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【标题】泰晤士报:IOC着手调查何可欣年龄问题
【媒体】体育画报网
【链接】http://www.sichina.com/aoyun/detail/2236.html
周一,中国小将何可欣力克美国选手柳金,在高低杠比赛中勇夺金牌。继上周拿下女子体操团体冠军之后,何可欣的年龄问题再度成为争议的焦点。NBC评论员Bela Karolyi曾多次公开质疑了中国小将们的真实年龄,而他的妻子正是美国体操女队的教练玛莎(MarthaKarolyi)。除何可欣之外,中国女子体操队另外两名运动员江钰源和杨依琳也卷入了这场年龄风波。 一位名叫迈克·沃克的美国计算机安全专家近日发表声明,他发现了能证明何可欣只有14岁的官方文件。根据国际体联的规定,运动员必须年满16岁才能拥有参赛资格。在接受《泰晤士时报》的采访时,沃克披露这两份能证明何可欣年龄造假的文件已经被中国政府网站删除。根据沃克的说法,他在中国官方体育网站上发现了两份Excel表格,而何可欣不在名单之内。此外,他以百度的搜索结果为例,说明何可欣真正的出生日期应当是1994年1月1日,而不是官方资料上显示的1992年1月1日。
面对种种质疑,何可欣的态度相当肯定:“我真实的年龄就是16岁。我不在乎别人怎么说。我只希望你们知道16岁就是我的真实年龄。”迫于各方压力,国际奥委会(IOC)发言人吉赛尔·戴维斯公开宣布,国际奥委会已经要求国际体操联合会调查何可欣的年龄。
【原文链接】
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4583174.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1
【原文】
August 22, 2008
International Olympic Committee launches probe into He Kexin's age
(Hans Deryk )
He Kexin after winning gold: the US team has cried foul over her age
Tim Reid in Washington, Jeremy Griffin and Jane Macartney in Beijing
The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into mountingallegations that Chinese authorities covered up the true age of theirgold-medal winning gymnastics star because she was too young to compete.
An IOC official told The Times that because of "discrepancies" thathave come to light about the age of He Kexin, the host nation’s darling whowon gold in both team and individual events, an official inquiry has beenlaunched that could result in the gymnast being stripped of her medals.
The investigation was triggered as a US computer expert claimed yesterday tohave uncovered Chinese government documents that he says prove she is only14 - making her ineligible to compete in the Olympics - rather than 16, asofficials in Beijing insist is her age.
Mike Walker, a computer security expert, told The Times how he tracked downtwo documents that he says had been removed from a Chinese governmentwebsite. The documents, he said, stated that He’s birth date was January 11994 - making her 14 - and not January 1 1992, which is printed in herpassport.
He’s true age has been a subject of swirling controversy since the Gamesbegan. Questions over her eligibility intensified after she edged out the USgymnast Nastia Liukin for the gold medal in the uneven bars on Monday, andwas part of the team gold triumph last week. She also edged Britain’s BethTweddle out of the medals.
Bela Karolyi, the former gymnastics coach whose wife, Martha, coaches the USwomen’s team, has repeatedly accused the Chinese of fielding underage femalegymnasts. The ages of two other team members have also aroused suspicion:Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin. Time magazine reported that government records,that have since disappeared, showed both girls to be 14. Gymnasts must be 16to compete.
The minimum age for female gymnasts was increased from 14 to 15 in 1981, andup to 16 in 1997, to protect the physical and mental health of youngathletes.
Nadia Comaneci was 14 when she won her fist Olympic gold medal in 1976. Yetdespite her stardom, there were criticisms that young girls were beingpushed too hard at an age when their bodies and bones were still growing,causing permanent damage. Ironically her coach was Mr Karolyi.
There were also concerns about their mental health, because of the pressure ofcompeting on the world stage at such a young age, and that they werevulnerable to exploitation and even physical abuse by coaches.
"They are obviously kids," Mr Karolyi said. "Twelve, 14 max -and they’re telling the world they are 16? What arrogance."Although the US team has deliberately steered clear of the controversy, hiswife suggested after the US team’s loss to China that the Chinese gymnastswere still losing their baby teeth. "One of the girls has a missingtooth," she said.
Mary Lou Retton, the US Olympic gymnastics gold-medallist in the 1984 Games,told the New York Times last month: "The girls are so little, so young.They say they are 16, but I don’t know." The IOC has been accusedof deliberately ignoring the issue because it feared offending China.
Yet Giselle Davies, an IOC spokesperson, said tonight that because oftroubling new developments, the committee had instructed the InternationalGymnastics Federation, the sport’s governing body, to investigate.
"More information has come to light that did point to discrepancies,"Ms Davies said. "We have asked the gymnastics federation to look intoit further with the national Chinese federation. If there is a questionmark, and we have a concern - which we do - we ask the governing body of anysport to look into ... as to why there is a discrepancy."
The man who uncovered the allegations about the underage athlete told TheTimes that he was not even a sports a fan, but decided to investigate theissue to determine if Chinese authorities were lying. He eventuallydiscovered that two Excel spreadsheets on the Chinese government’s officialsports website - www.sport.gov.cn- that mentioned her name had recently being removed.
"There was a conclusion here," Mr Walker said. "These documentsexisted, on a state-wide website, and now they don’t exist, and this changehas taken place recently. I was interested because these were documents thatno-one could find. If there’s information to be found on the internet I’m acitizen journalist - it was a challenge."
He turned to a Chinese search engine, Baidu. In its cache he found bothdocuments. "The listing in there, quite clearly, is He Kexin’s birthdate, January 1, 1994," Mr Walker said.
That makes her 14 years and 220 days old and too young to compete. The listswere compiled by the General Administration of Sport of China.
How aggressive and sustained the IOC-ordered investigation will be remains tobe seen. If it did ultimately result in the stripping of gold medals fromone of China’s favourite athletes, it would be an Olympic scandal withreverberations far beyond the sport itself.
In July the New York Times published references to articles in the Beijingpress in which He was referred to as only 14 years old.
Chinese officials responded immediately by providing the newspaper with apassport copy indicating He had been born on January 1, 1992, but stilldoubts lingered, not least because the athlete looks barely past puberty.
When asked about her recently - and before He’s gold medal wins - IOCpresident Jacques Rogge claimed it was not his organisation’s role to checkthe age of competitors. "The IOC relies on the internationalfederations, who are exclusively responsible for the eligibility of athletes,"he said.
Under his blog name Stryde Hax, Mr Walker wrote: "Much of the coverageregarding Kexin’s age has only mentioned ‘allegations’ of fraud, and the IOChas ignored the matter completely. I believe that these primary documents,issued by the Chinese state ... rise to a level of evidence higher than‘allegation’. How official are these documents? Pretty dang official - theywere issued by the General Administration of Sport of China."
He insists that she is old enough to compete. Asked by journalists about thedebate, she said: "My real age is 16. I don’t care what other peoplesay. I want other people to know that 16 is my real age."
Both China and the US came into the Games determined to show the other who wasboss. Although China is generally recognised as the leading nation, with atally tonight of 46 gold medals to the USA’s 27, Americans claim tointerpret success by the total number of medals won, which puts their teamahead with 86 to 83. With the scores that close, every last piece of metalis precious – meaning this row could follow He firmly into adulthood. |
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