The info I stated has been confirmed by many sources, not just in the U.S. I don't know what news sources you read, but I've followed the Olympics pretty seriously in all kinds of media, mostly American, and not once have I seen even a single person suggest that these gymnasts are "8 or 9" years old. (In fact, I'd appreciate it if you'd mention here just what your source for that info is, since you're making that accusation.) Maybe the sources you got your information from are commentators, not journalists. Yes, the Chinese gymnasts perfectly very well, but that's not the point at all. The point is that Oympians take an oath to compete according to the rules, and if they are not following the rules, they are cheaters and do not deserve their medals, no matter how impressive their performances may be. In fact, younger gymnasts (14 Versus 16) have an advantage because they weigh less and their bodies are more limber, so they have a better chance of having an impressive performance. If a runner sets a world record in an amazing performance but it turns out she used banned substances, would you still award her the gold medal? That's the issue here: did they athletes follow the rules. The U.S. runner Marion Jones had some truly amazing Olympic performances in a past Olympics. But then she was found to have cheated by using performance enhancers. She was stripped of her medals, as she should have been. I didn't say anything about the judging, so I don't know what you're referring to. Also, your blurb makes it sound like it's been clearly established that the Chinese gymnasts are of legal age, but the article you link to says something quite different: The IOC president said he recieved documents from the Chinese : "“They have received the documents, and at first sight it seems to be OK.” Now that doesn't sound to me like a ringing endorsement of the documents' accuracy! The article also says: "Questions about the Chinese gymnasts’ ages have been swirling for months...", "Even though the competition had long since ended and the games were almost done, the IOC asked the FIG last week to check into the issue one more time..." I just think you should have referred to the legitimate concerns surrounding this issue and found out the facts before throwing around words like sensationalism, carping, and sour grapes.

I remember while watching the women's gymnastics (and I watched almost all of it) the commentators were talking a lot about how the scoring was not accurate. They were quick to note that the judges were from countries that have little or no gymnastic experience. If there can't be judges from the countries that are main competitors then we are stuck with judges that really aren't as skilled as say a Romanian judge or Russian judge. That might be why a lot of the scores were a bit off. The scoring is completely effed up anyway. We need the perfect 10 back and the way they break a tie makes no sense at all. Hopefully things will change for next time. And there was just cause for questioning the ages of the Chinese gymnasts. It's not like a guy from CNN was sitting home watching and said, "Hey, they look 14." and made up a story. I found myself actually feeling bad when the Chinese didn't win because I know how hard they have to train starting at 3 years old or so. The same with other countries. Angel RobinetteDesign.com http://robinettedesign.blogspot.com

Mama, I think you're way off base on a couple of things... "For me those little girls from China were clear winners, age 14 or 16, American media was not." 1. As others have said, the age rules (and other rules) must be followed, or else the competitors are cheating and are subject to disqualification. So no, if the athletes are 14 they are NOT winners, because they are cheating and taking an unfair advantage. (By the way, the age limit was put in place to protect younger athletes from the extreme stresses of training on their young bodies.) 2. You make it sound like this controversy was created by the U.S. media -- it was not. You're not mentioning the fact that this controversy began when the Chinese national sports body posted information on the gymnasts that gave their birthdates -- dates that would have made them too young to be eligible for the 2008 Oympics. The Chinese authorities deleted the documents, but not before some reporters and other people had saved the Web pages. Both the IOC and the international gymnastics federation have been looking into this age controversy, and they were doing so months before the Beijing Games began. So you see, it's NOT the U.S. media that created this fuss (in fact, media around the world has also been reporting on it). It's the Chinese sports body that created the issue by posting dates on the Internet that showed a number of their athletes to be underage, then removing that information, then posting data that showed them to be of legal age. Anyone would have good reason to find that suspicious, Also, a Chinese gymnast who won two bronze medals in the 2000 Olympics has said that she was 14 years old at the time she competed. So there is a history of the Chinese playing these underage games at least once before that we know of.