IOC To Investigate Gymnasts Ages... Finally...

After rumbling and grumbling from a few different fronts, the International Olympic Committee is finally going to ask gymnastic muckety mucks to investigate the reported ages of the gold-medal winning Chinese squad.

Multiple sources have found documentation from inside China itself that the ages of three of the women/girls are in doubt. He Kexin ((pictured, thanks How Hwee Young/EPA/Times of London)) Jiang Yuyuan and Jang Yilin may be as young as 14. An article from the government-run Xinhua News Agency from early November even goes as far as declaring He is only 14.

((More on the "Stryde Hax" website below))

"We've asked the gymnastics federation to look into it further," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said Friday. "If there is a question mark and we have a concern, which we do, we ask the governing body of any sport to look into it."

The allowable age for gymnasts to participate in the games is 16.

The International Federation for Gymnastics ((FIG)) has always maintained that a valid passport is evidence enough for verifying a competitor's age. FIG has not questioned the Chinese to this point.

"We are not in a position to say `It's good, it's not good.' It's a government document," FIG president Bruno Grandi said earlier this week in an interview with The Associated Press.

The Chinese are doing their best Roger Clemens-on-Capitol Hill impression to date. He was asked in a press conference after the gymnastics competition about her age:

"I was born in 1992 and I'm 16 years old now," He said Monday. "The FIG has proved that. If I'm under 16, I couldn't have been competing here."

Whaddya wanna bet that the Bruno Grandi quote will be the basis of any and every investigation that FIG and the IOC conduct from this point forward...?

Just axin'...

SI's coverage is hyah

The Times of London has a boatload of coverage hyah

Jane Macartney's coverage on "Stryde Hax" is hyah

The "Stryde Hax" website is hyah.
Follow the chain of documents, it's tremendous- even if it's a long read...

Randi Kaye's story from CNN is below...
Thanks to CNN and the youtube...