Competing Against Chinese Children

The Great Chinese Children's Olympic Team

Chinese officials can forge birth certificates and issue new travel documents, but they cannot hide the girls themselves.

The US Golden Girl Nastia Liukin Who Is Not Pre-Pubescent

I was just wondering why does there have to be an age requirement in the Olympics anyway? If a 14 or 15 year old girl can fence or shoot or whatever at an Olympic caliber why does it matter.

Well...in women's gymnastics two tricky physical characteristics, size and weight, actually do matter....especially when a little thing like gravity is an issue.


From Gordon Chang
Yet there is no mistaking what we can see with our own eyes. Chinese coaches tried to hide the ages of the girls with “enough makeup to shame a drag queen,” but no amount of lipstick and eyeliner can hide the fact that the American gymnasts have curves and breasts and the Chinese ones don’t. On average, the girls on the Chinese team are 3.5 inches shorter and 30 pounds lighter than their American counterparts. Bela Karolyi, the legendary coach of gold-medalists Nadia Comaneci of Romania and Mary Lou Retton of the United States, calls the members of China’s team “half-people.” They still have their baby teeth, he points out. Take a close look at the picture of the charming Ms. Deng, and you will find that she’s missing a tooth — her permanent ones have not all grown in. Yet she too is now listed in official records as — don’t be surprised — 16.