Gymnastics Blog

The Herald Sun is reporting that an Australian elementary school has banned students from doing all forms of gymnastics during recess. That includes cartwheels, handstands, somersaults and anything gymnastics-related, on the grass or anywhere else.

One of the moms in the article says the principal told her that gymnastics was "medium risk level 2," and dangerous to children.

Truly, this is one of the craziest rules I've heard in a long time. Aren't there adults supervising the children? Couldn't those adults re-direct children towards other activities if the moves they are trying don't look safe?

(And as a side note, I would never have made it out of elementary school if this rule had been in place, and I can think of a few friends of mine who'd be in the same boat.)

It sounds to me like the school has some great fear of a lawsuit because of an injured child.

What do you think?

The full article from the Herald Sun

Despite rumors that the IOC and FIG investigation was complete, the FIG has issued the following statement about the controversy regarding the age of several of the Chinese women:

Beijing (CHN) BTG FIG Office, August 23, 2008: The Executive Committee members of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) held an extraordinary meeting today August 23, to discuss the age of Chinese female gymnasts.

Further to the communication released yesterday regarding the age of gymnasts who competed here in Beijing, the FIG continues to gather information.

The Federation has received a number of documents from the Chinese Gymnastics Federation, including passports, identity cards and family booklets. All information is in Chinese and the IF is making as thorough analysis as possible of the papers.

This process may take some time, but in due course, the FIG will make a full report of our findings to the International Olympic Committee.

IOC president Jacques Rogge, in an interview just aired with Bob Costas on NBC, said that he expects an official ruling ruling to be announced in the next several hours. He also stated, "There is only one sanction: disqualification" for athletes who break the rules, meaning that if the Chinese women are found to be underage, their medals won (team gold, He Kexin's bars gold, Yang Yilin's bars bronze and all-around bronze) are all in jeopardy.

Finally, he asserted his belief that the age rules are necessary, saying it protects young people from overtraining and injury.

Evgeniya Kanaeva Photo © Harry How / Getty Images

Russia's Evgeniya Kanaeva took the all-around gold in rhythmic gymnastics in dominating fashion, earning the highest score on each apparatus. The eighteen year-old Kanaeva is often confused with compatriot Alina Kabaeva, the 2004 Rhythmic All-Around Champion who's been rumored to have had an affair with Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin.

Inna Zhukova of Belarus was second, while World Champion Anna Bessonova (Ukraine) won bronze, the same medal she earned at the Athens Olympics.

Group competition, the final gymnastics event of the Olympics, will be held tomorrow.

Final Results:
1. Evgeniya Kanaeva, Russia 75.500
2. Inna Zhukova, Belarus 71.925
3. Anna Bessonova, Ukraine 71.875
4. Olga Kapranova, Russia 71.700
5. Aliya Yussupova, Kazakhstan 69.80

He Kexin Photo © Clive Brunskill / Getty Images

The IOC told the The Epoch Times today that it has asked the FIG to further investigate the ages of the Chinese Olympic gymnasts.

According to The Epoch Times, Emmanuelle Moreau, the IOC Media Relations Manager in Beijing, wrote in an email that there were, "additional elements on this subject", and that “the IOC has therefore asked the International Gymnastics Federation to endeavour to find out more. We understand they are doing so immediately.”

Last week I said that I didn't think the IOC would re-investigate the case after earlier declaring that the gymnasts' passports were in order. It's thought that what convinced the IOC to act was the evidence published in a blog by Stryde Hax.

Mike Walker, the author of the blog, found bars gold medalist He Kexin's birth date listed as 01/01/1994 in two excel documents created by the General Administration of Sport of China. She would have to have a 1992 birth year to be eligible to compete in the Games.

It will be very interesting to see what comes of all of this.

The age limit rules in gymnastics
More about the controversy

Lu Chunlong Photo © Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images

China's Lu Chunlong took gold in the men's trampoline, in a tight final round of competition. He beat out Canadian Jason Burnett 41.00-40.70. China's Dong Dong won the bronze with a score of 40.60. While Burnett had a 16.80 difficulty score, Lu had only 16.20 but made up the difference with superior execution marks.

China has now won 11 Olympic golds in gymnastics: seven in men's gymnastics, two in women's gymnastics, and two in trampoline.

Final Results:
1. Lu Chunlong, China 41.00
2. Jason Burnett, Canada 40.70
3. Dong Dong, China 40.60

Shawn Johnson Photo © Cameron Spencer / Getty Images

After a frustrating couple days of event finals, the third day brought some redemption for a few gymnasts, and -- finally -- no tie scores. On beam, American Shawn Johnson won her first gold of the Olympics, besting teammate Nastia Liukin by two tenths of a point. This amazing duo won a combined nine medals during the Olympics -- and Liukin's total of five medals ties Mary Lou Retton and Shannon Miller for the most won by a US gymnast in a single Games.

The bronze on beam went to China's Cheng Fei, who was surely looking for a comeback after mistakes on floor and vault on the first day of event finals.

On high bar, medal favorite Fabian Hambuechen was a little off, but still earned bronze. Zou Kai of China won his second individual gold with a jam-packed routine (7.2 A score -- .3 higher than any other gymnast) that included a full-twisting Jaegar. And, unexpectedly, American Jonathan Horton snuck into the silver medal spot with a newly-added layout Kolman.

The parallel bars title went to Li Xiaopeng of China, with South Korea's Yoo Won-Chul earning silver and Anton Fokin of Uzbekistan winning bronze.

In the end, the Chinese men captured seven of the eight possible gold medals (team, all-around, floor, pommel horse, rings, parallel bars, high bar). Total domination!

Final Results from Day Three:
Beam:
1. Shawn Johnson, USA 16.225
2. Nastia Liukin, USA 16.025
3. Cheng Fei, China 15.950

Parallel Bars:
1. Li Xiaopeng, China 16.450
2. Yoo Won-Chul, South Korea 16.250
3. Anton Fokin, Uzbekistan 16.200

High Bar:
1. Zou Kai, China 16.200
2. Jonathan Horton, USA 16.175
3. Fabian Hambuechen, Germany 15.875

He Wenna Photo © Julian Finney / Getty Images

China's He Wenna added to her country's impressive medal tally with a gold in women's trampoline. Only fourth at the 2007 Worlds, He moved up to gold with the second-highest difficulty score (14.5) and solid execution marks across the board.

2000 Olympic Champion and my gold-medal pick Irina Karavaeva of Russia went for broke with the highest difficulty of the meet (14.7), but lost control on her final move, a triple-twisting double layout, and ended up fifth.

American qualifier Erin Blanchard placed 13th in qualifying, missing the top eight ranking necessary to make finals.

Final Results:
1. He Wenna, China 37.80
2. Karen Cockburn, Canada 37.00
3. Yekaterina Khilko, Uzbekistan 36.90

The Olympic Bars Medalists Photo © Clive Brunskill / Getty Images

Though a tiebreak determined the silver and bronze medals during the pommel horse competition yesterday, it was today's event finals that really brought the tiebreak rule into the spotlight.

On uneven bars, medal favorites Nastia Liukin and He Kexin tied for first with a 16.725, but ultimately it was He who was given gold based on the tiebreak rules, which average the execution deductions for each gymnast.

On men's vault, 2007 World Champion Leszek Blanik of Poland and France's Thomas Bouhail also tied -- with Blanik winning the tiebreak (this time, the gymnast with the highest scoring single vault), and the gold.

The rule to break ties has been in effect since after the 1996 Olympics, and was at the direction of the IOC, according to FIG president Bruno Grandhi.

He told NBCOlympics.com, "For me, it's not correct. When two people arrive on the same level, they are champions. But this competition doesn't belong to us. It is the IOC's."

What do you think? Should a rule exist to break ties?

Final Results from Day Two:
Women's Bars:
1. He Kexin, China 16.725
2. Nastia Liukin, USA 16.725
3. Yang Yilin, China 16.650

Men's Rings:
1. Chen Yibing, China 16.600
2. Yang Wei, China 16.425
3. Alexander Vorobiov, Ukraine 16.325

Men's Vault:
1. Leszek Blanik, Poland, 16.537
2. Thomas Bouhail, France 16.537
3. Anton Golotsutskov, Russia 16.475

The Olympic Floor Medalists Photo © Jed Jacobsohn / Getty Images

The first day of event finals is complete, with many surprising results. Most disappointing was Chinese superstar Cheng Fei, the women's favorite on both vault and floor. Cheng nailed her first vault (an Amanar) but fell on her namesake vault (the Cheng -- a front handspring half on, front 1 1/2 off), to win the bronze medal. On floor, Cheng botched a triple turn and a simple front full and placed out of the medals.

Still, there were some very exciting moments as well. China's Xiao Qin, the three-time World Champion on pommel horse, finally won Olympic gold as well. On vault, North Korea's Hong Un Jong was the first female to win Olympic gold for her country with the same two vaults that Cheng performed. Oksana Chusovitinia, who at age 33 is competing in her fifth Olympics -- an unheard-of feat in women's gymnastics -- won the silver.

On floor, Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin went 2-3 respectively with great routines, but were edged out by Romania's Sandra Izbasa. Still, both Liukin and Johnson have now earned three Olympic medals.

The other two Americans competing were both shut out of the medals. Alicia Sacramone hit both of her vaults (Yurchenko double twist, front handspring 1 1/2) but ended up fourth. On the men's side, Sasha Artemev fell off pommel horse and finished seventh.

Final Results:
Men's Floor:
1. Zou Kai, China 16.050
2. Gervasio Deferr, Spain 15.775
3. Anton Golotsutkov, Russia 15.725

Men’s Pommel Horse:
1. Xiao Qin, China 15.875
2. Filip Ude, Croatia 15.725
3. Louis Smith, Great Britain 15.725*

Women’s Vault:
1. Hong Un Jong, North Korea 15.650
2. Oksana Chusovitina, Germany 15.575
3. Cheng Fei, China 15.562

Women’s Floor:
1. Sandra Izbasa, Romania 15.650
2. Shawn Johnson, USA 15.500
3. Nastia Liukin, USA 15.425

*Tie scores are broken based on execution (B score) deductions

Jiang Yuyuan Photo © Julian Finney / Getty Images

It seems that just about every major American news outlet has now covered the controversy surrounding the gold medalist Chinese women's team. In question is the age of uneven bar favorite He Kexin, as well as all-around bronze medalist Yang Yilin and fellow teammate Jiang Yuyuan.

It's been reported that all three have had younger birth dates listed in past Chinese competitions, but that their current passports all show that they are old enough to compete. Under the current age rules, a gymnast must turn 16 by the end of the calendar year in order to participate in the Olympics.

It's important to note that these rules have always been controversial, and there have been numerous cases in which a gymnast has admitted after the fact that her age was falsified, and a few in which the country has actually been caught.

Best known is the case of 1991 World Bars Champion Kim Gwang-Suk. The North Korean federation was penalized after it was discovered that Kim's age had been listed as 15 for three consecutive years. Kim was allowed to keep her medals, but North Korea was banned from the 1993 Worlds.

Though the evidence does appear credible that the Chinese birth years are being adjusted, the IOC and FIG have already ruled that the passports are in order and that there will be no further investigation. I guess it's possible they will bow to the pressure the media is imposing, but it doesn't seem likely.

Of course the Chinese should follow the rules that everyone else follows, but I don't think anyone will dispute that China did the best gymnastics on the day of the team final. If anything, these age questions should force the FIG to re-examine the age limit. In my opinion there shouldn't be an age limit if it's not enforceable.

What do you think of all the media coverage? I think it's getting in the way of all the amazing gymnastics we've seen.

POLL: What should the age limit be?

Articles About the Age Controversy:
TIME magazine
The New York Times
The Associated Press
CBC Sports