Not to say the Chinese are not cheating with respect to age, they could be, and I am sure it is right to suspect them, but -
They are Chinese. The average American or European in a crowd in Hong Kong cannot fail to understand the physical differences. There are racial differences in build, height, etc.
Even for a population that is selected for a given physique like competitive athletes are (there are no 6’ women competing after all), the people chosen will reflect to a degree on the available pool.
And in a population of 1 Billion of disproportionately slight build, if slightness is of value in a sport, then it stands to reason that they will find slighter girls than we do out of 300 Million who are disproportionately rubustly-built.
We have beens seeing plenty of chinese girls in our own country for many years now.
Many american couples are adopting vast numbers of abandoned little girls from chinese orphanages.
Many of those little girls have found their way into american gymastics programs.
If there is one group of asian children american gymnastics coaches have been exposed to the most - it would be chinese.
Which is why I asked my female Chinese friend what her opinion was. She said "those girls are maybe 13 years old".
But they shouldn’t be missing their premolars at age 16.
It’s a preponderance of evidence. All the stories with the different ages. The looks. The missing teeth. The size. They also seem to act a little more juvenile, like a bunch of little kids. I noticed it while watching them at the medal ceremony.
And unfortunately, the disposition of the Chinese to think the ends justifies the means. There have been more doping scandals among the Chinese recently than any other nation.
I was reading an interesting article last night. I remember the East Germans, who like the Chinese made winning a state affair. All those young women are now sick and dying from all the hormones they were given. After practise they would all line up, and their coaches would give them “vitamins” from, I think, the Stassi. Do you know where many of those coaches went? China hired a lot of them.
I’ll say something else, which is just supposition on my part. OK, so Chinese may be naturally smaller. But these girls supposedly get the best, taken from parents and fed on the state programs. So they should be taller and healthier, right?
So how come they look almost anorexic to me? You can see the bones of their skull. I remember reading a story about a young american gymnast obsessed with diet. I’ll bet anything these girls are undernourished to make them small and light. After all, they have no parents there. They have to eat what they are told.
I saw an article about a Chinese shooter who only got bronze. He was actually berated by the interviewer. He “disgraced his nation”. I have no doubt the coaches know what is expected of them. Gold. Period.
Now here is another interesting article I found.