Olympics 2008

The story that wouldn't die!! Yes its back, and no they still ain't got the balls to take their lickin'

FOXNews.com - IOC: Chinese Gymnasts Were Old Enough to Compete in Beijing - International News News of the World Middle East News Europe News:

"Originals of official documents received from the Chinese Gymnastics Association, specifically passports, identity cards and family booklets or Household Registers, confirm the ages of the athletes,' the FIG said in a statement.
The FIG said it shared its conclusions with the International Olympic Committee, which requested the inquiry."

Well what the heck did you think they were going to say??

"yep ... we've been duped. yup .... we waited too long to check this shit out and now they get to keep their medals. yup ... we will let host cities get away with just about anything to prevent giving ourselves a black-eye"

Of course they aren't going to say that .... as long as they are relying strictly on a country's own records for age then they are going to have this issue.

they should be having the gymnasts (since that seems to be the place where all the controversy lays) have to officially register at least 18 months before the official Olympic games .... this is not the same as putting their name on as part of the team, but it should be enough for them to say 'look this kid is thinking about joining the sport, so we are going to start the official paper trail now".

Actually a couple of simple medical/dental checks should be enough to give a good approximation of these girls' ages -- I just don't know how intrusive it would be. I know they can take dental x-rays and see how close her wisdom-teeth are to erupting ... if they aren't developed then she is less than 16 yrs old -- this is one of those markers that seems to go cross-culture and is not dependant on nutrition so there can be no claim of outside influences.

They can also take the length of her thigh bone (via x-ray), or even her ilia bones to see if she has reached child-bearing years - which would be around age 14-16 ... but this is effected by cultural/nutritional difference.

but to rely on official documents that can easily be manipulated by such a closed culture as China is practically medieval!!