Chinese gymnasts are cleared in age-falsification investigation

However, the FIG is continuing to investigate the possible violation of its age rules by the 2000 Chinese women's team. One gymnast, Yang Yun, two-time bronze medalist on that team, was quoted in a state-run CCTV interview as saying she was only 14 during the 2000 competition in Sydney, Australia. FIG rules are that a gymnast must turn 16 during an Olympic year. Yang is engaged to Chinese all-around men's champion Yang Wei.

Another gymnast from that team, Dong Fangxiao, also may have provided documents that appeared to suggest she was only 14 in 2000, according to Andre Gueisbuhler, the FIG's secretary-general. Gueisbuhler also said Dong had at one time been doing her own blog, in which she suggested she was 14 in Sydney. China won the team bronze in 2000.

A week before this year's Olympics began, several U.S. news organizations, including the Los Angeles Times, discovered documents -- including registration lists from regional competitions -- that showed varying birth dates for three Chinese team members -- He Kexin, Yang Yilin and Jiang Yuyuan. There also were screen captures of discussions taking place on Chinese Internet chat groups suggesting an acceptance that He, a rising uneven bars specialist, was only 13 years old last November. In addition, there was a Chinese news service story published that quoted a Chinese state athletic official as saying He was 13.

Besides the team gold medal, He ended up winning the uneven bars gold medal over U.S. all-around gold medalist Nastia Liukin. He and Liukin posted the same score, but Liukin lost the gold in a convoluted tie-breaking procedure.

A day before the Olympics, both FIG and International Olympic Committee officials said that because the Chinese sports federation provided FIG officials with passports showing the ages of the three girls in question as being 16, the issue was closed.

But two days after the Olympic gymnastics competition ended, the FIG and the IOC, citing "new" evidence, said an investigation would be made into the documentation Chinese officials provided.

Gueisbuhler said Chinese officials have turned over birth certificates, registration cards, passports and school records that he said proved to the FIG's and IOC's satisfaction that the 2008 team was completely age-eligible.