He Kexin - Age Controversy

Age Controversy

See also: Concerns and controversies over the 2008 Summer Olympics

During and after the 2008 Summer Olympics, He's actual age became the subject of controversy. Her passport and the Chinese Olympic Committee list her date of birth as January 1, 1992, which would make her 700116000000000000016 years, 7002220000000000000220 days old during the 2008 Olympic opening ceremonies and therefore old enough to compete. However, before the 2008 Olympics, He's age was reported by the Chinese press, including the state news service, Xinhua, as 13 in 2007 and 14 in 2008 in news articles that were later taken off-line. Her birth date has also been given on several registration lists of the General Administration of Sport in China, the Chengdu Sports Bureau and other registration sources as "1994-1-1" (January 1, 1994), which would have made her 700114000000000000014 years, 7002220000000000000220 days old during the Opening ceremonies, and therefore too young to participate. Chinese officials maintained that He was in fact old enough to compete, stating that Xinhua had not confirmed He's age before filing their news reports and attributing the discrepancies in the reporting He's age to faulty paperwork when He was transferred from Beijing to Hubei. He herself, speaking to reporters after the 2008 Olympic team final, said, "my real age is 16. I don't care what other people say". In another interview He Kexin stated "I don't get upset because I have answered this question many times, there's no need to explain anymore". On August 2, the International Olympic Committee stated that they would not investigate the discrepancy in He's reported age because the FIG's own verification system was sufficient proof of eligibility. The FIG, in responding to the situation, stated that they would not ask for additional proof of age beyond the passport already supplied by Chinese officials.

However, the matter continued to be a source of controversy among members of the gymnastics community and the media. The Times reported that a computer expert "Stryde" had recovered one of the now deleted registration lists showing He's birth date as January 1, 1994 birth date through cached pages on the search engine Baidu. On August 21, the IOC announced that they had asked the FIG to open an investigation into He and her teammates' ages. On Friday August 22, 2008, the IOC said they had not uncovered any evidence of wrongdoing "so far" and expressed confidence that the Chinese Federation's documents were correct. However, the FIG held an emergency meeting about the situation on August 23 and requested additional documentation for every gymnast on the Chinese team, with the sole exception of team captain Cheng Fei. On August 24, a Chinese official addressed the registration lists found online, stating that the discrepancy was due to an administrative error which took place when He was transferred between teams while participating in the InterCity Games in 2007.

On October 1, 2008, the FIG concluded their investigation, finding that He and her Olympic teammates were old enough to compete, although some international media outlets remained skeptical whether He and her teammates had been old enough to compete.,