Cheating ChiComs, Crouching IOC
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.
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- TNOYF Uncovers New York Times Memo To Staffers Covering Beijing Olympics » The Nose On Your Face
- Mind Scalpel
- Olympic BS - Sports
- The Rude News » Blog Archive » Stupid Moral Relativism
- Cheating ChiComs, Crouching IOC — The 2008 Elections
- Clinton and McCain ChiCom Connections? « I Took The Red Pill (and escaped the Matrix)
- BizzyBlog » A Reverse ‘Name That Party’ on Ted Stevens
- Olympic Blog « TheJOTUS
- Michelle Malkin » IOC and cheating ChiComs revisited
- The Revenge of the Chew « Chockblock’s blog
- The Lesser of Two Communists? « I Took The Red Pill (and escaped the Matrix)
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Bravo!!!
It always amazes me how the “international community” will bow to bullies and do anything not to embarass them on the world stage. Before long (”empowered by the experience”)they invade smaller, weaker neighbors.
If I were in Taiwan right now, I would be nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
I also noticed that yesterday when China was the overall (Gold, Silver and Bronze) medal leader, Drudge had in big headlines how the Chinese were ahead. Today when the USA has the overall medal lead. Zilch. Great column by the way.
Good article Michelle.
If the IOC would adhere to its own rules, that would be being honest about competition and not catering to the Chinese, like NBC is doing.
But we cant have that now, can we?
And I thought I was the only one thinking how wierd the chinese gymniasts looked…I thought China was doing some strange growth retarding experiments or something.
And this is just another feather in the cap of the IOC, where money talks and honesty walks. I hope the bribes were worth it.
The IOC has their priorities as backwards as the liberals. They are investigating and pursuing some kind of punishment for a wrestler who felt he was cheated out of a gold medal (scoring for wrestling is very subjective, he felt he was cheated) for leaving his bronze medal on the mat. So it suddenly became an Olympic offense to not accept a medal? But yet the Chinese commie government (who issues the passports) says their girls are really 16 and the IOC falls for it hook line and sinker?
Yeah, more proof that up is down and down is up to these psychos.
Great column Michelle … I especially liked our reference to the Chinese girls’ gymnastics team … since it is supposed to be the “women’s” team …
Communists never learn … regardless of their country of origin …
Unlike communist citizens the rest of the world does not have to accept their statements as truth and fact when they are so obviously false …
our=your …
Great column, Michelle. It’s a shame that this is what is done to try and get a gold medal at the Olympics these days.
I’m curious though if the IOC would react the same way if questions were raised about the age of the US ladies.
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.
This is the same body that oversees doping tests like a hawk readying to strike down any athlete with even the smallest hint of an altering substance in their blood or urine. I say what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, the IOC should be forced to take this seriously as allowing ineligible athletes to compete is the same no matter if their eligibility is violated by drug use or age.
Just like everything these days. Follow the $
sounds like the gold & silver were given to hush the critics.
Rules? what rules? Why should china obey the rules???
Great stuff!
ROFL That’ll leave marks!
Bruno Grandi and Nelli Kim – those are the names to remember.
What a joke.
I guess you’ve never done business in China. Surreptitiousness is as natural as breathing to ChiComs. What’s stunning is the ignorance of the West. It makes me chuckle; I just hope the West can catch up.
I never watch the 3 fake news networks…are they investigating China’s children athletes?
I’m just suprised that they have enough female children that weren’t aborted (due to their misfortune of being female) to make up a Gymnastics team!
Terrific article. I’m from Iowa and have met Shawn Johnson and her coach, Liang Chow, several times as my daughter competes in Iowa gymnastics.
One of the disappointing outcomes of this scandal is how unfair it is to the other gymnasts competing. This is the culmination of their life long pursuit – with a decade or more of dedication and hard work.
Now the results of the team competition, and even the individual and all-around will be tarnished forever with that asterisk or question – did the Chinese cheat?
Too bad for these phenomenal athletes, even the Chinese athletes, that their country decided to cheat (allegedly/likely).
I know for one thing – Iowa’s Shawn Johnson will hold her head high – doing her personal best with dignity, grace, and humility.
Congratulations to both Shawn and Nastia. Terrific performance last night!
It’s clear they’re underage….
But this whole incident makes me wonder if there isn’t something amiss with a sport in which the female youngsters have an unfair advantage over competitors who have spent more years training and perfecting their craft…. maybe the routines themselves need to be changed to make them more grown-up friendly?
Watching the women’s all around last night was also surreal. Identical mistakes made by the Chinese and the Americans- and yet the Americans were penalized harshly and the Chinese were given outrageously high scores.
In the end, it took two flawless floor routines (and a glaring mistake by the gal on the Chinese team) for the U.S. to take the gold and silver.
With regards to the age thing- it does matter a great deal. Notice there are no gymnast athletes over 16 or 17. This is because the muscle to weight ratio is in their favor the younger they are. Not only that, but before puberty hits, there is a higher degree of flexibility.
In gymnastics, the younger you are, the more advantage you have.
the world is changing in and around China, their government is not.
Goldwater Knight, great justification, absolutely what the West needs to do, lower our standards to the scurrilous, dishonest and undermining techniques of our 2nd largest enemy. Chuckle on while we are destroyed by the Trojan scum – real funny. Must be a liberal translation of where we stand in the world and what we must do to compete, hmmm
I agree in theory and disagree in it being a practical solution. If the events were more like the mens gymnastic events and required more upper body strength and didn’t provide an advantage to little girls with a different center of gravity from women who have had their center of gravity change due to the body maturing past 14 then we would see female gymnasts from China who are suddenly “16″ who look like the Chinese women’s swimming team all pumped up on human growth hormone and testosterone. So in the end, China will still try and cheat their way to every medal it can get away with it in.
Uh, the gymnast who won the gold last night, Nastia Luikin, is 18.
I have believed for a very long time that the IOC is ONLY interested in the “big” payday it receives from each Olympiad. Why else did they shift from having both Summer and Winter Games in the same year to having them staggered 2 years apart? Why, it’s “smoothing out” cash flow, of course.
If the IOC suddenly “grew a backbone” and disqualified ChiCom athletes for Olympics rules violations, they would be risking being left with an empty money bag; hardly the reason they “hold” the Olympics in the first place.
As far as I’m concerned, the IOC is like the UN of sports: it’s just become an anti-American, anti-Israel organization.
American athletes are held to different standards, and, to their credit, often meet them. Communist countries cheat, and not only get away with it, but seem to be rewarded for it.
it was earned!
Alicia Sacramone is 20.
I so enjoyed seeing the Chicoms being defeated last night despite the obvious cheating that was going on. Congrats to Lukin and Johnson for their performances.
Jewels #20,
That is why I never take gymnastics, diving, figure skating (etc) as serious sports. Anything judged can bring in untold prejudices into the mix.
Not to say the performers are not athletic. They are incredibly gifted. But the judges are not impassionate or subject to political pressure (or payola?).
I would love the Olympics to go back to racing, feats of strength, and other such sports that do not lend themselves to murky decisions.
Actually Jewels, Oksana Chusovitina is still competing internationally at 33. She isn’t doing that badly either!
Well, if you are using Chinese years, then she is 22.
Did you hear the latest? The first Indian gold medal winner, Abinnav Bindra, who won the gold medal in Air Rifle, said that before the final competition, his rifle was tampered with and the sights were deliberately adjusted. Fortunately, Bindra noticed this and corrected the tampering and went on to win the gold medal. Who was the silver medal winner you may wonder? A Chinese athlete.
The IOC has offically ruined the Olympics, first allowing professional athletes to compete in games that were designed for amateurs and now letting children compete. What’s next orangutans and chimps.
I was a swimmer for 7 years. When I would finish a race I was happy if I won. More importantly had my time improved. Being an athlete it was more important to improve than it was to win. We all can’t be number one, but we can try our best. That ideal has been lost by some people.
Well done, Michelle.
Potemkin village is exactly what this country represents.
I am very proud of our USA teams.
.
Why am I not surprised. Great piece, thinking about China being given the Olympics really is maddening. At least more people will be talking sooner rather than later about how there are really two very different Chinas in one.
Maybe in the future it will be in Saudi Arabia or Venezuela.
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
host large sporting events
communists must always seek
planetary approval
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe loves
corrupt governments
denying outside help
with tragic avalanche
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe loves
capitalism’s faults
but prefers communism
with its many miseries
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
never admit mistakes
cling to false ideologies
brainwash your countrymen
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
cause food shortages
implement price controls
destroy all family farms
.
All real freedom starts with freedom of speech. Without freedom of speech, there can be no real freedom.
.
Philosophy of Liberty Cartoon
.
Help Halt Terrorism Today!
.
USpace
.
Here is an excellent article summarizing the various cheating allegations against the Chinese:
http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/sports/cheating–sabotage–olympic-staple-2751.html
Thank you for writing that article Michelle. Someone has to say what we all see clearly.
The IOC, like the United Nations, sucks up to ruthless nations like China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. And further deference is piled on if they also happen to be the host nation.
The child pictured in this Fox News article can’t be more than 13 years old. She looks more like a a nine year old.
Why the US Gymnastics team does not protest this is difficult to understand. The protest would go nowhere given the UN-Like nature of the IOC. But at least a protest would be on record.
As far as I’m concerned… China cheated, but having pixie-like kids to compete against young women. In gymnastics… this is a huge advantage.
But none of this should be surprising. This is the same country that rammed our P-3 Orion plane and kept our service men and women hostage illegally.
What can YOU do about it? Check to see if what you are about to buy was made in China. If it was.. put it down and find another product. That’s what I did with some shirts last week. If I can’t find what I’m looking for, I do without if I can… which in most case.. I can.
If
The IOC should have thrown the entire Iranian team out of this and the last Olympics for their refusal to compete against competitors from Israel. In 2004, it was in Judo where Iran drew Israel in the first round and the Iranian medal contender “missed weight.” This time, it was a preliminary swimming race when the Iranian didn’t show up because an Israeli was in the same race. (This despite the “okay” from an Iranian Islamic religious authority who declared that it was okay to be in the pool with a Jew because it wasn’t a head-to-head match.”
Does anyone how Nelli Kim got on the FIG Womens Technical Committee in the first place?
On Point.
Bravo! Great article – we must not stop to shine light on this years great Olympic scam! Thank you for saying out loud what everyone can see and suspect. Please keep on the good work!
Where are the older teenage girls who could compete? Why are the Chinese only able to put a team together of youngsters? To me that is the bigger question.
How sad it is that these young girls who are obviously capable gymnast are going to be remembered for how old they are not instead of how well they performed.
Any idea that the Olympics is what the Olympics used to be is quite out of date by the way. The Olympics have not been some amateur showcase for many years.
One of the undeniable truths of life, Communists, Fascists, Marxists and Democrats lie.
But now edwardsing won’t work and the cone of silence cannot descend.
Unless of course we elect too many Democrat Marxists, then all bets are off, the lies will come like a river.
I agree and this is not the only thing that causes prejudice, My daughter was competeing in band for her flute chair and one of the judges was one of the other girls private lessons teacher my daughter lost first chair by 1 point, played flawlessly and the other girl had to restart her music after she messed up and is supposed to have points taken off for doing so. My daughter being gracious accepted second chair with out disparaging word and congratulated the other girl for her win. (How I found out the judge was the girls private lesson teacher is the band teacher told me, he also told me my daughter was robbed of first chair) and so life goes on.
The “pixies” are trotted out to thrill the sexual deviants in the media and among those who govern the sport. I’ve noticed this for years. When women athletes don’t look like women, my blood runs cold.
My ten year old daughter was shocked by the Chinese gymnasts. “Dad, I look older than they do!”
It’s real simple. Either rescind the minimum age requirement and let the tots compete or enforce the rules and strip China’s medals.
I expect the IOC to do nothing while their commie hosts wine and dine them in Beijing. Cheers, comrades!
I would’ve said exactly that if that’s what I meant, but I didn’t, so shut up.
I do chuckle a bit when people like Bernie Schwartz are allowed to sell missile technology to China so they can better target the West. I do chuckle when old white business execs are seduced by sexy Chinese female operatives and give up intelligence. I do chuckle when a super silent Chinese sub pops up in the middle of US naval maneuvers and says, “Ni hao!”
In other words, I’m not going to get angry about it but I sure can laugh at the morons in charge.
The publicity is hurting China a lot more, than a gold medal helps them. What is getting exposed is the collectivist actions (hear than OBAMA). My Chinese coworker said it best. It is not about “perfection”. That is the problem they are facing in China. They are falling into the same trap as Hitler did with his vain quest for perfection.
Good column. The Olympics have turned into a pathetic joke, and despite these gold medals “won” by the Chinese, this particular Olympics is turning into a public relations disaster for them. Empty seats, discovered fakery in fireworks and lip synching, and now cheating so obvious that everybody knows it, no matter how much official cover it’s given by the IOC.
The boxing matches are the biggest joke of the whole game. That scoring system needs to be scrapped.
Following their current trend, the next Olympics will be held in North Korea.
If they cheat so blatantly in this way, how likely is it they cheat in other events too?
I just keep thinking that with China having the largest population of people, they can’t find “legal” competitors? They have to cheat? They mean to allow us to believe that out of how many people, they can’t find three or four more athletes of age?
MattMiller, I also live in Des Moines and Shawn has become my hero. She is a trouper and has tremendous grace.
Ask Chow what he learned in China besides gymnastics. That is why he came to the US. He can become a well-rounded person, not just an automaton. That is why he only lets Shawn practice 25 hours a week (not 50 as some US gymnast). Shawn is getting prepared for life and she still is one of the 2 best women gymnest in the world.
She does it the right way.
Has the Olympics ever been free of national politics?
THANKS.
THANK YOU MICHELLE.
I was SO hoping that someone would scream this injustice out to the world.
What does this, the ChiCom way, teach the children….children everywhere?
Cheating is cheating and it should not be rewarded.
It is NOT the destination, it is the journey that matters. Thats where we learn about honor and integrity.
In reference to CHINA and IOC: F*** me once shame on you, f*** me twice shame on you, F*** me thrice shame etc. etc. etc… Get the idea??? When the games were awarded to CHINA, I decided not to participate. The only thing I have watched is PHELPS swim for gold, and I watch WOMENS SOFTBALL… Caught the night when our little 16 yr old fell, saw the CHINESE “WOMEN’ on the side line… More like a 12 yr old to me, and two more could not have been more than 14 yrs… If the IOC does not want to ENFORCE the rules, change them back to when age was not considered in “WOMENS” GYMNASTICS…
I think it has more to do with pre-pubecent females having a better center of gravity that’s better for competition.
One of the American Commentators last night said He Kexin (?) “looks like a kid having a fun time in a playground” during the uneven bars.
I think this was a great jab at the IOC.
If these athletes are 16, then I’m Pol Pot.
Having been born in the US from German immigrant parents, and having had a swastika painted on our garage door when the parents moved into a house in Chicago, and having endured countless stereotypes of most Germans being portrayed as hapless German Nazis in the media over the past 4 decades, I’d have to offer one piece of advice to folks that feel offended by such stupidity:
Suck it up.
Ooops, maybe I am hapless. The above post was supposed to go into the Spanish athlete thread.
Can’t they do some sort of medical testing to gauge the age of Olympian contestants? They test them for just about everything else these days.
What do ChiComs and Libs have in common?
They’re both obsessed with what other people think of them.
Down deep, it all has to do with the perpetual conflict between their inherent sense of envy and their inherent sense of guilt.
Our girls are THE BEST! I’m so proud of them! GO USA!!!!!!!!!!!!
I feel sorry for the Chinese girls! They will have to live with this issue forever! The little girls/kids are innocent! They are kids! They were put in that situation, maybe even forced into it, by some nasty, dishonest adults! These adults should have their pictures all over the world for public embarrassment! Not those innocent kids!
I feel for them!
Wasn’t it because we did not wish to offend the Chinese that we didn’t boycott these Olympics in the first place?
I find it somewhat ironic that politicians are motivated more by fear than principle, especially since they aren’t the ones who put themselves on the line for their country. In this case, we have Olympians who aren’t getting a fair shake because politicians are too cowardly to do what’s right rather than what’s most painless for them politically. (The situation, as John Bolton points out, is the same in Georgia. Politicians would rather do what is less painful for themselves rather than what is right.)
Less rotational mass. Spin 9n your desk chair with your arms in… then stick them out… you slow the rotation with them out.
Small gymnasts can flip around with better ease. Plus… the floor exercise mat is smaller to them. Not many incidents of the Chinese children stepping of the mat in floor exercises. But several incidents of US women stepping off and getting a deduction.
This is not to say that these Chinese kids didn’t work extremely hard or aren’t gifted. They do however have an unfair advantage.
The way things are going, it seems that the Beijing Olympics are going to be remembered as the Fake Olympics. Fake fireworks, fake singing, fake crowds, fake “women.”
What would be the cherry on top of the charade would be a surprise appearance at the games by the Potemkin Candidate himself — if only he could be diverted long enough from doing the body-surfing videos that make Michelle feel faint…
There is absolutely nothing that China does that surprises me any more. They poison our children with their lead painted toys, poison our pets with their tainted dog food, poison their air with their horrible emission standards, poison their people’s minds with communism. We should not be surprised that they cheat at the Olympics. Communist countries should never ever be awareded the Olympic contract. Whether we admit it or not, the Olympics are political. Also, Pres. Bush should not have gone. Period.
If they condone such blatant cheating, just remove the age restriction and level the playing field. As it is, if an athlete is 15, almost 16 at the age cutoff, and misses this olympics, she has to wait 4 more years until she is almost 20 to compete. So having this age restriction favors kids born in the right year to turn 16 or 17 during an olympics season. So just eliminate the age requirement and level the playing field.
karenhasfreedom said:
If they condone such blatant cheating, just remove the age restriction and level the playing field.
I agree. Except they should put a minimum age restriction, such as 12. Otherwise, the Chinese will have 8 year-olds next time!
The more I hear about this, the more it just sounds like sour grapes. The US women had their chance but blew it with a fumbling, bumbling performance. It just wasn’t their day. That’s sports.
I am SHOCKED that Communists would lie and cheat!!!
It’s true, U.S. didn’t do well. But that doesn’t negate the age cheating issue.
My caption for the picture, rasie your hand if you are in violation of the rules.
The IOC are a disgrace. Integrity? That word isn’t in their collective vocabulary. The Olympics will certainly never be seen in the same light again. Thanks IOC for ruining what is probably THE last frontier where international political differences take a back seat to honest healthy competition.
True, it is not the IOC committing the cheating, but it is their inaction that condones it. Perhaps that makes them worse.
In other news, a North Korean shooter was disqualified for doping. Apparently, the commies think that cheating is the only way to beat those decadent capitalist pigs.
3 things:
1. My first thought while reading MM’s great post was gratitude that these touchy issues (likelihood of Chinese cheating) are being exposed via various media outlets but fear of how the so called ‘Fairness Doctrine’ will change how information gets out to us in our own country. It may be a stretch to make this association but, well, I just do.
2. My husband sells goods at trade shows attended by people from all over the globe. Two Asian fellows living in Canada (1 Chinese, 1 Japanese) and known to my husband, walked up to the table to look/handle etc. the items for sale. In the course of the usual price/payment dickering the Chinese fellow said of the other, “You can trust him, he’s Japanese and doesn’t know better. But I’m Chinese……….”. It’s interesting to hear one culture speak of another.
3.I guess the IOC has decided it’s easier to be a paper tiger. The UN, sure there are paper tigers all over the world. No surprises. Let’s see who the paper tiger will be with the Georgian/Russian conflict.
BTW, I would not care if the US was not even in the event – that is NOT the issue for me.
O.K., I have a question. If China pulled that one girl from singing their anthem because she had buck teeth, then why is this girl on the team?
If no one’s going to heed the rules, then throw them all away.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
I completely disagree with this uproar about these girls’ ages. This is a world championship. The Olympics are supposed to be about the best athletes in the world in a given sport.
These girls had to perform. They did amazing jobs and should be celebrated. Nobody else in the world has 14 year olds that could do these things. They need to get rid of the age rule. But I’m sure that the USA (which has outlawed dodge ball and anything that might have a winner or loser) created this rule to ‘protect the girls’.
These Chinese won the all around because they are the best team in the world of any age. Nadia Kominiche was 14 when she won. These Chinese athletes were absolutely amazing. Some of the tricks that He did were better than any I have seen by anyone of any age.
The Olympics is about Human achievement and accomplishment. It is about celebrating what human beings can do (without extra enhancement). These girls did nothing to enhance their performance except practice, practice, practice. They spent their entire lives on their craft and it showed. They were the best.
Nastia and Shawn are also better now than when they were younger. Nastia would not have won the all around at 14, but she won today. She is the best all around, not the younger girls.
It is about human achievement. More and more I find myself isolated from the ideas both here and on hot air. It might be time for me to move on. I’ve never been a fan of being so judgemental of issues that are out of my control.
Cheat your way to the top! Past olympics had cheating problems and future olympics will have cheating problems. Communist countries never played fair. The Chinese are ignoring Phelps’ gold medals as well. They even tried to suppress the injuries a dancer sustained while practicing for the opening ceremony. If a communist country can’t win by training hard, then cheating will occur.
Every time I think the IOC is going to grow a pair, it turns out that they’re still the eunuch of the international community. Something really stinks about the 2008 Olympic Gymnastics meet. For example, what is up with the inconsistent scoring? Last night, at least one of the Chinese girls got a score on the beam that was way over its start value and overall score potential. She had numerous balance breaks and didn’t make at least one required connection in her routine. What did the judges do? They gave her a score she didn’t deserve.
Then there was Shawn Johnson’s beam and uneven bars routines. Both were scored too low. One commentator remarked how it seemed that the judges didn’t like Johnson’s appearance on these two apparatuses. Is that what judging is now becoming in gymnastics? A modeling contest for teenage girls? What is this Miss USA?
Michelle, you are spot on about the Chinese girls. Their makeup was caked on and I’ve never seen so much glitter powder on the face of a female gymnast as I did these two. Our two women looked their age…. not the kind of prepubuscent clown show that the two Chinese girls put on.
When is somebody, perhaps the US team, going to at least call for an investigation? If the IFG can throw out a North Korean gymnast for being underage and a Vietnamese gymnast for doping, then they can certainly look into the ages of the Chinese women. I won’t hold my breath.
This incident is another example of why I don’t trust the international community anymore when it comes to sports or geopolitics.
Thanks MM,
I’m glad to see that someone is checking the Chinese checkers.
Whatever event I’m watching now, I find my self thinking–who is cheating this time. I am watching less and less each passing day. It’s beginning to leave a sour taste.
Thacker,
I agree the Olympics are about the best. But on a grander scale (as the Olympics are wont to be), it is also about the world stage and the participation of all the players (countries). If a set of rules is laid down and everyone concurs, then those rules should be adhered to otherwise, we get invasions of little countries like Georgia and campaigns like Hillary’s (after she suspended it).
It is naive to think that these outlaw countries are not using the Olympics and their tarnished winnings to keep the masses distracted from the real problems of their own governments. These distractions helped keep the Eastern Bloc in power for many years past their demise.
The rule is fairly new, and I think should be abandoned. There is no way to know someone’s age, particulary if a government decides to provide “documentation”. So let’s just go back to having the best show up. The performances have been remarkable. The two Americans last night were clearly the best and they came in 1 and 2. Sure, I grumbled when I thought the Chinese were over-scored and the Americans-underscored, but wow. When the pressure was on, those two rocked.
Here is another reason the world is falling into anarchy. What are we to believe anymore? I have seen past Olympics where the Chinese and Russians always won gold…everyone knew these professional athletes had been training since they were adopted by the State at the age of 3. These underaged Chinese girls are instruments of the State and have been totally brainwashed by now. This world will continuely slide down the preverbial hole until someone with authority stands up an puts and end to this…but me thinks this has gone on so long that its the norm…the world no longer has morals or ethics and PC lets them get away with it. I don’t know why we went to Beyjing in the first place.
I repeat, the issue is not who is the best in this case, but did they follow the rules like the rest of the performers? This is neither sour grapes or being judgemental. It is simply stating a fact. Although the U.S. team performed poorly that night, the fact remains that those Chinese children were under the age limit set up by the rules committee and for that reason should be disqualified. I repeat, this is not being judgemental, it is following the rules. I am getting weary of some of the comments I hear on other blogs about, “Well, they did a great job, so who cares how old or young they are? Whatever happened to fair play, honesty, integrity. Those words seem to be riduculed these days. Or ignored. Does the ends justify the means? Not in this instance.
Dear happyscrapper #90,
I concur…you use the terms fair play, honesty, integrity playing fair. Those words no longer have any meaning in our society. You can thank PC for their demise. I can add others like loyalty, majority rules, law, logic, reason, etc. These words mean nothing anymore.
Congrats to Nastia and Shawn, they were wonderful!
In addition to beating the cheating Chinese, I thought it was great that the Russian girl who emigrated to the US won. It must have really irritated the Russians that one of their best athletes is now an American and that his daughter beat them, especially while they’re trying to roll over Georgia.
We had an article in the local paper about athletes who had competed for more than one Olympic team. One woman, who competed for the Russians, then the Ukraine and now the US, said that she’s proud to be an American and that the US is the best country in the world. Spoken by someone who knows.
And the US rules in Swimming – go Michael Phelps and the rest of the US team!
Well, well, well. What have we here?
Looks like a Chinese female swimmer who won the gold that no one has ever heard of is now under suspicion of doping.
An excerpt I just saw on the home page of the NYT…
Slipped through? More like turned a blind eye! Say and do anything to “win”.
A country without a conscience.
All the IOC has to do is ask the OBAMESSIAH how to handle this and the world will gasp and exhale with great relief at his response. He is the Saviour and has all the answers to any problem.
So will the Chinese commies or the Islamic jihad be the first to explode a nuke over the USA? Or darn I forgot Russian commies are back in the game. I might add that any and all of them will be aided and abetted by the Democrat party of the USA when it happens.
They are all sooooooooo trustworthy on a daily basis.
They’re definitely not 16, but what are we complaining about exactly? They still beat everyone else. If anything, being too young is a disadvantage.
Just another reason why I don’t watch the Olympics anymore.
Just Win, Baby!!!
Don’t sweat the details.