Tumble and Roll: The Real Deal
This year in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Chinese Olympic girls were said to be underage for the Olympics. Look at the picture above. Do these girls look like they are 16 years old? I don't think so. Many people are saying that these girls are too young to compete in the Olympics. The Chinese officials gave the New York Times the girl's passports to show their real age, and on the passports, the ages of the girls said 16. The thing that is unfair to the other competitors is that younger gymnasts are lighter and smaller and have an easier time doing some of the hard skills. They say that younger girls are more fearless and not as afraid to preform in front of a big audience. Two online records were found from the people of the New York Times saying that one of the Chinese girls, He Kexin, was born on January 1, 1994, which would make her 14 years old and too young to compete in the Olympics! I think that it is very unfair to the other olympians because if these girls are younger than they are supposed to be, they have less fear, so they are willing to do harder tricks. As i was talking to someone about this, they said that the Chinese girls that competed in Worlds, were listed to be 12 or 13 years old. I understant that these girls really wanted to compete in the Olympics and obviously their coaches wanted them to, but they shouldnt compete unless they are old enough. This is a hard thing to deal with because the Olympics have already finished and the medals were already given out. And for the All Around medals, the bronze medal was given to a Chinese gymnast who is shown to be 14 years old. I agree with the New York times saying that these girls are too young to compete in the Olympics. The real olympic age is 16 years old, and it is unfair to the other girls competing if they are all 16 years or older because they had to wait until they were 16 to compete, even if they were ready before that. There is really nothing to do about it now because everything is over and done with, but for the Chinese people to change these girls' ages on their passports is very unjust to all the other Olympic gymnasts.
Information: New York Times
How old does this gymnast look?
3 comments:
It’s true that the gymnasts on the Chinese Olympic team do not appear to be the age sixteen. They all look much younger. I do not think that it is fair to allow these gymnasts to compete in the Olympics if they are underage. I think that this is a problem that could have easily been avoided. It is a shame that people have to go through the hassle to investigate this issue when it should not have been a problem in the first place. They already found that one of the gymnasts were under age... how many others do you think are not sixteen??
Julia. I totally agree with you. There is no way these girls are 16 years old. My dentist was telling me that she got a good look at one of the girls teeth when she was watching the Olympics and she said it was still a baby tooth. Kind of funny but there is no way these girls are 16.
Julia: When watching the 2008 Olympics, all I could think about while watching the Chinese gymnasts was how young they looked. Sure, they were talented gymnasts, but they took medals away from performers that truly, and legally, deserved it. I also noticed, like Claire said, that a few of the girls even had missing teeth! I don't know about you, but I had lost all of my baby teeth long before I was 16. It's just not fair that they were able to perform.
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