16 and Over...

Since I've been watching the Olympics the last few days, I have become overly intrigued with the controversy surrounding the Chinese women gymnasts. The rule in gymnastics (and apparently this is a fairly new rule) is that gymnasts must be 16 years of age or older. The problem everyone in the world (other than China) seem to be having is that the Chinese women do not look sixteen. Chinese officials insist their gymnasts are 16. The FIG says their passports state they are 16 and passports are considered official documents. The IOC doesn't seems to think there is a problem either.*

I have been reading some news articles about this for a couple days now, and I have found it very interesting that the "experts" who have been interviewed have all basically come to the same three conclusions as to why they don't believe the Chinese "women" are 16:

1 - By the time a girl reaches age 16, her body has already started changing. They develop hips, gain weight, grow breasts, etc. None of those growth changes seem to have taken place in any of the girls on the Chinese team (growing breasts may not be a valid argument because some girls don't grow them. Trust me, I know).

2 - One of the girls is 4'6" tall and weighs only 68 pounds. If that is a 16 year old girl, she should be a very sick one. (My 7 year old nephew is 4'2" tall and probably weighs 60 pounds).

3 - Younger girls can spin a lot faster because they don't have hips to slow them down. Because of this, younger girls perform on the balance beam and uneven bars the best. Funny how the Chinese women happen to be the strongest in those two events!

I don't know. I look at these girls and think there is absolutely no way they could be sixteen. But I also know that the Chinese are generally a smaller build and so it's very possible that they just look younger than they are. All I do know is that this needs to be investigated because if these girls really aren't 16 and they get away with cheating now, then this will always be a problem.

*Can someone please tell me why Chinese athletes even need passports since the Olympics are in their own country? And the other thing I don't understand is how do they put their birthdate on the passport without a valid birth certificate. And if they used birth certificates to apply for passports, then why can't they just whip those out and prove their real age? Does China issue birth certificates?