The 2008 Summer Olympics : Beijing, China

[ms-nietzsche]

Too bad it's not really live. Damn, I was so pissed about that. They say it's live when it's not. How deceptive.



I agree. It's like Walter Dix getting bronze. He ran when two other runners touched the lines on the track and got DQed. Even Walter said it, "I didn't win." He got 5th place, and merely got lucky the other runners disqualified.

I am disappointed in Team USA during the baton pass.

For the females, I felt it was the fourth runner's fault for not holding onto it. The third runner did a good job of sticking it into the fourth runner's hand, but the fourth runner was incapable of grasping it.

For the males, I felt it was the third runner's fault. He did not stick that baton into Tyson Gaye's hand. Even I remember track from high school: you need to SLAP that baton into their hand.

Each individual runner is great, but as a team, they fail to perform. They need to practice hand-offs.

That race was even more disappointing than when the relays dropped the batons. When they interviewed the US guy who got second, he was just shocked and confused and said "There is no emotion right now."

 

[Ziegfeld Girl]

I'm so happy that the Jamaican men came 1st in the relay! They smashed the world record by so much.

 

[kezme44]

In this instance, if the IOC/FIG do find anything usable other than online caches I would be very surprised:

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/be...slug=ap-gym-underagechinese&prov=ap&type=lgns

good article. the sentence, "if you trust every website but not a government" cracks me up
of course the ioc won't find anything usable. what are they going to do?? contradict the passport info issued by a government. they've been submissive from the beginning so this is only done to calm the public down...

 

[*Bianca*]

"In recent days, additional questions have resurfaced, and in the interests of laying the matter to rest and in response to a request from the International Olympic Committee, the FIG has now asked the Chinese Gymnastic Association to submit further documents testifying to the birth dates of the gymnasts," the FIG said in a statement.

isn't it obvious that further documents will just be forged by China too? i guess that is the plan, requesting for more documents, which they'll happily provide, then the IOC/FIG will say they're satisfied and that'll be that.

 

[ms-nietzsche]

^There really is no other way to verify the ages. Neither the government or internet/media are exactly reliable, and there is no foul-proof medical exam to testify to age.

 

[*Bianca*]

“If you trust every Web site but not a government…,” he said. “There are so many Web sites, so much hearsay. These are not official. It is possible that all news on the Internet is accurate?”

Some of the sites with their dates of birth were government websites though, no?

 

[Faith Akiyama]

^I think some are now arguing that they were listing others of the same name/born in the same region (Well, with a billion people in China it's not impossible...I mean, how many Michael Phelps does the US have? ). Not sure if that's the best argument, really, but it just goes to show that even online documents cannot be fool-proof, I guess.

I think I mentioned this earlier, but I like how none of the actual teams (Including USAG...save for the Karolyis' complaints) are filing protests because they've pretty much all done the same before... No one wants going to be the first to cast the stone, apparently. But if they do rely completely on IOC/FIG it'll be a 7-8 year investigation and nothing will come out of it.

 

[*Bianca*]

This was apparently issued by the General Administration of Sport of China

Link 1 Link 2
(in Chinese; her name is highlighted in yellow)
yet to be deleted from cache

source: http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2008/08/hack-olympics.html

 

[kezme44]

 

[*Bianca*]

^I think some are now arguing that they were listing others of the same name/born in the same region (Well, with a billion people in China it's not impossible...I mean, how many Michael Phelps does the US have? ). Not sure if that's the best argument, really, but it just goes to show that even online documents cannot be fool-proof, I guess.

I would guess the chance of there being two Michael Phelps born on the same day of the year, from the same region and who are both competitive swimmers, would be ridiculously low

 

[Faith Akiyama]

^I thought you were talking about the supposed "birth documents" others had found elsewhere

This was apparently issued by the General Administration of Sport of China

Link 1 Link 2
(in Chinese; her name is highlighted in yellow)
yet to be deleted from cache

source: http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2008/08/hack-olympics.html

Not going to argue against that one -- but Kexin's from Wuhan? I thought she was from Hunan

But yah...if that actually holds up in court, I would be very surprised.

 

[*Bianca*]

apparently it's a cache of a government site (sports.gov.cn) listing He's birth year as 1994.

 

[ms-nietzsche]

What's to say they didn't lie about their ages before to compete at the National Games where there's a top limit?

Where are the birth certificates, or old photos with dates on them?

 

[kezme44]

oh man, that person that screwed up by not removing all that info from the website will be in some serious trouble from the chinese government

 

[ms-nietzsche]

Wasn't there also a boy gymnast rumored to be underage?

 

[Faith Akiyama]

^^

If the evidence does happen to hold up - it's yet another testament to the internet age!

 

[ms-nietzsche]

The F.I.G. has asked the Chinese for official documents, including birth certificates, of its entire women’s gymnastics team, according to I.O.C. officials. At the start of the Beijing Games, I.O.C. officials said that they had reviewed documentation provided by the Chinese team, and that they were satisfied that the gymnasts met age requirements.

nytimes

I don't think the internet and government caches are going to hold up

 

[Ziegfeld Girl]

What's to say they didn't lie about their ages before to compete at the National Games where there's a top limit?

Where are the birth certificates, or old photos with dates on them?

I actually read an article stating that they thought the documents/articles listing He Kexin's age as 14 was possibly done so she could compete in some sort of junior competition. I don't really know how sound that argument is but I would be very surprised if internet documents were given greater credibility than birth certificates, identification cards and passports. I know everything issued by the government could be fraudulent but I think such evidence should be taken to be true unless proved otherwise and I don't think the articles are enough.

I think they've already provided birth certificates to the FIG and the IOC.

On another note, it was great to see Steve Hooker win gold in pole vaulting.

 

[papa_levante]

America's decathlon males are doing great! I can't wait to watch more.

 

[*Bianca*]

^^Either way it doesn't look good; how can they be trusted? For the National Games wouldn't she have had to have official documentation too? So, I mean, in regards to trust, if they did it for the National Games, then it only weakens their credibility, even if they didn't do it for this Olympics.

And hasn't it happened before with China in the Olympics? (Other countries too). I read there was a Chinese gymnast who won bronze medals at the Sydney Olympics, who later admitted that she was only 14 at the time. She would obviously have had to have provided official documentation/passport in Sydney, which, if she really was only 14, would have been tampered with by the government.

It's frustrating that nothing can actually be done.