Does the Chinese women's gymnastics team deserve their gold medal?

This may sound like a stupid answer, but I think that America should win the gold because our gymnastic team this year sucks.

 

Well, i saw one of the races and infact. The american black girl one 1st place. So, USA have some good teams. Now gymnastics, ya and they doo suck. It would be a pitty if the judges gave her the medal.

 

(@the two previous posters) O....k.

Back to gymnastics. For your first point, I too have said "Man, that's about the youngest 16 year old I've ever seen." Even a Chinese newspaper reported one of the gymnasts was age 13. In the months since this article was published, it has since been destroyed, and all evidence of it been wiped from the internet. However, just because someone looks young does not mean they are as young as they look. Let's consider some factors:

1) Chinese girls always look very young.
2) Gymnastics from a young age (particular in women) stunts growth, as does any major 'muscle building' bout of exercise. This is because of the sudden increase of testosterone...infact, most gymnasts suffer from what's called 'amenorrhea' which basically means lack of a menstrual cycle for whatever reason. So basically, gymnasts are likely to not hit puberty at all. (Men too have stunted growth, but particularly women)
3) The "age 16" rule is clearly stated (as younger gymnasts have an unfair advantage regardling a small frame and light bodyweight) as an Olympic rule. The Chinese, especially as the hosts, would have been lying about their age for like 2 years prior to the Olympics. I somehow doubt that any listing as age 15 was accurate...it would have merely been a typo. I mean think about it, if you're hosting the Olympics and pulling off a con, would you be sloppy enough as to draw attention to it? I mean not to say she's not 16...but NBC could publish whatever they want, they're not the official Olympic site. But unfortunately, since China is the source of the controversy, there is no reason the government couldn't issue a falsified birth certificate or other 'official' documentation. That's the main controversy here, are her documents fake?

If they Chinese women are under age, then they deserve no less than to lose their medal. Period. They would have violated the rules and merit disqualification.

I saw the Olympics...and you can raise issues about crooked judges/scoring...but quite frankly, the Chinese were better than the Americans. If all the Chinese are 16+, they truly were the better competitors and deserved the Gold. They had almost exclusively, excellent executions, while the Americans did things like jumping out of bounds on their floor routines, etc.

I think this last point is a reason to GIVE China their medals. These athletes gave their lives for the sport...they're more dedicated than any American gymnast can claim to be. They spent their lives training for this medal, and deserve it.


So to summarize, that's my outlook on the situation (I'm neither American nor Chinese). China was much better at performing...however, if a sprinter in the 100m dash comes in first but is "on the sauce" they merit disqualification too. If even one of Team China's competitors is under 16, they're out.

I think this is a very critical issue, and people aren't just making these claims so America can win Gold...they look pretty damn young. Haha.