Open Mic: FIG Investigation Called For

Perhaps in an attempt to raise their current credibility, the IOC has finally called for an official investigation into the possibility that the Chinese gymnastics team included underage gymnasts.

They are requesting that the FIG, the governing group of gymnastics, launch an investigation to determine the true ages of the gymnasts, hinting that they might strip the offending medalists of their awards and pass them onto the runners-up.

The problem that the FIG now faces is that if they do decide to pursue the matter, the requirement they hold is that the country submit a passport for proof of age. The sporting world in China is controlled by the government and these easily could be, and possibly have been, manipulated.

The reason they have used to justify this delayed investigation is that they were afraid of offending the Chinese while the competition was still being decided. Unfortunately, now that the medals have been awarded, I fear that it will be nearly impossible to strip the medals.

New evidence has been found by a computer security expert who wished to research the growing controversy. This person tracked down documents that had been removed from their gymnastics website by using a Chinese search engine's cache to retrieve the recently deleted spreadsheet that displayed gymnast He Kexin's age as 14 years old, born on Jan. 1, 1994.

The FIG requires that gymnasts be 16 or turn 16 in the year of the games. A younger gymnast would have several advantages over an older gymnast including size and weight, but that wasn't the intent of the rule.

This rule, changed twice since 1981, when the requirement was 14, is designed to protect young gymnasts who could be pushed too hard during their training for the Olympics and suffer severe, permanent bone damage.

If the committee does eventually strip the Chinese gymnasts of their medals, the US gymnastics team would benefit by getting the gold in team all-around and Nastia Liukin would receive the gold for her uneven bars performance.