The Daily O’Collegian

Jeff Campbell

Chain reaction of leader response

The U.S. is a competitive nation. If we aren’t competing against someone else, we are competing against ourselves. Each individual wants to be better than the other. Our athletes are some of our greatest heros, and we like to think our world-class athletes are better than the rest of the world.

When we don’t win, someone must be cheating.

Before they headed off to Beijing, President of U.S. Gymnastics Steve Penney called the women’s gymnastics team “talented and experienced.” It had taken gold at the 2007 world gymnastics championships, even after costly mistakes on the balance beam. Going into the team all-around competition on Aug. 13, experts and commentators favored the six American women to win gold.

Three days earlier, the world watched the qualifying rounds. It was difficult not to notice the Chinese women’s gymnastics team. Difficult mainly because three of the six “women” appeared to be about 12 years old – 4 years younger than the regulation age of 16.

When questioned by The Associated Press, He Kexin confidently responded “My real age is 16.” Even when asked about her Chinese zodiac sign, Yang Yilin swiftly answered “monkey,” the sign for the year 1992. Both the International Gymnastics Federation and the IOC confirmed that He, Yang, and a third teammate, Jiang Yuyuan are 16.

Fine. Team USA is favored, so who cares if members from the China team look a little young?

Fast forward to Aug. 13, the day of the finals. Both teams were off to a strong start. Then, during her balance beam routine, U.S. gymnast Alicia Sacramone fell. Shaken, she began her floor exercise, only to fall on her behind midway through the routine. Adding to the mistakes were Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin, who stepped out of bounds on their respective floor exercises.

Meanwhile, the Chinese performed with only a few minor mistakes. He, Yang, and Jiang outperformed everyone on the uneven bars. Finishing on floor, knowing gold was well within reach, the Chinese gave high-energy, near-flawless routines.

Suddenly, it’s not OK for the Chinese to look young.

Journalists dug deep to find proof that the Chinese were too young to compete. Hannah Beech wrote an article for Time magazine’s Web page in an attempt to reveal the truth. Her research had led her to a biography where He’s birthdate was given as Jan. 1, 1994. A competition roster had Jiang’s birthdate listed as Oct. 1, 1993. Finally, a state-run Web site containing a biography for Yang showed her birthdate as being Aug. 26, 1993.

14, 14 and 14. No, that’s not a typo. According to what Beech found, none of the girls were eligible to compete. The New York Times had already questioned Zhang Hongliang, a Chinese gymnastics official, about these inconsistencies, and he assured reporters mistakes had been made, and the passports shown to officials were correct.

Still, U.S. gymnastics fans and Olympic followers were in an uproar. While we ranted and raved stateside, and media personnel discussed the issue in newsrooms, on TV and in print, Team USA and its coaches took it all in stride.

U.S. Team Coordinator Martha Karolyi told the AP that the U.S. team is “just as good as China. But we made mistakes. They didn’t make mistakes.”

As for the team, they’re teaching all of us a lesson in sportsmanship, and the pride of doing your best. Johnson told People’s Cynthia Wang, “[China] had a great meet, a great day, and they deserve that medal.” Liukin said “The gold medal would definitely have been better, but we just won an Olympic medal – so any color is amazing.”

Sacramone erased all doubts of Chinese age qualifications by saying that they “look young but I don’t look 20, so I’m not one to judge.”

If they can believe it, we can believe it. We can also join them in celebrating an Olympic silver medal that is nothing short of – you guessed it – amazing.