China is receiving some criticism tonight for its alleged involvement in allowing an underage girl to participate in the Olympics. The minimum age in which one may be to take part in the Olympics is 16.
Chinese gymnasts underage is the headline that many news outlets began broadcasting after they looked at online records indicating that a Chinese female particpating in the Olympics was only 14 years old. Yang Yilin is suspected to be illegaly partaking in the Beijing Olympics. If this on it’s own isn’t shocking enough, some of Yilin’s team mates are also believed to be underage. Last week, He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan were also discovered to be underage.
According to Olympic regulations, participants must turn 16 in an Olympic year to be eligible to particpate.
China continues to deny that any questionable activites have taken place. According to Chinese authorities, each of the girls’ ages were verified via legal documents supplied to them by the participants.
A Chinese officals claims that all members of the Chinese gymnastics team are eligible because they all reside within the Olympic village.
It’ll be interesting to see how the chinese gymnasts underage issue turns out. We sure hope that the girls’ ages are verified and shown to be within the appropriate range. If it turns out that they’re not, we’d be hard-pressed to let them continue in the games.
November 18th, 2008
2 Comments at "Chinese gymnasts underage - Olympic Scandal?"
The question isn’t whether the Chinese underage participants should be allowed to continue in the games. They should obviously be banned. The real point is that the medals they have should be taken away from them.
Is it unethical for china to do this? Is it just about winning and putting the best (young) athletes up to compete, or did each of the underage participants practice just as hard as anyone else competing in the 2008 olympics, and deserve to try their hardest and collect any gold, silver, or bronze they legally or illegally earn. This is a difficult issue to judge. Who’s fault is it that these children were trained at a very young age, knowing they would one day compete against the rest of the world. Too take away that oppurtunity because of their age is almost like taking away their medals they have already earned, taking away their pride. It is wrong to lie. Will it be wrong to take away from these children what they have already earned?
Comment Now!