Michelle Malkin » Cheating ChiComs, Crouching IOC

Cheating ChiComs, Crouching IOC

By Michelle Malkin • August 15, 2008 10:33 AM

The good news: Team America won all-around gold and silver yesterday.

The bad news: the ChiComs will get away with their cheating ways and the fecklessness of the IOC will be given a pass.

My second syndicated column this week rips international athletic officials for turning a blind eye.

***

Cheating ChiComs, Crouching IOC
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2008

I have an eight-year-old daughter. I know what eight-year-old hands and feet and hips and teeth look like. They look a lot like the hands and feet and hips and teeth of the purported “teenagers” on the gold medal-winning Chinese girls’ gymnastics team.

The two pounds of frosty blue eye shadow and Bubblicious pink blush that the ChiComs piled on the cherubic faces of their gymnasts backfired. Rather than mask their youth, the pedo-friendly make-up made them look even younger. Like five-year-olds dressed up for a Beijing Halloween Gone Wild.

One of the Chinese team members has an unexplained missing tooth. Explicable if someone knocked it out– or if she’s the only “sixteen”-year-old on the planet still losing her Chiclet-sized baby teeth. The coaches refused to elaborate on the gap. Take your pick.

Apparently, the ChiComs hoped all that iridescent glitter powder glopped onto the wee foreheads of the athletes would blind spectators’ eyes to the screamingly obvious. Lo and behold, the magic dust has worked on the ostriches who sit on the International Olympic Committee (IOC). They’re in deeper denial about cheating than John Edwards.

Gymnasts are required to turn 16 this year to be eligible for competition. Official records, ChiCom state media reports, and Internet data undermine the eligibility claims of at least three of the girls. He Kexin, for example, was listed as 13 in November 2007 by a Chinese state news service. Jiang Yuyuan’s birth date has magically evolved from one that makes her 15 in October to another that makes her 16 in November.

The sports world is in an uproar. But the IOC is covering its ears, singing “La, la, la, we can’t hear you.” Welcome to this week’s live-action performance of “Cheating ChiComs, Crouching IOC.” The panel, along with the International Gymnastics Federation, accepted China’s passports for the girls as iron-clad proof of their ages. They insist on ignoring the long trail of whitewashed documents online. Zhang Hongliang, an official with China’s gymnastics delegation, successfully stonewalled: “We already explained this very clearly. There’s no need to discuss this thing again.” Bowing, scraping Olympic officials have complied.

According to Sports Illustrated, the IOC has also refused to investigate a separate admission by a former Chinese gymnast who reportedly has claimed to have competed as a 14-year-old at the 2000 Sydney Games.

These sports bodies, intent on papering over China’s systemic flouting of rules for the sake of global harmony, are vying with the United Nations for the title of Most Feckless International Agency. They’ve swallowed China’s excuses that the pre-altered birth dates were simply record-keeping “errors.”

There’s no such thing as a bureaucratic error in an authoritarian regime.

China has a long, state-sponsored history of cheating by every means necessary and exploiting its female athletes, from the doped-up female runners of “Ma’s Army” to the human growth hormone-fueled victories of the Chinese women swimmers over the past 15 years. The revelations about the opening ceremony’s firework fakery and lip-sync switcheroo involving two more exploited Chinese girls simply underscore the regime’s threat to whatever is left of the integrity of the Olympic games.

The Olympic creed, articulated by Baron de Coubertin, asserts: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

With their head-in-the-sand response to the Chinese gymnast scandal, enabling international Olympics officials have driven the final nail into the credibility coffin of the games and turned the guiding principle of athletic competition on its head.

The Olympic Village has become China’s triumphant Potemkin village.

Swifter, Higher, Stronger? Try Smaller, Liar, Younger.

Posted in: Repression

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#201

On August 15th, 2008 at 9:33 pm, chapoutier said:

I’m impressed you can do that with only two hands.

Wow. Okay. You had an opportunity to make a wayyyy more tasteless joke there, Aloha, and you blew it.

Racist.
#202

On August 15th, 2008 at 9:34 pm, Rob said:

I’m impressed you can do that with only two hands.

“It takes two hands to handle a whopper.” :o)
#203

On August 15th, 2008 at 9:35 pm, corkie said:

On August 15th, 2008 at 9:20 pm, chapoutier said:

And the Neilsen ratings are drawn from less than 7% of households…they extrapolate the rest…and have had their methods called to account…

None of which comes from NBC, so what is your point?

Nice, chapoutier.

I knew someone was going to hit you with that, but I wasn’t sure if you were going to bother replying. Wait…were you setting a trap?
#204

On August 15th, 2008 at 9:36 pm, IndependentTom said:

Good to see there’s still some humor around this….
#205

On August 15th, 2008 at 9:39 pm, AlohaGuy said:

Wow. Okay. You had an opportunity to make a wayyyy more tasteless joke there, Aloha, and you blew it.

I must not be paying attention…
#206

On August 15th, 2008 at 9:40 pm, IndependentTom said:

lol…Russia did this before….China is doing it now….rules are malleable when your the host country…the olympics have nothing to do with fair play…
#207

On August 15th, 2008 at 9:40 pm, chapoutier said:

I must not be paying attention…

Probably too busy oppressing Asian Americans.
#208

On August 15th, 2008 at 9:41 pm, IndependentTom said:

Ooops..”you’re”
#209

On August 15th, 2008 at 9:49 pm, AlohaGuy said:

Probably too busy oppressing Asian Americans.

I was trying to figure out which one was the cook and which one was the maid - they look too much alike - luckily they’re so submissive it hardly matters. But if my massage isn’t perfect they’ll be doing the laundry by hand…
#210

On August 15th, 2008 at 9:53 pm, Rob said:

Probably too busy oppressing Asian Americans.

Asian American women… mmmmmmmm
#211

On August 15th, 2008 at 9:53 pm, chapoutier said:

I hate using this, but El OH Freaking EL.

You win, Aloha.

Off to watch the Olympics.
#212

On August 15th, 2008 at 9:55 pm, AlohaGuy said:

See you - me too.
#213

On August 15th, 2008 at 10:20 pm, IndependentTom said:

LOL..not watching the olympics…got better things to do…
#214

On August 16th, 2008 at 12:11 am, Robroy said:

Gawwd , there makeup looks like it was applied with a spatula .
#215

On August 16th, 2008 at 12:41 am, Papa Louie said:

He Kexin, for example, was listed as 13 in November 2007 by a Chinese state news service.

He Kexin may be under age, but doesn’t it bother anyone that “she” is a “He”?
#216

On August 16th, 2008 at 12:45 am, revGDright said:

I spent more time reading this thread than all the time I’ve spent watching the Olympics this year.
Yeah, they are probably underage. So what if the IOC actually does something about it? Are we going to see images and hear sob stories about 13 year-old little girls bawling when their medals are being taken away and handed to the mean Americans?
It’s all a show, people. The best thing athletics can give to young people’s development is learning how to lose and that life ain’t fair.
#217

On August 16th, 2008 at 1:11 am, purplepeep said:

Maybe I’m be in the minoriy opinion here on a related issue, I dunno. But I think 13 year olds should particpate. It’s a relatively recent change that bans those under 16 from competition.

But I’m thinking that some things, esp an area like gymnastics, are what a lot of kids love to do and are great at - if they beat a 20 year year old, so be it. Fot the overwhelming majority of the lads and lasses it would just be a very fond memory and a tale to proudly regale the grandkids with many years down the line. (Like highschool football glory days tales.)

Even with that in mind, it’s still wrong for a country to violate the current rules. So dissapointing all around.
#218

On August 16th, 2008 at 2:42 am, joromima said:

Rating 3*.

Good article Michelle.

But I confirm what a few others here have said, who have been watching that “commie” NBC coverage - that the NBC commentators have mentioned numerous times - the younger ages of the Chinese girl gymnists.

It’s not an issue with the Chinese men gymnists, however.

Michael Phelps winning his 7th Gold medal tonight, what a magic moment!!! -This was a great moment for the USA -I was hoping to see more comments about it here - Go USA!!!
#219

On August 16th, 2008 at 3:42 pm, happyscrapper said:

Digshot #122 I just re-read some of the comments and discovered your dig at our President. Just to let you know, I normally don’t waste my time responding to trolls, but I just couldn’t resist just this once. I am a new kid on this blog and have vowed not to get into it with those who swoop in to pick a fight. I will pray for you and the other misguided libs like you who clearly need God’s help.
#220

On August 16th, 2008 at 7:42 pm, mastiffsrock said:

I have an 11 year old daughter. I had the same reaction as you Michelle.
#221

On August 16th, 2008 at 7:45 pm, chapoutier said:

I am a new kid on this blog and have vowed not to get into it with those who swoop in to pick a fight.

Oh no. please do. Please explain why this president has commanded our, or at least, your, respect and apparent admiration.

I will pray for you and the other misguided libs like you who clearly need God’s help.

Thank you.
#222

On August 16th, 2008 at 9:03 pm, jellibean said:

Paul cincy:

On August 15th, 2008 at 10:45 am, Paul-Cincy said:

Remember how Nadia Comenic (sp?) got a perfect 10 at age 14 in the 1976 Olympics. So this age restriction must be a new thing.

In 1996, Dominique Moceanu was 15, and I remember the commentators saying that after that Olympics (Atlanta), athletes wouldn’t be able to compete at such a young age. So yeah, this is a relatively new thing.

And it’s Comaneci.
#223

On August 18th, 2008 at 8:32 am, sfcmac said:

The last time I watched the Olympics was in the 1970’s during the various scandals surrounding Soviet, East german, and Chinese cheating. I had had it after that. The IOC makes the Olympics an even bigger sham than it already is. Just try and get away with the same crap as an American athlete. The IOC would be all over that like stink on shit.