# Olympic OS: Faked footprints. Who cares? (mild) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 11, 2008, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-os-faked-footprints-who-cares-mild/459664 "2008-08-11T21:29:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-os-faked-footprints-who-cares-mild/459664/41 "2008-08-13T10:49:30Z")
[QUOTE=Deftones] No it’s not obvious. The IOC didn’t hesitate in kicking out a spanish doper and they haven’t hesitated in the past in stripping medals with evidence. Re: Marion Jones. [/quote] You neglected the point he made (and I made) about the difference between proving doping, for which there is a blood test, and proving a forgery on a government document. > [@](#): > > It seems like the whole “cheating” accusations has reached a crescendo and directly corresponds with the number of gold medals China has won when competing with the U.S. This sounds an awful lot like “I just started paying attention to this.” [Here’s a story on the subject from Canada.](http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/gymnastics/story/2008/08/03/china-gymnastics.html?ref=rss) [Here’s one from China Daily.](http://www.china.org.cn/olympics/news/2008-05/23/content_15422122.htm) And it says He Kexin is 14. Yes, Karolyi is a biased party. We get it. If he were the source of the accusation, that’d be really important, but he isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-os-faked-footprints-who-cares-mild/459664/42 "2008-08-13T10:55:01Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] (snip) I’m glad that the singer’s name is at least out there and she’s not hidden away ala Debbie Reynolds’ character of _Singin’ In The Rain_ fame… (and Marni Nixon). [/QUOTE] You said it. I was watching _Spaced_ on DVD and there was a montage with _Getting to Know You_ from _The King and I_ and Marni Nixon got a screen credit for it, both in the end credits and in the subtitles. That’s more than Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation ever gave her. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-os-faked-footprints-who-cares-mild/459664/43 "2008-08-13T15:47:38Z")
[QUOTE=Deftones] They were involved in world competition already. If they were being groomed as competitors for future Olympics it doesn’t make sense that all their profiles would be online like that. No really, think about this one for a minute and realize how lame it is. [/quote] First, I assume she was of legal age in that competition. Second, not everyone competing was going to make the Olympic team. Even despots nap sometimes. Third, you still haven’t explained the discrepancy between the published birth year back then and that on her passport. She’s a little young to be coy about her age, isn’t she? Unless she’s the Chinese equivalent of Jack Benny. > [@](#): > > No it’s not obvious. The IOC didn’t hesitate in kicking out a spanish doper and they haven’t hesitated in the past in stripping medals with evidence. Re: Marion Jones. There is a bit of a difference between an individual competitor cheating and cheating officially sponsored. Especially when it is the host country, and especially when the host country is so sensitive to the smallest perceive slight. Not the furor about the guys coming off the plane with masks. “How dare you _cough cough_ say our air is polluted!” > [@](#): > > It seems like the whole “cheating” accusations has reached a crescendo and directly corresponds with the number of gold medals China has won when competing with the U.S. It’s funny how it seems like mainly the main competing nation is obsessed with this and no other country has brought this up even though they are also in the same events. Oddly enough no one is making a stink about the men gymnasts, who are clearly of age and clearly legitimate. They won fair and square, and more power to them. But it is one thing to tell someone not to be a sore loser, and another to say it when a few aces are falling out of your sleeve. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-os-faked-footprints-who-cares-mild/459664/44 "2008-08-13T16:05:35Z")
By the way, the NY Times first reported on the age issue several weeks ago, before the games started. So this did not just pop up after the medals were handed out. It’s not surprising that the topic is getting more attention now that the event has happened and more people saw the girls themselves, though. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-os-faked-footprints-who-cares-mild/459664/45 "2008-08-14T15:16:31Z")
[The Associated Press says it found a 2007 story by Xinhua, the Chinese government news agency, that referred to He Kexin as a 13-year-old.](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olympics/2008/08/14/underage.gymnasts/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-os-faked-footprints-who-cares-mild/459664/46 "2008-08-14T17:41:01Z")
Since nobody can leave actual footprints in the sky, they all are fake. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-os-faked-footprints-who-cares-mild/459664/47 "2008-08-16T01:52:10Z")
The fireworks weren’t fake, the helicopter shot was fake. Real footprint fireworks did get let off as shown in Beijing, so the people outside the stadium saw the real thing. Just the cool shot of watching them approach the ceremony, as seen from above, was impossible to orchestrate so they artificially re-created it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-os-faked-footprints-who-cares-mild/459664.md?page=2)