China gymnast guilty of age fraud, medals could be lost(from 2000 Sydney Olympics)

Reuters ^ | 02/27/10

[TigerLikesRooster]

China gymnast guilty of age fraud, medals could be lost

BEIJING, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The six Chinese women gymnasts who won a team bronze at the 2000 Sydney Olympics are likely to be forced to return their medals after one of them was found to have falsified her age.

An International Gymastics Federation (FIG) probe has found Dong Fangxiao was younger than the minimum age requirement of 16 during the 2000 Games after she registered different ages at Sydney and the Beijing Games eight years later.

“Consequently, the results obtained by Dong Fangxiao at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games have been cancelled,” the FIG said in a statement on Saturday.

“The FIG Executive Committee decision was forwarded to the IOC Executive Board with the recommendation to withdraw the bronze medal obtained by the Chinese team including the results of Dong Fangxiao in Sydney.”

The statement said Dong had registered a Jan. 20, 1983, birth date at Sydney, but when accredited to act as “secretary” at vault at the 2008 Beijing Games, had declared her birth date as Jan. 23, 1986.

[sinanju]

It just got too grotesque, too many half-starved twelve and thirteen year-olds being brutally overworked and living an abnormal existence. Way too many tragedies, eating disorders and coach-boffing scandals. That’s why the IOC put their foot down and established the 16 minimum age rule.

[AppyPappy]

“she basically said she saw her parents once a year from the time she was three if that.”

Remember, these are GIRLS. In China, that doesn’t mean much. The orphanages are full of them

[WaterBoard]