The controversy regarding the age of Chinese gymnasts at the Olympics continues.

China’s deputy sports minister has attributed the confusion about the age of one of its gold medalist gymnasts to a paperwork mistake during a team transfer.

At last year’s China’s Cities Games, Chinese officials decided to move He Kexin, who won two gold medals during the Beijing Games, from a local team to the national team. China’s deputy sports minister Cui Dalin said Sunday that it was during this transfer that a “misunderstanding appeared” about her age.

“Last year at the all-city competition, He Kexin moved from one team to another and during the process of registering during the move, there appeared this age discrepancy,” Cui said during a news conference.

“So it was the appearance of a mistake in the process of transferring teams that the misunderstanding appeared. However, I can right here accurately say that the ages of the members of our gymnastics delegation entirely conform to the requirements for participation in the Beijing Olympic Games.”

It was at last year’s China’s Cities Games that the Chinese government’s news agency, Xinhua, identified He as one of “10 big new stars” who made a splash at the event and gave her age as 13 in a Nov. 3, 2007 report.

Does anyone really believe this? Does anyone believe China wouldn’t cheat? They’ve never hidden their obsession with winning gold medals.

Posted by Gerardo Orlando as Culture, Sports at 9:10 pm

In a sad story, Chinese hero Liu Xiang had to pull out of the 100m hurdles due to an injury.

China suffered a huge setback Monday to its hopes of winning gold on the track when superstar Liu Xiang sensationally pulled out of the 110m hurdles, taking the gloss off the hosts’ best Olympics ever.

The country’s 1.3 billion people had been banking on Liu to shine, but he has been troubled by a foot tendon injury and was clearly in pain when he lined up for his race and pulled up before the first hurdle in a false start.

The dejected star, one of the faces of the Beijing Olympics along with basketballer Yao Ming, limped down the tunnel of the Bird’s Nest stadium to a stunned silence from the 91,000 watching fans.

Liu, the defending champion, has been absent from international competition for most of the year and his coach Sun Haiping said the hurdler has been suffering from the Achilles’ heel injury for six to seven years.

Posted by Gerardo Orlando as Sports at 3:11 pm

The big controversy this week in women’s gymnastics revolves around the ages of Chinese gymnasts. Many observers have charged that the gymnasts are clearly under the age minimum of 16 years old during the calendar year of the Olympics.

I watched the events where the Chinese women won the gold. They were magnificant, though it was absolutely clear that several team members were not 16.

Now, the AP has uncovered news stories in China about several China team members suggesting that they were under the age minimum. This is not a surprise. China is obsessed with winning Olympic gold. Any news of China cheating is not a surprise.

Posted by Gerardo Orlando as Culture, Domestic Politics, Sports at 4:49 pm

China kicked off the 2008 Olympic games with a spectacular opening ceremony.

Posted by Gerardo Orlando as Culture, Sports at 3:17 pm

Believe it or not, China has an entire weather-modification department devoted to trying to stop rain for the opening night of the Olympics. Will they succeed?

Posted by Gerardo Orlando as Domestic Politics, Economy, Energy, Environment, Sports at 7:53 pm

Pretty lame.

China will censor the Internet used by foreign media during the Olympics, an organising committee official confirmed Wednesday, reversing a pledge to offer complete media freedom at the games.

Posted by Gerardo Orlando as Uncategorized, Censorship, Human Rights, Sports at 11:24 am

China stunned the US team by winning the gold medal in the world championships:

The Chinese women pulled off a stunner Wednesday, getting a second straight great performance from Zhang Nan and Pang Panpan to win their first world gymnastics title and give their country a sweep of the team gold.

The men won Tuesday. Not a bad way to set the stage with 22 months until the Olympics in Beijing.

Posted by Gerardo Orlando as Sports at 10:31 pm

Amnesty International is keeping the pressure on the Chinese government to improve human rights leading up to the 2008 Olympics:

With 687 days to go before the start of the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government needs to work quickly if it is to fulfil its promise to the International Olympic Committee to improve human rights ahead of the 2008 Games.

In its latest assessment of the Chinese government’s performance in four benchmark areas of human rights ahead of the Olympics, Amnesty International found that its overall record remained poor. There has been some progress in reforming the death penalty system, but in other crucial areas the government’s human rights record has deteriorated.

Posted by Gerardo Orlando as Human Rights, Sports at 1:53 pm