily listed her as being too young to compete in the Olympics…But, despite all this, the IOC decided to take China's explanations that it was all a misunderstanding instead of investigating…No such luck for North Korea, which is not one of the richest countries in the world.
1:01 am on October 4th, 2010 7
#3,
I can already see the newspaper articles coming out of North Korea:
General Kim Jong Eun, in an unprecedented show of artistry and athleticism, scored a unanimous perfect ten in gymnastics at the 2010 Olympics in Pyongyang only days after he vowed to share his infinite wisdom of the sport to our national team's coaches."
6:04 am on October 4th, 2010 8
I'm wondering why there is an age limit at any sporting event, period.
The olympics – If a nation wants to submit an individual to competition, that nation is responsible for the outcome. If that individual is too young and not mentally prepared, then don't submit them to the pressure.
Other sporting – The same. If an athlete is deemed ready or worthy, then age shouldn't be a factor. If age is a factor, then the athlete is really not ready.
7:59 am on October 4th, 2010 9
"If that individual is too young and not mentally prepared, then don’t submit them to the pressure."
You didn't consider the fact that all gymnasts get serious injuries, mainly concussions and broken bones, and that some get injured permanently or worse. Submitting a young girl to that level of intensity is child abuse, pure and simple.
8:08 am on October 4th, 2010 10
…And I mean by that the level of intensity needed to compete internationally against adults, although the average adolescent gymnast can also suffer from a wide variety of injuries.
8:32 am on October 4th, 2010 11
This is a bit off topic…But South and North Korea have come to an agreement about the family reunions…Not one, but a series of them…All to be held at the Mt. Kumgang. I guess the South Korean government's refusal to discuss the matter of holding the reunions at the resort was a bluff…one that was aimed at the South Korean voters.
8:38 am on October 4th, 2010 12
Teadrinker – "You didn’t consider the fact that all gymnasts get serious injuries, mainly concussions and broken bones, and that some get injured permanently or worse. Submitting a young girl to that level of intensity is child abuse, pure and simple."
Agreed, I did not consider this idea, but "child abuse, pure and simple" is not "pure and simple" in my eyes.
An injury acquired through competition and sport is not an adult abusing a "minor". Which leads me to my next point. The international community has decided that 16 is the minimum age to which an athlete can compete in these world events. Well, I personally do not see much of a difference between 16 and 15 years old, or 17 and 14 with respect to sustaining a sports related injury. I would agree that there could be maturity differences between a 17 and 14 year old person and this idea should be a decision left to the parents, coaches and individual countries.
Quote – "…And I mean by that the level of intensity needed to compete internationally against adults, although the average adolescent gymnast can also suffer from a wide variety of injuries."
Understood. The level of intensity in competition is directly related to the maturity of said competitor. Is 16 years old an adult? One could easily argue this false. A 14 or 16 year old competitor could easily fold under the pressure of the events. Then again, they may not. Again, I view this as a decision left to those individuals in power (Mom, Dad, coach and country).
10:13 am on October 4th, 2010 13
The IOC accepted the Chinese produced documents that she was of age. The face those documents were generated shortly before the Olympics wasn't even mentioned. Nobody wanted to cause an international stir so it was swept under the carpet. No independent investigation just a "hey Chine are you ~sure~ she's of age, ok buddy".
1:17 am on October 5th, 2010 14
"An injury acquired through competition and sport is not an adult abusing a “minor”."
I'm not talking about a middle-school gymnastics team.
"An injury acquired through competition and sport is not an adult abusing a “minor”."
Pushing a girl to compete to the point that she develops an eating disorder certainly is.
"I would agree that there could be maturity differences between a 17 and 14 year old person and this idea should be a decision left to the parents, coaches and individual countries."
…because countries, coaches, and parents always have the best interests of the kid in mind?
1:21 am on October 5th, 2010 15
PS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9la_K%C3%A1rol…
9:05 am on October 5th, 2010 16
Zilchy,
They have to draw a line somewhere. It's an attempt to protect the bones and muscles of athletes who aren't fully grown (no sport puts more stress on the hands, wrists, and forearms (look up "gymnast wrist"). Yes, there is probably not a huge difference between 14 and 16, but remember that if 14 was the minimum age then you'd have more prepubescent kids being prepared for the Olympics. Just look at the Chinese gymnasts. They are still small at 16 because gymnastics is all they've been doing since they were 4 or 5.
9:56 am on October 5th, 2010 17
Simply put, the level of training required to compete in professional gymnastics is too excessive to put on an 8yr old girl. You need to train for four+ years to be competitive in that field and people will do anything to win, including things that might not be very legal. Also for every young professional gymnist there are at least ten others who failed to make the cut but trained at a ridiculous level in an attempt. The minimum age was an attempt to protect young children from being exploited.
10:00 am on October 5th, 2010 18
Teadrinker 7, I look forward to the Youtube clip of the obese Kim Jong-Un scoring a ten in gymnastics.
12:46 pm on October 5th, 2010 19
Teadrinker,
While the Romanian gymnastics coach is a troublesome story, It’s one example. Statistics! So a 16 year old athlete forced into bulemia is different from a 14 year athlete in the same?
All the examples you stated above are absolute possibilities. No doubt. But these ideas are no different in any subject one could discuss. There will always be percieved negative examples of anything!
1:10 pm on October 5th, 2010 20
#17 + #18
Points taken on the protection issue. Interesting idea on the lack of growth due to the physicality of the sport started at such a young age. I alway's believed that naturally smaller people excelled at this sport due to elasticity and compactness.
2:52 pm on October 5th, 2010 21
#18,
Yes, that's the point I was getting to.
#20,
Probably so, but that doesn't change the fact that the amount of training needed to compete at that level will have great physiological impact on the a young child. I'm sure there are 12 year-olds who are capable of competing at that level, but the costs are not worth the benefits. The IOC simply can't ethically allow it (not that I'm suggesting that the IOC is a prime model of ethical behavior).
3:00 pm on October 5th, 2010 22
#19,
Yes, that would be quite a sight. Just imagine if they had ineptly cut and pasted his face over that of a North Korean gymnast doing a routine.