Chinese athletes' age at issue

On the U.S. team, Alicia Sacramone and Chellsie Memmel are 20; Nastia Liukin is 18; and Shawn Johnson, Samantha Peszek and Bridget Sloan are 16.

FIG is responsible for approving athletes for competition.

Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics, in a brief statement Sunday said, "This is an FIG and IOC issue."

According to the New York Times, FIG Secretary General Andre Gueisbuhler responded to questions about He's age by saying:

"We heard these rumors and we immediately wrote to the Chinese gymnastics federation. They immediately sent a copy of the passport, showing the age, and everything is OK. That's all we can check." He also told the New York Times FIG would be "quite happy to check and ask again" if anyone filed a formal complaint.

USA Gymnastics officials were clear that the U.S. would not file a complaint and had not filed one.

Women's gymnastics competition in Beijing begins Aug. 10. The U.S. won the 2007 world championship team gold medal, with China a close second.

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Philip Hersh, who covers Olympic sports for The Times and the Chicago Tribune, contributed to this report from Beijing. Times contributor Jordan Schultz also contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

A controversy is born

Diver may have been too young for worlds

According to New China (Xinhua) news agency, in a story published July 18, Chinese diver Chen Ruolin was ecstatic when she was named to the Chinese Olympic diving team.

"I am confident to bring back two gold medals at the Beijing Games," said Chen, who is listed as diving in the 10-meter platform and 10-meter synchronized platform events. "I will work hard on every dive instead of caring too much about results."

Chen won a gold and a silver medal at the 2007 world championships, where she was listed as being born Dec. 12, 1992.

But according to a Chinese sports federation website, now taken down, Chen was born April 26, 1994. The age rule for diving is that the athlete must turn at least 14 during the year of competition. So by either birth date, Chen is eligible for the Olympics but she was not eligible to compete at the 2007 world championships.

According to the story, Chen started her diving career at the age of 4 and was recruited to the national team when she was 12. She also said she found her experiences at international events last year to be helpful.