Revisiting Past Age Falsifications

[irichluck21]

Yang Yun admitted she was under age in Sydney.

We also know that several of 2008 China was underage: Definitely He Kexin was underage we all saw her listed as junior in 2007 with 1994 year of birth, Deng LinLin, Jiang Yuyuan, and Yang Yilin were all possibly underage.

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

The statute of limitations might be 10 years now, WADA updated the doping statutes to 10 years in 2021, I imagine any age falsifications would follow suit, even if it isn’t the jurisdiction of WADA.

 

[MaryClare]

Cheng Fei 2004?

 

[RedBirdie]

Every. Single. Chinese. Gymnast. They all had 1 or 2 years added. Zhang Nan has a 1986 DOB but a couple of different people told me she was 1987 or even 1988. But her age was falsified so she could compete at at 2002 worlds.

Basically, any Chinese gymnast from 1990ish to 2008 competed under a false age.

 

[phoenix7]

Wasnt' there a rumour that Kim Gwan Suk was only 10 or 11 at 89 Worlds .

North Korea took a particularly flamboyant approach to gymnasts' ages. As well as entering sixteen-year-old Kim Gwan Suk as a sixteen year old over multiple years, they had Hong Su-Jong, possessor of at least three dates of birth and a twin sister, Un-Jong, three years her junior.

I like to think they have a research lab somewhere in North Korea dedicated to the eternal question of how far you can go before FIG can't shrug it off anymore.

 

[MaryClare]

North Korea once sent someone to the junior friendship competition (druzhba) who had competed at the universiade the year before on a completely different date of birth.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

North Korea once sent someone to the junior friendship competition (druzhba) who had competed at the universiade the year before on a completely different date of birth.

I was just about to mention that! Honestly, if you're going to cheat you might as well be entertaining with it. Go big or go home.

Re Cheng Fei, looks that way. She posted a birthday cake photo in I think 07 with the wrong number of candles, which wasn't noticed at the time but did come out in 08 when everything was being picked over. I had a copy of it for ages actually, lost to the mists of time now.

 

[MaryClare]

I was just about to mention that! Honestly, if you're going to cheat you might as well be entertaining with it. Go big or go home.

Re Cheng Fei, looks that way. She posted a birthday cake photo in I think 07 with the wrong number of candles, which wasn't noticed at the time but did come out in 08 when everything was being picked over. I had a copy of it for ages actually, lost to the mists of time now.

Poor Mrs Cheng has probably just left one candle sitting on the kitchen counter by mistake

 

[eanda]

Should anyone want to give it another count, here's the photo.

 

[MaryClare]

Every. Single. Chinese. Gymnast. They all had 1 or 2 years added. Zhang Nan has a 1986 DOB but a couple of different people told me she was 1987 or even 1988. But her age was falsified so she could compete at at 2002 worlds.

Basically, any Chinese gymnast from 1990ish to 2008 competed under a false age.

That’s wild. Imagine falsifying a gymnasts age to compete at a mid quad individual worlds in Hungary .

With ex Soviet gymnasts, you find surprisingly few born in a year where they’d turn senior the year after an Olympics.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

That’s wild. Imagine falsifying a gymnasts age to compete at a mid quad individual worlds in Hungary .

With ex Soviet gymnasts, you find surprisingly few born in a year where they’d turn senior the year after an Olympics.

I will never forget reading an article in January 09 about the new seniors coming through, and the author innocently remarked that China didn't have any this year!

 

[QuietColours]

I will never forget reading an article in January 09 about the new seniors coming through, and the author innocently remarked that China didn't have any this year!

I was thinking of that same article!

 

[RedBirdie]

That’s wild. Imagine falsifying a gymnasts age to compete at a mid quad individual worlds in Hungary .

With ex Soviet gymnasts, you find surprisingly few born in a year where they’d turn senior the year after an Olympics.

That was my thought as well! The first person who told me that essentially prefaced it with "you won't believe this, its absolute insane, but it's an example of just how widespread the cheating is....."

 

[MaryClare]

That was my thought as well! The first person who told me that essentially prefaced it with "you won't believe this, its absolute insane, but it's an example of just how widespread the cheating is....."

I can believe it, I’ve heard rumours of regional head coaches falsifying gymnasts for the national games and that’s often where it begins.

 

[irichluck21]

Here is an article I saved it goes into depth about the 2008 China WAG.

Baidu cache offers more evidence of underage Chinese gymnasts

Gumshoe hackers have found cached data in Chinese search engine Baidu that …

arstechnica.com

 

[MaryClare]

Here is an article I saved it goes into depth about the 2008 China WAG.

Baidu cache offers more evidence of underage Chinese gymnasts

Gumshoe hackers have found cached data in Chinese search engine Baidu that …

arstechnica.com

Why did USAG never properly pursue it?

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Why did USAG never properly pursue it?

Not much point.

The official documentation from the Chinese state said He Kexin was born on 01/01/92, and that was ultimately going to outweigh everything. It's not like either the FIG or IOC ever gave a shit anyway. The only time any action was ever taken was when multiple DOBs were used.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Also I love that this is in the Gymnastics Nostalgia forum. The good old days!