For example, a story published Dec. 2, 2007, in the Beijing Evening News includes this sentence: "To make up for the disadvantages of the women's team on uneven bars, the 13-year-old young athlete He, Kexin might be the secret weapon for the Olympics game."
On a Chinese message board, tieba.baidu.com, there was a discussion thread about He that began last year.
"Only 13 years old. Not enough is the new star for the next Olympics," wrote one poster.
Another answered: "The age of Chinese members is never a problem."
And that was followed by: "In addition, age is not a problem. It is said that her FIG-registered age is born in [19]92. The official spokesperson can say it straight that the city competition's Internet date is mistaken. It should be based on the registration of FIG."
Also, "In China age is never a problem. Li Ya competed in [20]03's World Competition when she was 13."
FIG is the international gymnastics federation.
Li Ya was on the Chinese team that finished fourth at the 2003 gymnastics world championships in Anaheim. Li also finished fourth on the balance beam.
And finally, "It's too late to fix He's age. Many foreigners already knew it. It would need to change the name and use a false record to see if it can go through." The reply to this suggestion? "It doesn't matter. If He, Kexin's skills are very good we Chinese can change her age very easily. I think this is pretty much the norm for Chinese teams."
The Times received evidence that the alteration of ages was not started solely for the Beijing Games.
In addition, "Report from Fu, Guoliang at the Meeting Relating to Hunan Province's Participations in Olympics in Sydney," which was still available online Sunday afternoon , made reference to gymnast Yang Yun, who participated in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
"The actual age of gymnastic athlete Yang Yun is only 14. When she first tried in Sydney Games, she attracted attention from gymnastic fields. She has great potential in the future." Yang's career ended prematurely because of injuries.
Yang Yun had become the topic of recent discussions when a YouTube video of a documentary entitled "Yang Yun: My Olympics" was posted. About 3 minutes 10 seconds into the video Yang says, "I was 14 years old in Sydney."
Also, on Friday, a Zhejiang Province registration list showed another 2008 Olympian, Jiang Yuyuan, as being born in 1993, which would make her age-ineligible for next month's Games. That link was disabled Sunday.
