IOC Will Never Prove Chinese Gymnasts Are Too Young

The International Olympic Committee announced today that it will investigate whether or not the Chinese gymnasts had their papers altered to increase their ages. Let me be the first to say, it's about time.

Not that they'll find anything, of course. The beauty of a communist government is that you can do pretty much anything and hide it later. Nevertheless, the IOC will finally acknowledge that something unholy is going on in China if all those girls are over 16.

But they still won't do anything about it.

What if they really did uncover the horrible truth? What if some of the Chinese gymnasts really aren't old enough? Will they pull the medals from the whole team for the team title? Would Nastia Liukin finally get the gold she deserves? Does a medal won because the original winner is DQed ring a little hollow?

All these are valid questions, but one thing is for certain. If the IOC manages to outsmart the Chinese authorities and prove their case, it will go down as a massive black eye for these games.

Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt will, sadly, fall off the radar. Scandal tends to grab headlines and when the host nation is involved, it looks even worse. These games, which have produced so many wonderful stories, will be relegated to the heap of "Great Events Marred by Controversy."

And that is why the IOC won't do more than the bare minimum to investigate these allegations. Ultimately, it is best for these games and even for the Olympics as a whole if this story just fades away and the record holders and great champions are allowed to stay in the spotlight.

Once the IOC finds nothing to prove the Chinese gymnasts really aren't allowed to stay up past 9:00 PM, and that a few of them do not yet have permanent teeth, the athletes will once again be the focus of media, and both the Chinese government and the IOC could wish for nothing more.