China's 2008 gold medalists of age, says gymnastics officials

CHICAGO – Though the case is closed on China's Olympic gold medalists, the age controversy in gymnastics is far from over. Documents confirm all six members of China's gold medal team at the Beijing Games were old enough to compete, the International Gymnastics Federation said on Wednesday. But it wants more answers from two members of China's 2000 squad — Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun — saying it "does not consider the explanations and evidence provided to date in regards to these athletes as satisfactory." The FIG also is moving forward with a licensing system that would serve as proof of age for a gymnast's entire career. Dong's official birthdate is listed as Jan. 20, 1983. But her accreditation information for the Beijing Olympics, where she worked as a national technical official, lists her birthdate as Jan. 23, 1986, said Andre Gueisbuhler, the FIG's secretary general. "If that document is the correct one, that would suggest she was 14 years old at the Sydney Olympic Games," Gueisbuhler said. Gymnasts must turn 16 during an Olympic year to be eligible to compete. Calls to Yang's and Dong's mobile phones rang unanswered on Wednesday, a national holiday. So did phone calls to the Chinese gymnastics team's media officers. Questions about the ages of China's Beijing squad had swirled for months, with media reports and online records suggesting some girls could be as young as 14. China insisted — heatedly and repeatedly — that all six gymnasts were old enough and said it had the documents to prove it. Any discrepancies, Chinese officials said, were the result of Web site inaccuracies or paperwork errors. When the IOC asked the FIG three days before the games ended to investigate one last time, China provided original passports, ID cards and family registers for He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan, Deng Linlin and Li Shanshan. All showed the girls were 16 or would turn 16 this year. "For the FIG, the age of the Chinese team is well documented and proven," Gueisbuhler said. The furor surrounding the ages of China's gold medalists might have gotten the most attention, but underage gymnasts have been the sport's dirty little secret for years. Since the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 in 1981 to protect young, still-developing athletes from serious injuries, there have been several examples of countries trying to skirt the rules. The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997. Romania admitted some of its gymnasts' ages had been falsified, including Olympic medalists Gina Gogean and Alexandra Marinescu. Gymnasts from the Soviet Union said their birthdates were changed to allow them to compete. And North Korea was banned from the 1993 world championships after FIG officials discovered Kim Gwang Suk, the 1991 gold medalist on uneven bars, was listed as 15 for three years in a row. "There is a history of this, which is why I think the FIG feels so strongly about needing a license," said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics. "If you're going to have the rule, you have to be able to enforce it. "This situation has brought a higher sense of (emphasis) on, how do we address that in such a way that we don't give someone just another piece of paper to show but there's a policy in place that leaves no question." A licensing system might have prevented all of the controversy — or at least brought it to a quicker end. Beginning next year, the FIG will require any gymnast who competes in an international competition at the junior or senior level to have a license based on a passport. The hope is this will prevent cheating, because most gymnasts begin competing internationally several years before appearing at an Olympics or world championships. There are loopholes, of course. Gymnasts who don't compete internationally until right before an Olympics or worlds would not need a license, and therefore the FIG wouldn't have its own record. The FIG also would have to trust that the passports gymnasts submitted were, indeed, legitimate. "Be it with age, be it with doping, be it with judges, if we believe in fair play in sport and to be a role model for youth and we believe in the values of the Olympic movement, then I think it is our duty to be serious about it," Gueisbuhler said, "and do all we can to ensure these rules are enforced." That's why the FIG is pursuing its investigation of the 2000 squad. "Clearly they feel that there is more to be looked at for Sydney," said Emmanuelle Moreau, spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee. "We encourage them to pursue their inquiry and shed some light on these cases. We now rely on them to get to the bottom of that and get back to us." In addition to Dong's Beijing accreditation, her blog says she was born in the Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac, which dated from Feb. 20, 1985, to Feb. 8, 1986. Dong has not denied that, but she refused last week to answer any questions about her age. Yang, who also won a bronze medal on the uneven bars in 2000, said in a June 2007 interview that aired on state broadcaster China Central Television that she was 14 in Sydney. Yang, who is engaged to Beijing men's all-around champion Yang Wei, told the AP last week that she had misspoken, declining further comment. While it continues to investigate the ages of Dong and Yang, the FIG also is exploring its legal options. The FIG's statute of limitations in disciplinary issues is five years, but it can be extended to 10 years for criminal matters. If cause were found, the punishment could be as severe as stripping medals. – AP