She does look very young. My husband walked in the room when I was watching, saw her and asked, "How old is she, 8?"
But their Passports say 16, so they must be 16, right?

Is this really a surprise? That girl isn't the only one on the team to possibly be younger than advertised. This is coming from a country where they had a 7 year old lipsync because the real one was too chubby and had bad teeth.

This sucks, it's totally friggen cheating.

So what is the advantage of having a child on the team? I am trying to figure out why - Is it because they are more flexible and light? Or are these girls just very young and really good and the Chinese don't want to wait another 4 years to use them?
I just don't get it!!
Anyone know??

No shit, the Chinese gymnasts look around 12, at the oldest. It is hard to respect China when their country condones this cheating.

The advantage to a younger gymnast is that they are lighter, which makes the routines easier, as well as the fact that for example, on a floor routine, if a (underage) Chinese gymnast does the same set as a 20-year-old American, she can do it within less space and she is less likely to go out-of-bounds. Also, it is said that the younger girls just don't feel the same pressure as the older ones, they are more relaxed and therefor the nerves don't get to them.

Thanks Luz.
I figured it had to do with their size, but I was thinking experience would be a plus in the Olympics.
It sounds like the Chinese gymnists do gymnastics for life, or as a job (even more so than USA). I saw something about the veteran girl and it was mentioned she sees her parents once a year.

Yes, this is why Communist countries do so well in the Olympics! Unfortunately in America, we do not tear children away from their parents when they are 3 years old and force them into training so they came become the best in the world at what they were born to do! God bless Communism.

It's clear to me that China's young ones are so accomplished because they are basically forced into training slavery. Our girls aren't that good at 12 because they are actually allowed to have a life. Cheating is cheating. Disqualify them all!

So do they pay the parents to send their children away that young? I do think it is unfair, but it is also then even cooler to see our athletes (and other more natural-made athletes of other countries) do well against these athletes. It will be interesting to see how the all-around and individual medals turn out.

I'm surpised to learn that she's the only one underage and that she is really 14! She looks way, WAY, younger than that.

oh, get over it already!

No the parents aren't paid when their children are taken away, but if the kids have a lot of success, they get a lot of money which is money for the family. The announcer said that Cheng Fei begged her family to let her come home the first year, but they refused and told her it was because they needed the money.

Kinda funny when their '16 year old' gymnasts are still losing their baby teeth.

No, this country doesn't send the little ones away at a young age to perfect their craft for the good of the country.

The parents here force their children into grueling work schedules for the good of the parent's bank account.

I'm looking at YOU Lynne Spears! I'm also looking at Billy Ray Cyrus!

I did hear that about Cheng's family. So sad. But I wonder if it is big bucks or enough to help a family get by.
Touche QC!

well done, qc.

(don't forget about the biggest famewhore of them all, ms. dina lohan.)

Oh, yes, Dina is a good one. :-)

There has got to be a way we can add some of those over-the-top little league parents to the list. Some of those parents have just lost their minds.

Farewell, Xinhua news agency. Miss you.

really? i could not tell. hmph. had me fooled.

what sar said.

I do think it's telling that the IOCC (?) is completely ignoring this f-ery. They are more interested in in making China look good than making sure their own rules are followed. All gymnasts look far younger than they are so if these girls just happened to have been trained so hard that their puberty and growth have been delayed, I would say fine. It's f-ed up but it's legal as far as I know. I initially assumed others were just bad losers but losing a visible baby tooth just doesn't happen at 16.

The IOCC should also put in some measures to ensure that the athletes are reaching their respective countries' educational standards. I'm sure there are tons of kids being denied an education in the name of an Olympic gold. Only a handful will ever make it to the Olympics and even then, who's to say they'll win? It's not even like an aspiring pro athletes who at least have a high school diploma to fall back on and hell, you can start college a few years late. If China is pulling E Germany crap, it's quite possible that these kids are illiterate.

Bela Karoli (not sure of the spelling) stated when he was with the Russian team they faked papers to get those that were too young onto the olympic team. He called it from day one, saying that the chinese girls were not 16, at least not all of them.

Either strip them of their medals for cheating or drop the age requirement.

They posted their ages last night and the chinese gymnast was 13. I'm so confused. To think that the communist Chinese government is dishonest. What is the world coming to! First Brett now this

@ kerryberry: of course no other country, especially not America, the land of freedom and democracy, could never condone such an outrageous act like lip sync-ing. Clearly, no one would *ever* be considered unmarketable due to their weight and appearance in this country (certainly not Martha Wash).

Yeah, no surprise from an evil communist country indeed…

karyn - lol :)

The IOC should investigate this, but as some commentator at the Olympics said "who's going to officially file a complaint?" No one wants to, I guess. But I can't believe they are just going to get away with it. If those girls are 16, than I'm 75.

ashlee simpson will fight for the rights of all lip synchers, chinese, japanese, or indian chief.

what's the big deal with the lip syncing? it's not like it was chinese idol. was it written somewhere that the chinese could not lip sync?

i don't see what the big deal is. it's a whole lot of american finger pointing.

Have you people noticed that Asian people tend to be younger looking in general? They don't look like used up tampons by the time they turn 20 (photo evidence is all over this site). Take a look in the mirror, you ignorant hags.