China is about to learn that you can’t stuff an infant in a leotard, shoot it out of a canon, and take home the gymnastics gold:
The International Olympic Committee has asked gymnastics officials to investigate whether the Chinese women’s gymnastics team that won the gold medal at the Beijing games had underage athletes, saying that more information had come to light.
“We’ve asked the gymnastics federation to look into it further,” IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said Friday. “If there is a question mark and we have a concern, which we do, we ask the governing body of any sport to look into it.”
It was not immediately clear what new information prompted the IOC to act now, three days after the gymnastics competition ended.
Messages for the International Gymnastics Federation were not immediately returned.
A gymnast must be 16 in an Olympic year to compete at the games. But questions about the ages of at least three of the athletes have persisted. Online records and media reports suggest three Chinese gymnasts — He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan and Jang Yilin — may be as young as 14.
