Okay so they aren't really kindergartners. But they might as well be. The Chinese "Women's" gymnastics team looks way too young to be competing in these games.

Just for the record, I know very little about gymnastics. Everything I know, I have learned from Bela Karolyi, Al Trautwig, Bob Costas, and the rest of the NBC crew.

According to NBC, most American Gymnasts will start gymnastics around 5 or 6 years old. If they excel, they may move into higher competition and begin to train for the Olympics around age 9 or 10. 

Now imagine you are in China. NBC states that most of the Chinese gymnasts are chosen for their flexibility and size. Children as young as two or three are taken from schools and day-cares to train for competition. Many may rarely see their families.  These children are forced to train rigorously at a very young age, effectively ruining their bodies.

The younger gymnasts have many advantages that disappear as they age. A younger gymnast is a smaller gymnast. The smaller gymnasts are more flexible, lighter, and easier to train. 

Having a younger gymnast is an obvious advantage. The IOC has banned anyone under the age of 16 to compete in gymnastics. There are two schools of thought in the ruling.  The first is that this will effectively level the playing field and make all athletes close to the same size. The second is much more important. By making the minimum age 16, younger athletes will not be forced into vigorous exercise each day, ruining their bodies. 

Now that I have established what I know, why don't we take a look at a few members of the American team:

Shawn Johnson: 4'9" 90lbs. Age 16
Alicia Sacremone: 5'1" 117 lbs. Age 20
Bridget Sloan: 4'11" 104 lbs. Age 16
Nastia Liukin: 5'2" 99 lbs. Age 18
The average height and weight for the Americans are 5' and 107 lbs. This is around average for most teams. Shawn Johnson is the smallest American competing

The Chinese team seems a little off:

Linlin Deng: 4'5" 68 lbs. Age "16"
Jiang Yuyuan 4'7" 70lbs.  Age "16"
The trend continues throughout the roster, making the average height and weight 4'9" and 90 lbs. In comparison, the Chinese average is equal to Johnson, the smallest American.

This does not make sense to me. My first thought watching the Chinese team was that I had turned to Nickelodeon by mistake. Instead I was watching the Chinese force these girls, who look no older than 12, to lie to the world. 

Bela Karolyi should know what a gymnast looks like better than anyone else. He has trained countless champions, and is like the Joe Paterno of Gymnastics. He claims that the Chinese are using "half-people." He went on to say, "One of the biggest frustrations is, what arrogance. These people think we are stupid. We are in the business of gymnastics and we know what a kid of 14, or 15, or 16 looks like. You don’t have to be a gymnastics coach to know what they look like at 16."

I am not a gymnastics coach Bela, but I am 16. If any girls in my class looked like THAT, I would show them where the day-care room was. The fact that the Chinese government shows passports saying that they are 16 is ridiculous. How valid is the Chinese passport anyway. I could probably make one in my basement with newspaper and some paperclips. 

The Chinese government is lying to the world. The AP is even reporting that documents and online news stories link three of the gymnasts to be as young as 14. I still doubt that they are a day over 12.