Costas says 3 gymnasts from Chiner will be investigated by the IOC..
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i understand the rules and why they have them. they say it is to keep them from permanently injuring the girls during a time they are supposed to be growing. and it is to keep them from being under too much pressure (i.e., their mental health). ok. fine. they are looking for safety and such. but my problem with all of it is a damn 14 year old was able to beat the rest of the trained athletes who were older than her so she should be stripped of the medals?
it is just a weird situation. cheating by taking drugs or being older than the rest of the field, like in the little league world series, just seems so damn different than being younger, less trained (as in number of years trained), less mature to handle pressure, etc. and still being able to win.
i would rather they protect the athletes but it sure sucks if the best athlete is younger and can still win. i can't think of any other situation that is like this when it comes to cheating. anyone else think of something like this?</p>
it is just a weird situation. cheating by taking drugs or being older than the rest of the field, like in the little league world series, just seems so damn different than being younger, less trained (as in number of years trained), less mature to handle pressure, etc. and still being able to win.
i would rather they protect the athletes but it sure sucks if the best athlete is younger and can still win. i can't think of any other situation that is like this when it comes to cheating. anyone else think of something like this?</p>
when she scored the 1st perfect 10? 14 if I remember correctly. Course I was about the same age at the time (12 actually).
advocating changing the rules to 14 years old is fine, but she should definitely be stripped of the medals. she beat the 16+ gymnists. she didn't compete against the 14-15 year olds.
my problem with the whole situation is the fact the ioc is just now investigating this. the chinese didn't just show up to the olympics and no one had ever seen these girls before. they knew their age was questionable. the ioc and the fig should have had a full fledged investigation of these girls before they showed up and started competing for medals. if any of this new evidence is at the least bit reliable they should definitely rip the medals right off their necks. they don't mind stripping a wrestler of a medal for getting pissed on the medal stand......or stripping medals from athletes 4 years after an event for that matter.
until someone told me that it's an advantage to be younger because the girls don't understand the magnitude of what they're trying to do- so less pressure, and apparently gymnasts are more flexible at that age, so they can do more difficult moves.
So, it's kind of the same as the "Little League World Series" except in reverse as far as the age thing goes.
But the other thing here is this: whether those 10 year olds or whatever they are- even if they are better, there's a standard in place that you have to be a certain age to compete. Those are the rules. Hypothetically, what if there is some 12 year old phenom in the US that is better than the girls that we sent over this Olympics, and is even better than the Chinese girls? Why should the US and everyone else in the world be penalized for following the guidelines of the event? Furthemore, why should China be able to get away with it? If the IOC doesn't enforce the rules, they are opening a BIG can of worms.
So, it's kind of the same as the "Little League World Series" except in reverse as far as the age thing goes.
But the other thing here is this: whether those 10 year olds or whatever they are- even if they are better, there's a standard in place that you have to be a certain age to compete. Those are the rules. Hypothetically, what if there is some 12 year old phenom in the US that is better than the girls that we sent over this Olympics, and is even better than the Chinese girls? Why should the US and everyone else in the world be penalized for following the guidelines of the event? Furthemore, why should China be able to get away with it? If the IOC doesn't enforce the rules, they are opening a BIG can of worms.
..........trying to cover up this embarrassment by having pretended to "investigate" and then conclude again that no rules have been broken. How did they accomplish this? By looking at the exact same communist goverment issued documents that claim the girls are all the proper age. Now the Chinese coach is trying to say it has to do with people seeing how "small" the girls are, and he's defening that by referring to how Chinese girls are naturally made smaller. That, my friends, has nothing to do with this controversy. It's their FACES that give them away. You can easily make out the difference between the Chinese girls who are the proper age and the ones who aren't. Besides, NBC and other media outlets have uncovered documents from previous gymnastics events that show the girls in question are underage.
As for those of you who say it's amazing that these underage girls beat out everyone else anyway, you have a valid point. The problem with that is that we're talking about a matter of following the rules. What if the U.S. has a 13 or 14 year-old waiting in the wings who is better than anyone else we had on our team this year? If we do have someone like that, we couldn't and didn't use them because we chose to follow the rules. If we have to do it, then the Chinese should have to do it too. On the flip side, if the Chinese are going to be allowed by the IOC to get away with competing with underage girls, then the U.S and every other country should be allowed to do it too. It's a matter of principle, a matter of fairness.
Here's Dan Wetzel's response to the IOC's fraud of an investigation that didn't even last through the night:
</a><a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news;_ylt=AgqP84_VRwhBMm5H1s6ECrc5nYcB?slug=dw-iocprobe082208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns">http://sports.yahoo.com/o...p;prov=yhoo&type=lgns
As for those of you who say it's amazing that these underage girls beat out everyone else anyway, you have a valid point. The problem with that is that we're talking about a matter of following the rules. What if the U.S. has a 13 or 14 year-old waiting in the wings who is better than anyone else we had on our team this year? If we do have someone like that, we couldn't and didn't use them because we chose to follow the rules. If we have to do it, then the Chinese should have to do it too. On the flip side, if the Chinese are going to be allowed by the IOC to get away with competing with underage girls, then the U.S and every other country should be allowed to do it too. It's a matter of principle, a matter of fairness.
Here's Dan Wetzel's response to the IOC's fraud of an investigation that didn't even last through the night:
</a><a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news;_ylt=AgqP84_VRwhBMm5H1s6ECrc5nYcB?slug=dw-iocprobe082208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns">http://sports.yahoo.com/o...p;prov=yhoo&type=lgns
where being younger is a definite advantage for females. Many pre-puberty females can do certain athletic moves that they just can no longer do as well after they become "women" so to speak. Now there are certain graceful aspects of things the younger girls certainly don't do as well as the older girls, but there's no doubt that for girls puberty can take some toll on athleticism.
like to congratulate you on the simplicity of your post and for resisting the urge to give us 9 paragraphs on the subject.
The IOC says thou shalt be 16 the year of the competition, or thou shall not compete. The Chinese governent will create all the "legal documents" they need to in order to prove those girls are at least 16. IOC - this is what you get for awarding a communist regime with hosting the Olympic games.
Exactly.... They forged the Passports and birth certificates.[b said:
When it's the government doing the cheating, its kind of hard to prove them wrong.
I just hope that little girls gets her tooth in by Christmas.
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i agree that the standard is set and that it isn't fair if one country does not follow the rules and the rest of the countries do follow them. it is clearly a problem and is without doubt cheating. i just find it counter intuitive to any sport cheating that I have ever heard of. i can hear it now if it were the same way in football:
OM fan #1: "Did you see the silly *** mustache on that State football player?"
OM fan #2: "Hell yeah I saw it. No doubt that he is drawing that thing on."
OM fan #1: "Did you see the silly *** mustache on that State football player?"
OM fan #2: "Hell yeah I saw it. No doubt that he is drawing that thing on."
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