Paperwork Is Not Enough.
FAKE AGE REMAINS A PROBLEM FOR CHINESE GYMNASTS.
Paperwork Is Not Enough.
Comments by Zhiyan-Le, 08-25-2008.
According to New York Times (08-25-2008), the PRC top sports officials blamed a paperwork error for an age controversy involving the Chinese female gymnasts, such as Ms. He Kexin who has two birthdays, one is 01-01-1992 by her passport and another is 01-01-1994 by the PRC government reports and lists.
The PRC sports top officials said: He Kexin had moved from one team to another last year, and a wrong birth date was written on the registration forms for the new team. "During the registration, there were some discrepancies in the age of the athlete, therefore that mistake has led to a series of misunderstandings afterward."
Paperwork is not enough.
Well, that was last year, 2007. In 2006, for a different event without moving from one team to another, Ms. He Kexin birthday was also listed as 01-01-1994. How come that the same mistake was made by different government offices, at different times, in different places, by different medias and for different events?
The Chinese officials must provide hard evidence and better explanation regarding how the same mistake was made in different occasions, and where, when and who did such thing.
Passport and paperwork are not enough, for fake documents/ID in China have been a very popular phenomenon. For example, the government officials even used fake documents to travel. Thus, to get the true age regarding the Chinese gymnasts, the IOC/FIG investigation and analysis beyond passport/paperwork are needed.
One possibility is BMI.
As the Chinese official reports indicated, Ms. He Kexin has the following body-data: Tall: 4' 8"(162 cm); weight: 72.8 lb (33 Kg); Age: 16 in 2008. Then we have her BMI:16.3.
According to both WHO/PRC BMI standard (normal range: 18.50-24.99), Ms. He Kexin's BMI is very close to Severe Thinness. However, her BMI is perfectly normal for the age 14, which refers to birthday 1994 that was reported and listed in 2007 and 2006. The following standard curve very well illustrates the fitness for age 14 and the extremely thinness for age 16:
Another possibility is WHR.
According to WHO, American, Japanese and Chinese studies, the average WHR is 0.77 for Chinese women at the age of 25-34; and the students (16-21) have an average WHR that is bigger but still lower than 0.85 (normal range: 0.80-0.85).
Given the most recent photo of Ms. He Kexin at the 2008 Olympics, her WHR is over 0.95, a much bigger ratio than the normal and the average WHR among Chinese women. However, if her age is 14, such ratio is absolutely normal.
Passport/paperwork can be fake, but the body-age cannot make a fake status on itself. And the conlusion is clear: If IOC/FIG want to keep their reputation and be fair to all Olympians, their investigation on the Chinese gymnasts age must go beyond paperwork.
NYT: Chinese Official Blames Age Issue on Paperwork Errors.
By JULIET MACUR, NYT, August 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/25/sports/olympics/25gymnastics.html
BEIJING — One of China's top sports officials said Sunday that a simple paperwork error was to blame for an age controversy involving the Chinese women's gymnastics team.
Cui Dalin, the vice minister of the General Administration of Sport of China, said He Kexin, the uneven bars Olympic champion, had moved from one team to another last year, and a wrong birth date was written on the registration forms for the new team.
"During the registration, there were some discrepancies in the age of the athlete, therefore that mistake has led to a series of misunderstandings afterward," Cui said during a closing news conference for the Chinese sports delegation here. "I can say for sure the age of the Chinese gymnasts comply with the rules."
He, who is listed as 16 at these Olympics, has also been listed as having a birth date of Jan. 1, 1994, on several online registries in China, including national registries compiled by the state sports bureau. He's birth date was also Jan. 1, 1994, on the registration list for a 2006 intercity competition in Chengdu, China.
Access to many of those registries have been blocked, or her birth date on them has changed to Jan. 1, 1992, since The New York Times first reported last month that He might be underage.
If He was 14, not 16, she would be too young for these Olympics. To be eligible, a gymnast's 16th birthday must occur during the year of the Games.
He was one of three Chinese women gymnasts whose age had been questioned in the lead-up to these Games. Cui, however, did not address the reasons for the age discrepancies for the other two gymnasts: Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin. Some national and provincial sports registries also have shown birth dates that would have made them too young to compete here. Yang won bronze in the all-around.
Before these Games, the international gymnastics federation, known as F.I.G., and the International Olympic Committee checked the passports of the Chinese gymnasts and judged them to be accurate. But the I.O.C. last week asked the F.I.G. to investigate the gymnasts' ages further.
Chinese gymnastics officials have since given F.I.G. passports, national identity cards and family residence permits of five of the six members of the Chinese team. The only one exempt from the probe is Cheng Fei, 20, China's most decorated gymnast.
"At first sight, they seem to be O.K.," I.O.C. President Jacques Rogge said. He added that the F.I.G. would continue to analyze the documents, which were in Chinese.
The Chinese women's team won six medals at these Games, including the team gold and three other medals that could be at risk if the gymnasts are proven to have been underage.
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