PrintAugust 13, 2008
Massive Cheating by China at the Olympics
There is absolutely no doubt - none, zero, zilch - that the Chinese "women's" gymnastics team featured several little girls no older than 14 years of age - two years younger than the international federation allows for competition. Online registrations of these girls list one age, their passports list another. This is blatant cheating - no other word for it.
Guess which one the federation is taking as correct?
Half of the team - He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan - would be under age, according to online sports registration lists in China. The international gymnastics federation, however, said those gymnasts were eligible and that the ages on their passports were correct...
Because China and the United States competed on the same events each rotation, it was easier to notice differences in their body types. The Chinese gymnasts lack curves, have an average height of 4 feet 9 inches and weigh an average of 77 pounds. Deng is the smallest, at 4-6 and 68 pounds. The women on the United States team, generally more muscular and shapely than the Chinese, are an average of 3 ½ inches taller and 30 pounds heavier.
Allah at Hot Air calls it is reminiscent of the 1972 basketball finals where the eastern bloc referee gave the Russians three chances to win in the last seconds. He goes on:
The event in which the Chinese blew the U.S. team away? The uneven bars - perfectly suited, per NPR's reporter, for smaller, lighter girls. So egregious is this fraud, in fact, that even NBC's not shying away from it.
Check out the video of legendary coach Bela Karolyi making his case.
Meanwhile, the cheating has not been confined to the gymnastics venue - not by a long shot:
Claims of questionable officiating and even cheating flared Wednesday with the Olympic gymnastics, shooting and boxing competitions coming under fire.
Australian veteran shooter Russell Mark alleged that Chinese judges, influenced by a boisterous home crowd, helped local hope Hu Binyuan win the Double Trap bronze medal.
Mark, 44, the Atlanta Games gold medalist who finished fifth in the event here, told Australian media those local judges had awarded a hit to Hu even though he missed the target.
"One of them clearly he missed," Mark was quoted as saying. "I don't think anyone out there thought he hit it. If that had been for a gold medal, I would have been protesting."
[snip]
Judging controversies have also blighted the boxing tournament.
China's Gu Yu caused an upset by defeating Joe Murray, the bantamweight world bronze medalist, on Tuesday but afterwards his camp was adamant he had been on the receiving end of some questionable verdicts.
They implied that the home fighter had been favored.
"I knew what it was going to be like. I've been watching the scoring the past few days and I knew it was bad. So I was expecting it," Murray said.
"They were giving him points for anything but when I was hitting him they were not giving me points," he said.
British head coach Terry Edwards added: "I thought they were very generous to the Chinese lad. You expect a slight bias but you come to the Olympic Games and you also expect a level playing field."
The one outstanding thing about these Olympics I can report is that they are a massive dud as far as number of people showing up to watch. Most venues are half empty or worse.
Maybe people just don't like to see athletic contests that a rigged.
