oChaos.Haze wrote:
DeathBecomesYu wrote:
Here is a link to the story:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/n … s&cid=and for some of the people in this forum who said that it is just sour grapes or that nobody said anything until the medals were handed out...here is a quote from the article.
"Questions about the ages of at least three of the athletes on China's team have swirled for months."
Did you get that......MONTHS!!
As I said before...when the practices started more teams started to question the ages and it wasn't coming from just the Americans, the IOC even double checked the passports...which anyone knows is quite useless in this scenario.
I do know that the age limit was raised previously...I do not know why it was raised but it is a rule and all teams should stand by it. If not, then we might as well let all track runners run in other lanes (2 runners eliminated in the 200m men's final for just stepping on the lines), we might as well let the javeline throwers throw at any point....no fouls and we should allow men to play on the women's volleyball and basketball teams. Some people in here think it is fine to bend the rules and so what if China used younger people....hmmm....that is stupid and shows the character of some people in here. The olympics are supposed to be about coming together for sport and sportsmanship, to put aside differences and compete and to have fair play. If you can't handle it and have to cheat, then that person and his/ her coaches are idiots no matter what country they are from.
While I have said over and over that I realize they broke the rules, your comparisons are rather lack luster. Every comparison you drew gains an advantage. Like I said, China should definitely catch some shit for this, but the little girls who just did what they were told, should be left alone.
My comparisons drew gains of advantage??? No kidding....that was why I made those comparisons. If you think that China did what they did was NOT to gain an advantage then you are naive. Of course they used underage kids to gain an advantage, why else do it? Like I said before, there are countries with younger gymnasts whom I am sure would be competing now if it weren't for the age rule. I read up a little on why the age limit was raised from 14 to 15 and then 15 to 16 in 1997. It was raised because of the risk of serious injury to younger gymnasts. The apparatuses are set up with specific rules and of course younger gymnasts, because of their size put themselves at a higher risk of serious injury....or is that okay just to win a medal?
Bottom line is this and if you read the articles and listen to the actual complaints, no one is asking these kids to give up or lose their medals. They simply don't want this to happen again and want the people in charge to either enforce its own rules or put the age limit back where it was. Simply enforce the rules!! Now, if the decision comes down to these kids losing their medals, then don't be mad at the people who brought up the issue or enforced the rules, the blame should lay at the feet of the perpetrators....the Chinese government!
In these Olympics, as in many past, people have lost their medals because of cheating or even bending the rules (track runners stepping on lines, doped athletes and now I have heard that there are 5 horses in equestrian that have been found doped). The bottom line is that you CANT pick and choose who to punish and when to enforce the rules. If someone is proven to be cheating (these kids know how old they are) then they must stand by the decision of the people enforcing the rules...how hard is that to understand? Sorry, but right is right and wrong is wrong and these kids will have to learn it the hard way. You can't tell me that these kids don't understand what was done and didn't knowingly go along?
It is one thing for countries, in the past, to dope their athletes without their knowledge...as some have claimed. But to change these kids ages so they could gain an advantage or put out a better team is another. They all knew what was going on. These kids have been in the sytem since 3 years old, doing this day in and day out. To be honest, it says a lot about China that they feel they have to do what they did. It is hard for me to believe that they couldn't have fielded a great team with legitimate aged athletes. After all, the talent pool is from 1.3 billion chinese and the training starts as soon as 3 years old with these kids barely having a life outside of these sports. Obviously, they need to find another system because they still felt they had to cheat the rules.
In my opinion, I could care less if the medals or taken away or not.....but the principles should stand and whatever decision is made, the consequences should be accepted. If the IOC or whoever makes the final decision doesn't enforce its own rules then why even have the games, why even have an enforcing body like the IOC. Why even have rules? Everyone going into the olympics knows the rules and knows what could happen if they aren't followed, sorry, even these kids know....so we will see.