Taking away a gold medal from their team for cheating is punishing China.
Fines and maybe denying their team a chance to compete in the same event in 2012? It’s harsh and punishes some non-guilty parties, but offhand that’s what came to mind.
Well, you guys care way more than me. I just can’t work up any outrage at a little girl who performed her heart out. Whatever China did isn’t herfault. She’s a winner in my book. I’m sure not going to be the one who goes and yanks her medals away from her.
Ban them from the Olympics forever. Or nuke them into glowing rubble. Either works for me.
So you don’t understand the rule. She may or may not be the best 13 year old in the world. But she should be competing against other 12-15 year olds not the 16 and older group. She has an unfair competitive advantage in her age. She is excellent and if she can maintain it for another four years, I wish her all the luck at age 17.
She was not eligible to compete for this Gold and the athletes who followed the simple rules that came in 2nd through 4th should all get their medals adjusted up accordingly.
I seriously doubt it will have any effect on how they conduct their Olympic programs in the future, which is sort of the point of punishment. The only lasting effect it will have is on the poor girl who was a pawn in China’s “Look we’re Big Guys too now! See! Look how awesome we are!” PR scheme. Just my opinion.
That sounds pretty reasonable; I think I’d even rather see them not compete at all in 2012.
I understand the rule, I just don’t care about it. To me, it’s not worth shaming and further victimizing a kid who’s already been victimized. I’d rather have China get away with cheating than be a dick and rip her medals away from her.
ETA, I think excluding China from 2012 is a better way to deal with it. The kid should be left alone.
Why the fuck is China (or as my grandpa says, “Chiner”) even allowed to participate in the Olympics, let alone host it? This is fucked up. I haven’t been following the Olympics at all, but what the hell is going on here? We have a communist country with a horrible record of human rights violations, hosting what is supposed to be a symbol of brotherhood and fairness. I have absolutely no idea how they pulled this off. They should definitely be barred from future competitions. Of course they cheated. It’s absurd to think that anyone should be surprised by that.
Actually I think excluding China from the next Olympics is to harsh by far. Though China has a program that is pretty much run by the state, in theory at least these are supposed to be individual or team events. So…it should be the individual or team that suffers any consequences for cheating, even though it’s obviously the state that put them up to it in this case.
She should have her medals stripped, and if it effected the team events (I assume it did) they should have their medals stripped to. This will show some consistency with past cheating and will put China on notice to not try something like this again (well, theoretically I suppose).
I DO feel bad for both her and the Chinese womens team if they have their medals stripped…but I don’t see why you would have rules at all if you don’t mean to enforce them.
-XT
Wait… is there some evidence to suggest that He didn’t know her own age?
Seems to me that she deserves even more of the blame than China. She ought to know the rules, know that she wasn’t eligible, and therefore is the rule-breaker, not a victim.
Did she have a choice? IIRC she was taken out of her home at 3 years old and forced to train with perhaps a once a year visit to her family. I’d say she is definitely a victim of this little drama, whether she knew what she was doing or not.
Doesn’t mean that if proven she shouldn’t lose her medals though.
-XT
Then what is the point of the Olympics? Why don’t we start entering 70kg athletes in the smaller weight classes? Why don’t we have 6 people on the basketball teams?
If she isn’t 16 we shouldn’t reward a lying little girl for cheating.
She didn’t have any choice in the matter. It’s not her fault. Really…“lying little girl?” Do you know anything about China? That’s exactly the kind of victim-blaming nonsense we need to avoid.
This is something she was coerced into doing. For crying out loud, she didn’t forge her own passport, scrub references to her real age off the Internet and start lying to athletics federations who knew her real age a few months ago.
I think it’s ridiculous to assume that the little girl did this unbeknownst to the Chinese government. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that they orchestrated the whole age change thing.
That being said, there isn’t any way you can justify letting He keep her bling. As much as I would feel bad for the girl, there is just no way in hell you can’t DQ her.
Exactly.
-XT
I think taking her medals does more harm than letting her keep them. No one’s going to die if she keeps them. Taking them only hurts the girl and won’t faze China.
Do we even know for sure that she’s underage? Do we have any evidence other than the word of some creepy computer stalker with too much time on his hands?
What about the other 3 women though that should have each come in one slot better? Do you want to deprive them of their medals? That hardly seems fair. Especially as some if not all will never compete in another Olympics.
Deprive them of what medals? They didn’t win. I have a suggestion. They can practice next time. If they really want to get their medals by mugging the little girl that beat them, I’m not going to cosign that.