One last thought on the ages of China’s female gymnasts

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BEIJING -- After Zou Kai had won the high bar gold medal Tuesday for his third gold of these Games, and after his men’s Chinese Olympics gymnastics team had tied the Soviet Union record for most Olympic gymnastics gold medals -- seven -- Zou was asked why the Chinese men had been more dominating than the women’s team.

‘Because they’re so much younger,’ Zou said of his female counterparts. Zou certainly didn’t mean to suggest that the Chinese female gymnasts were TOO young, but it was an apt comment in the final gymnastics press conference.

For nearly a month, stories have been surfacing about apparent discrepancies in the ages of three of the gold-medal winning Chinese female gymnasts -- He Kexin, Yang Yilin and Jiang Yuyuan.

The reports were prompted by documents filed by Chinese provincial sports authorities, as well as Chinese news accounts -- not because the Chinese gymnasts appeared young or small.

Kexin, who won the uneven bars gold medal, was described as being 13 years old last November by a prominent Chinese sports authority.

Each of the girls had turned in passports last February to the international gymnastics federation. And the passports indicated that the gymnasts were either 16, or would turn 16 this year, making them eligible for the Olympics.

But, whatever their ages, Zou did the math. They were younger than the men. And almost everybody else.

-- Diane Pucin