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.
Here’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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