Gymnasts old enough, FIG says
Thursday, 2nd October 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Were all of the gymnasts who competed for China in the Beijing Olympics old enough for eligibility under international rules? The official record says yes now, after the (Federation Internationale de Gymnastique) ruled that documentation supplied by the Chinese Gymnastics Association is sufficient evidence that they were all under 16 years old during the Olympics.
Tags: gymnastics
IOC investigating ages of Chinese gymnasts
Friday, 22nd August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Will He Kexin have to give this medal back?
The International Olympic Committee has launched an investigation into the ages of gold medal-winning gymnasts He Kexin (何可欣) and Yang Yilin (杨伊琳), according to multiple media reports. Accusations have been leveled that the hosts cheated by faking age records in the sport, which requires that athletes be turning 16 or older in the year they enter Olympic competition.
If the IOC finds that He and Yang are underage and strips China of medals they won, that would cost China both of its women's gymnastics golds—the team title and He's uneven bars gold—and two bronzes, won by Yang in the uneven bars and the all-around competition.
The Associated Press claimed to have found archived reports (later scrubbed from the Internet) from last November in Chinese state media Xinhua, stating that He was 13 in 2007. More recently, some digging by an American computer security expert revealed more records indicating that He is underage.
Related: China, US medal competition heats up
He Kexin image: Boston Globe
Tags: Beijing Olympics, cheating, gymnastics, He Kexin, IOC, Olympics, Yang Yilin
China leads with 41 golds, second in total medals
Tuesday, 19th August 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
As of 8:15 pm Beijing time on Tuesday, China had won two more golds, both in men's gymnastics, to bring their total number of gold medals to 41, or 16 more than Team USA's 25 golds. Great Britain was in third in the gold count with 15.In terms of overall medals, China trails the US, 77 to 72, with silver- and bronze-heavy Russia in third with 40 total medals.
Li Xiaopeng enters Chinese gymnastics pantheon
Li Xiaopeng (李小鹏) beat out Yoo Won-chul of South Korea and Anton Fokin of Uzbekistan to claim his fourth gold in men's gymnastics – this time in the parallel bars. This Olympics Li has surpassed Chinese gymnastics legend – and the star of these Olympics' opening ceremony – Li Ning as the winningest Chinese gymnast ever, with a total of 18 international first-place finishes to Li Ning's 14.
Zou Kai wins men's horizontal bar
Li's teammate Zou Kai (邹凯) beat out Jonathan Horton of the US and Fabian Hambuechen of Germany to win gold on the last day of artistic gymnastics competition. The medal is Zou's third gold medal in his first Olympics – earlier in the Beijing games he won gold in the men's team competition and also in the individual floor competition.
Li Xiaopeng image: news.cctv.com
Zou Kai image: english.people.com.cn
Tags: gymnastics, Li Ning, Li Xiaopeng, Zou Kai
Day Seven: 4 golds, 2 bronzes for China
Saturday, 16th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
China pulled in four gold medals on Friday, along with two bronzes. It was enough to keep China ahead of the United States in the gold medal count, but not enough to eclipse the USA's overall lead.Weightlifting
Cao Lei (women's 75 kg ) and Lu Yong (men's 85 kg) kept the momentum in weightlifting going, winning China's gold medals number seven and eight in the sport.
Du and Yu celebrate badminton gold with their coach
Badminton
China won both gold and bronze in women's badminton doubles. In the gold medal match, Du Jing and Yu Yang beat Lee Kyung-won and Lee Hyo-jung of South Korea (21-15, 21-14). In the bronze medal match, Wei Yili and Zhang Yawen, who had lost to Du and Yu in the semifinals, beat the Japanese duo of Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna (21-17, 21-10).
Judo
Tong Wen took down Maki Tsukada of Japan to claim gold in the women's +78 kg division.
Gymnastics
Yang Yiling took bronze in the women's gymnastics all-around, coming in behind Americans Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson. Yang's best performance was on uneven bars, where she tallied a 16.725, the highest score given in any event of the competition. Her 15.75 on the beam placed her fourth in that discipline, but her scores on the vault (15.175) and the floor routine (15.00) gave her an overall of 62.650, not enough to beat out Johnson's 62.725 for silver.
Image: BOCOG
Tags: badminton, Beijing Olympics, Cao Lei, Du Jing, gymnastics, judo, Lu Yong, Olympics, Tong Wen, Wei Yili, weightlifting, Yang Yiling, Yu Yang, Zhang Yawen
Olympic Gymnastics Draw
Friday, 16th May 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The Olympic gymnastics draw took place in Tianjin yesterday, putting China's women in the first qualification group with Romania, and the men in the same group as Canada, Russia, Japan and France.The women's placement in the first group is considered a challenge because it means they will need to get up early to warm up for the 10 a.m. competition. The morning session is also typically not as well attended, thought it's hard to believe that attracting a crowd will be any problem in Beijing.
Chinese coach Lu Shanzhen didn't hold back in expressing his disappointment over the women's draw, according to this Xinhua report, which quotes him as saying: "It is the worst draw!" Lu expressed his disappointment after the draw. "We are in the first qualification and will start with balance beam."
The draw took place in Tianjin where the FIG World Cup of Gymnastics is being held.
Tags: gymnastics, olympics