Zero Tolerance for Sloppiness: China's Age-faking problem
Friday, 30th July 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
China is taking a zero-tolerance stance and adopting new measures to ensure its athletes meet age requirements for international competition, said Cai Zhenhua, vice president of the State General Administration of Sport, according to this report in China Daily. Cai says that the new approach starts with the upcoming Youth Olympics August 14 to 26 in Singapore. Athletes have been asked to furnish six different forms of ID, listed by China Daily as: "birth certificates, ID cards, passports, domestic athlete registration cards and domestic and international authentication for competitions."
Yi Jianlian's high school ID, listing him as born in 1984
The article adds that "athletes under 16 have also undergone bone-age checks through nuclear magnetic resonance." China Daily not explain why athletes who claim to be over 16 aren't required to take the tests.
But how much can these new regulations really do to solve China's age-faking problem? The country's national teams aren't generally thought to be the source of the practice. It begins much earlier in athletes' careers, when they are competing for their provinces. Leaders of those teams receive bonuses tied to performance in national and international competition. These bonuses can represent a major portion of their pay, so there is a strong incentive to shave a couple of years off (in sports like basketball and soccer, so players can enter youth competition for longer) or tack a couple on (in sports like diving and gymnastics, where young girls' flexible bodies are an advantage).
No doubt China wants to avoid future embarrassment like it experienced when the International Olympic Committee stripped its 2000 Olympic women's gymnastics team of a bronze medal after determining Dong Fangxiao had competed under a falsified age.
But I have a hard time believing that sports administration officials really care whether athletes are telling the truth about their age—they just want them to stop getting caught.
Dong was busted because of her own careless mistake. When she applied to be an official at the 2008 Olympics, she provided her real birth year, 1986, instead of the 1983 date that she had used to register for the Sydney Olympics. Others have been caught with a secondary form of ID that carries their real age. In 1999, Wang Zhizhi was picked up by the Dallas Mavericks despite his reported birth date making him too young to be drafted by an NBA team. The Mavericks had access to the center's military ID, with correct age (two years older), thanks to a Beijing-–based Nike employee. Yi Jianlian, who plays for the NBA's Washington Wizards, is widely thought to be two years older than his official birth year of 1987 indicates; two years ago, Chinese reporters dug up an old high school ID that listed his birth date as 1984. In all of these cases, a more careful scrubbing of history would have kept the athletes' secrets buried deeper.
Whether the administration really wants to make sure that its teams are compliant, I can't say for sure. But I am willing to bet that what lower-ranking and provincial sports officials will hear is this: "If you want to fake ages, you'd better start covering your tracks."
Yi Jianlian high school ID image: Sohu.com
Tags: age faking, cheating, Dong Fangxiao, gymnastics, sports administration, Wang Zhizhi, Yi Jianlian
This Week in China Sports: NFL Draft, new CBA champion, Olympic gymnasts stripped of Sydney medal
Friday, 30th April 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
Ed Wang was, indeed, picked up in the NFL draft. He went to the Buffalo Bills with the 140th pick, becoming the first Chinese-American drafted by an NFL team. Titan Sports News, China's top sports newspaper, featured Wang on its front page.The Guangdong Southern Tigers beat the Xinjiang Flying Tigers 103-94, winning their sixth Chinese Basketball Association title. Guangdong took the series 4-1. Only the Bayi Rockets, the Chinese army team, have won more titles (8), and Guangdong has been the CBA champion all but one of the last seven years. (Xinhua)
Bob Donewald, coach of the Yao Ming-owned Shanghai Sharks of the CBA, was tapped to coach the Chinese men's national basketball team through the end of the year (Washington Post). Donewald coached NCAA basketball at several different Midwestern universities throughout the 80s and 90s. He will lead a Yao-less team at the world championships in August and the Asian Games in November.
The International Olympic Committee stripped China of its bronze medal in the gymnastics team competition in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, after Dong Fangxiao was ruled to have been underage. The bronze now goes to the United States team. Ironically, Dong was outed by her accreditation papers for working as an official at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. That paperwork has her birth date as January 23, 1986, and not January 20, 1983, as she had declared in Sydney. Olympic gymnasts must turn 16 in the year they compete in an Olympics, per restrictions set by the Federation Internationale Gymnastique (AP via ESPN).
Kenny Huang is NOT denying rumors published in the Sunday Mirror that he is in talks to buy Liverpool Football Club. He only denies speaking to a reporter from the paper, and said he would not comment on the rumor.
China may not have a team in the FIFA World Cup, but they do have a presence. Many of the South African flags currently selling well in the host country, are made in China and apparently the imports were not quite printed right (Mail & Guardian)
Tags: basketball, Bob Donewald, CBA, FIFA World Cup, Guangdong Tigers, gymnastics, IOC, Kenny Huang, NFL, Olympics, Shanghai Sharks, Xinjiang Tigers, 黄建华
Around the Web: Leader calls Chinese kids unfit, Liu Xiang stumbles, underage gymnasts
Monday, 8th March 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
Sports leader: Chinese kids need to shape upChinese children need to get in better shape, with nothing less than national security at stake. So said Beijing Sports University president Yang Huan, addressing the annual all-government meeting, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress, which recently got underway in Beijng. In an effort to funnel more funds to youth sports and fitness, Yang raised concern that China's young people lag behind other nations'. He pointed out one rival in particular: "If there was another war against Japan, would the younger Chinese be able to fight the Japanese one-on-one?" (Reuters: Chinese youth accused of not being fit
Liu Xiang a star attraction at political meet, not so hot at track meet
Several athletes serve on the CPPCC, which lasts about another week. Among them is hurdler Liu Xiang. Liu missed last year's meeting because he was in the United States rehabilitating from foot surgery. After a promising return to action last fall, where he lost in a photo finish at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, Liu's comeback seems to be stumbling a bit. He came in fourth at a recent 60-meter hurdle race in Shanghai against all Chinese runners. The former world record holder insists that he just slowed down at the end to protect his foot for the upcoming world championships in Doha, Qatar, starting March 12. But this quote from a China Daily story doesn't sound promising: "If I want to push myself, I can surely do it, but it makes me feel uncomfortable in the foot."
The world will soon find out just what condition he is in, as he joins his first major international competition since pulling out of the Olympics due to injury. Also going to Qatar are the USA's Terrence Trammell and Dayron Robles of Cuba, the current world record holder and the man Liu has said he expects to win in Doha.
To see the awkward, disappointing way in which local media cover Liu at the CPPCC, cue this China Daily video
Chinese gymnast age fraud: Throwback edition
Age fraud hit China's gymnastics program again last week, but this time it focused on Dong Fangxiao, who won a bronze medal in the team event at the Sydney Games in 2000. The International Gymnastics Federation has recommended that the International Olympic Committee take back her medal (Reuters, saying they believe she was not 16 years old at the time. The Chinese Gymnastics Association said it intends to appeal, and that there is "insufficient evidence that Dong Fangxiao has age problems when participating in competition in 1999 and 2000."
Tags: 110m hurdles, Dong Fangxiao, gymnastics, Liu Xiang
Gymnasts old enough, FIG says
Thursday, 2nd October 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Were all of the gymnasts who competed for China in the Beijing Olympics old enough for eligibility under international rules? The official record says yes now, after the (Federation Internationale de Gymnastique) ruled that documentation supplied by the Chinese Gymnastics Association is sufficient evidence that they were all under 16 years old during the Olympics.
Tags: gymnastics
IOC investigating ages of Chinese gymnasts
Friday, 22nd August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Will He Kexin have to give this medal back?
The International Olympic Committee has launched an investigation into the ages of gold medal-winning gymnasts He Kexin (何可欣) and Yang Yilin (杨伊琳), according to multiple media reports. Accusations have been leveled that the hosts cheated by faking age records in the sport, which requires that athletes be turning 16 or older in the year they enter Olympic competition.
If the IOC finds that He and Yang are underage and strips China of medals they won, that would cost China both of its women's gymnastics golds—the team title and He's uneven bars gold—and two bronzes, won by Yang in the uneven bars and the all-around competition.
The Associated Press claimed to have found archived reports (later scrubbed from the Internet) from last November in Chinese state media Xinhua, stating that He was 13 in 2007. More recently, some digging by an American computer security expert revealed more records indicating that He is underage.
Related: China, US medal competition heats up
He Kexin image: Boston Globe
Tags: Beijing Olympics, cheating, gymnastics, He Kexin, IOC, Olympics, Yang Yilin
China leads with 41 golds, second in total medals
Tuesday, 19th August 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
As of 8:15 pm Beijing time on Tuesday, China had won two more golds, both in men's gymnastics, to bring their total number of gold medals to 41, or 16 more than Team USA's 25 golds. Great Britain was in third in the gold count with 15.In terms of overall medals, China trails the US, 77 to 72, with silver- and bronze-heavy Russia in third with 40 total medals.
Li Xiaopeng enters Chinese gymnastics pantheon
Li Xiaopeng (李小鹏) beat out Yoo Won-chul of South Korea and Anton Fokin of Uzbekistan to claim his fourth gold in men's gymnastics – this time in the parallel bars. This Olympics Li has surpassed Chinese gymnastics legend – and the star of these Olympics' opening ceremony – Li Ning as the winningest Chinese gymnast ever, with a total of 18 international first-place finishes to Li Ning's 14.
Zou Kai wins men's horizontal bar
Li's teammate Zou Kai (邹凯) beat out Jonathan Horton of the US and Fabian Hambuechen of Germany to win gold on the last day of artistic gymnastics competition. The medal is Zou's third gold medal in his first Olympics – earlier in the Beijing games he won gold in the men's team competition and also in the individual floor competition.
Li Xiaopeng image: news.cctv.com
Zou Kai image: english.people.com.cn
Tags: gymnastics, Li Ning, Li Xiaopeng, Zou Kai
Day Seven: 4 golds, 2 bronzes for China
Saturday, 16th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
China pulled in four gold medals on Friday, along with two bronzes. It was enough to keep China ahead of the United States in the gold medal count, but not enough to eclipse the USA's overall lead.Weightlifting
Cao Lei (women's 75 kg ) and Lu Yong (men's 85 kg) kept the momentum in weightlifting going, winning China's gold medals number seven and eight in the sport.
Du and Yu celebrate badminton gold with their coach
Badminton
China won both gold and bronze in women's badminton doubles. In the gold medal match, Du Jing and Yu Yang beat Lee Kyung-won and Lee Hyo-jung of South Korea (21-15, 21-14). In the bronze medal match, Wei Yili and Zhang Yawen, who had lost to Du and Yu in the semifinals, beat the Japanese duo of Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna (21-17, 21-10).
Judo
Tong Wen took down Maki Tsukada of Japan to claim gold in the women's +78 kg division.
Gymnastics
Yang Yiling took bronze in the women's gymnastics all-around, coming in behind Americans Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson. Yang's best performance was on uneven bars, where she tallied a 16.725, the highest score given in any event of the competition. Her 15.75 on the beam placed her fourth in that discipline, but her scores on the vault (15.175) and the floor routine (15.00) gave her an overall of 62.650, not enough to beat out Johnson's 62.725 for silver.
Image: BOCOG
Tags: badminton, Beijing Olympics, Cao Lei, Du Jing, gymnastics, judo, Lu Yong, Olympics, Tong Wen, Wei Yili, weightlifting, Yang Yiling, Yu Yang, Zhang Yawen
Olympic Gymnastics Draw
Friday, 16th May 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The Olympic gymnastics draw took place in Tianjin yesterday, putting China's women in the first qualification group with Romania, and the men in the same group as Canada, Russia, Japan and France.The women's placement in the first group is considered a challenge because it means they will need to get up early to warm up for the 10 a.m. competition. The morning session is also typically not as well attended, thought it's hard to believe that attracting a crowd will be any problem in Beijing.
Chinese coach Lu Shanzhen didn't hold back in expressing his disappointment over the women's draw, according to this Xinhua report, which quotes him as saying: "It is the worst draw!" Lu expressed his disappointment after the draw. "We are in the first qualification and will start with balance beam."
The draw took place in Tianjin where the FIG World Cup of Gymnastics is being held.
Tags: gymnastics, olympics