Chinese gymnasts old enough for Olympics, official says
28/7/2008 17:17
A Chinese official said today the Chinese Olympic gymnasts are old enough
for the Beijing Games.
Zhang Peiwen, spokesman of the Chinese Gymnastics
Association, said they registered the Olympians' ages according to their ID
cards or other legal certificates.
International media organizations
including the New York Times and Agence France-Presse have raised questions
about the athletes' ages.
AFP said in a today's report that Chinese gymnasts
He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan might not yet be 16, the minimum age for Olympic
eligibility, citing Internet information.
"Our Olympic squads were recently
named and we registered their ages according to their ID cards or other legal
certificates presented by their regional gymnastics associations, which show
they all are over the minimum age for the Olympics," said Zhang.
Gymnastics
rules prohibit any gymnast born after December 31, 1992 from competing in the
Beijing Games.
Zhang noted the age of the Chinese Olympic gymnasts had been
certified by the sport governing body FIG.
Jiang, registered as born in
November 1, 1991, won floor and uneven bars in the World Cup in Shanghai last
year while He, registered as 16, competed in Cottubus and Doha this
year.
Zhang said that he had not seen the erroneous online data that
international media have found, but doubted the reliability of Internet
information.
"There are a lot of online information and reports," he said.
"We haven't got the time to check every piece, but everybody knows not all of
them are reliable," he said.
Xinhua
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