China's 2000 Olympic team was stripped of its bronze medal after team member Dong Fangxiao was discovered to have been underage. Members of team USA will now receive a bronze medal 10 years later. This decision furthers the disaster that was the 2000 Olympic women's gymnastics competition.
I am more or less against age limits in sports. While I understand the concern of keeping young athletes healthy, there are already junior gymnasts doing Amanars and gymnasts not even age eligible for London doing full-in beam dismounts. Setting an age limit for senior international competition does not stop young gymnasts from doing really difficult skills, making them still injury-prone, more or less defying the point of an age limit rule.
That being said, China did break a rule and is being punished for it. Why is this not being enforced across the board? In 2002, Alexandra Marinescu, a member of Romania's 1996 Olympic team, admitted to being underage. Nothing has been done to punish the Romanians. Is racism at work? If the FIG wants to keep a silly rule in place, the consequences should at least be enforced unilaterally.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
China Stripped of Olympic Bronze
Labels:
Age Limits,
Alexandra Marinescu,
China,
Dong Fangxiao,
Gymnastics,
Sydney 2000
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Looks like you have a cause. GP
ReplyDeleteChina was punished because China got caught. Racism has nothing to do with it.
ReplyDeleteRomania was caught in 2002, which was within the statute of limitations, and nothing happened.
ReplyDelete