Are The Chinese Gymnasts Old Enough

I really am not a big fan of sports and don’t watch the Olympics every night. I only catch bits and pieces when nothing else is on TV. But tonight we watched the very young Chinese girls do the uneven bars. I was amazed at how young these girls were. So much so that I had to actually look do a Google search for what the minimum age was for the girls gymnasts is. It is 16. There is no way those girls are 16. I would say 14 if I had to guess.

My search brought up a NY Times article that says there is or was a controversy about two of the girls ages. Apparently there were official Chinese gymnast websites that had listed both girls as 14, but the Chinese government saw fit to shut them down (don’t they know that once something is on the web it is there forever?) so know one could argue with the newly issued passports stating the girls are indeed 16 (but are they).

Deng Linlin just did her balance beam routine and right before she was wrapping her leg and smiled real big. That girl does not even have all her adult teeth yet and they are going to tell us she is sixteen? As my friend said, “she is just getting her big girl teeth”! (wish I could get a screen grab of that smile so you all could see it (heck she is even missing a tooth — it is probably under her pillow for the tooth fairy)). This is similar to the 1991 North Korean girl who also had official documents but her smile gave her away too.

So if these girls (sorry unlike the announcers I cannot call them women) are officially 16 will they be getting driver’s licenses soon? And will they need to remain two years older all their lives? That is going to hurt when they are 30 something.

big smile from Deng LinlinHere’s a direct quote from the Yahoo sports writer…

“Maybe they can ask Deng Linlin to smile wide for the cameras.”

And here she is doing just that…

Now mind you, these little girls sure can work the gym floor and those uneven bars. Wow. Even being young they deserved the gold. My complaints about their age are not because they may have been cheating. It was because the girls just looked so dang young. And I do think the baby teeth in the above picture of Deng Linlin kind of proves it.  It is a shame that the Karolyis couple (who obviously are pro team USA) couldn’t have been less boisterous about there feelings (come on there is a time and a place and maybe global television wasn’t the place). Honestly I was getting tired of hearing Bela moaning about it.


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12 responses to “Are The Chinese Gymnasts Old Enough”

  1. […] 50 (or so) Searches on the Chinese Gymnasts here at […]

  2. a dentist

    Wrong Tooth…the tooth that’s causing all this controversy is actually a missing lateral incisor. The lateral incisor is usually lost at age 8, and I think we can agree that she’s older than 8. Therefore, it can be ascertained that it’s just a congenially missing lateral incisor (which is the most common “missing” tooth in the adult dentition).

  3. Thanks. I wasn’t actually pointing out any particular tooth (and I haven’t read anything about a contorversy on any particular tooth either). I just wanted to show her very immature looking teeth and the fact that one was missing. Insightful tooth info though.

  4. […] my first real look at the Olympics happened to be the young girls of the Chinese gymnastic team winning the gold. My thoughts while watching them were how young they looked. I like the rest of […]

  5. panda

    see 6:55 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWRArhc7Y
    she has the same gap or “missing tooth”! who knows if these girls are 16 or not, but hopefully that missing tooth won’t be the evidence anymore.

  6. Shame the link to youtube isn’t complete. It may have been helpful to all the other people looking for information on those tiny little teeth of hers.

  7. BJ

    Yes, How dumb is the world for believing that a child missing her baby tooth is 16????????????
    Come on now! Is it “The Emperor’s New Cloths”???

  8. Don

    The Chiseese people and there governemnt are cheaters and we all know it the last tooth I lost I was 13 years old what a joke these olympics are a friking a joke why dont we just give everything to china. SO if any of you Chineese look at this you are a bunch of cheater and a bunch of cry babys 🙁

  9. I do not agree with the above statement. But I do agree with the freedom for Don to say what he wants.

  10. Raziaar

    Chinese won their gold and people need to quit complaining. The girl is 16, and even if she was 14 or 15, I’d like to put you up to a judging competition to see if you can look at 10-20 females of western ethnicities and see if you can pick the exact age of girls aged 14-16. There is no real difference. Some people are younger looking, some older looking. Some shorter, some taller. Many Asian people especially are blessed with extraordinarily youthful appearances, and you’d have a hard time telling some of their 30 year olds from their 20 year olds.

  11. Hh

    Sorry this is off topic for this post, but the comment section for the original entry was closed. 4 years ago you wrote an entry about Deng Linlin,the Chinese gymnast who looked constantly terrified, had a missing “baby tooth”, and was smaller than the other already tiny gymnasts. Well she is back in the Olympics, and she looks exactly the same.

    1. Thanks for the comment (I have moved it to where it belongs).

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