This blog entry is a result of Amanda Pitcock's ethical issue presentation on Wednesday, September 23. Amanda talked about the controversy surrounding the past Olympic games where the ages of the Chinese team was under scrutiny. Amanda's case was based on the theory of Deontology or the rules of the Olympics. The rules state that each participant must be 16 years old to compete, so they would have to be born in 1992 or earlier. The controversy was brought into question because He Kexin's birth year surfaced as 01/01/1994, putting her at 14 years old and ineligible to compete. Once those records surfaced and this issue was gaining attention, for some reason the records and internet sites with information 'disappeared'.
Eventually, the country's that were pursuing the issue of her age dropped the investigation. There are rules in sports for a reason and in order for fair play, whether it is at a high school level or the Olympics, they need to upheld by all participants. I understand that the Chinese girls look a lot younger and I don't take that into consideration because by ethnic diversity the Chinese are generally shorter and smaller and look more youthful. But, it makes me question the Chinese authorities that took the information off the web; if they were not breaking any rules, then what were they trying to hid? I find that behavior to be a little unsettling.
A rebutting comment was brought up in class that all the girls competing on the Chinese Gymnastics' team were of the appropriate age to compete under Olympic rule. First, I like how Amanda stuck to her opinion and used the facts that she found to defend her points. Second, if I were up there I would have asked that person, then why remove those documents? If the girls in question were the appropriate age, there would not have been any issue in showing the documents supporting their ages.
It comes down to rules for the sport of Gymnastics, as it does for every other sport. The rules are there and whether you agree with them or not, everyone should uphold them.
And as always, "Life is Short, But Sweet for Certain." [Dave Matthews Band] Enjoy life, but live it right!
I believe that the girls were of age because like you said the Chinese are generally smaller and look young. I have a Chinese aunt and she is really small and looks very young. I think that it is just an ethnic difference in body types.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there were claims of the one girl of being 14 surfaced because maybe someone thinks that the Chinese have an unfair advantage over the other girls and are trying to get the team in trouble. I don’t know for sure though about the age of these girls but it is a very interesting point and maybe for future Olympics they can be positive of the age of these girls to make sure there is never this controversy again.
Shaun Buynack
I remember watching this controversy unfold on tv when i was watching the Olympics in the summer. It never crossed my mind at anytime that the girls were underage. By all means I am not an expert on gymnastics. I would only really watch them during the Olympics to be honest. Even though China was the host country, I doubt the Olympic committee wouldn't check and verify all the documents for all the participants. I personally think most people blew this topic out of the water too much. Part of me only wants to say that the topic was discussed so much because the US actually lost at something, an idea that doesn't settle well with many American sports enthusiasts.
ReplyDelete~Brendan Packert
Sadly, I think that Brendan is correct in saying that the US attitude may have been based on losing. However, I also agree with Kara in wondering why those documents were removed from the Internet. If there was nothing to hide, why should they not be a matter of public record? Interestingly, there was a grad student from China who pointed out to me that access to many of the sites about information on Chinese athletes were being removed by the Chinese government.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Dr. Spencer as well. I think the US and the media love to make things interesting. The US knew they were going to put up a good fight with China. Sadly, they lost and are not good sports about it. Then again, anyone notice how now no one is talking about this issue anymore? As soon as the Olympics come up for their year, people love to watch and talk about the events. Once the Olympic season is over, no one seems to care. I cannot remember the last time I heard about the Olympics minus ESPN Sportcenter loving every second of Phelps. I feel like people would rather watch a playoff championship in professional sports since they happen every year. In all honesty, good for China! They performed well at key moments. America is always winning.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with Dr. Spencer in the aspect of why the documents were removed? However, i believe that the chinese are smaller people in their culture. Being part Japanese my family tends to be smaller because of our ethinicity. I do not believe that the Chinese gymnasts cheated and that it was only because the United States had lost that we retaliated by trying to find flaws in their system. The chinese have a always had stronger gymnasts and their difficulty level is way past ours on ever event. We knew there was no chance in us winning so we decided to try and find ways to make them have to forfit the match. I beleive that China deserved their gold medals because they had better routines and higher point values that we just couldn't keep up with.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am skeptical when it comes to hiding/removing information, the above posts make a good point. The US, like most countries, like to win, and when we arn't sometimes the win-at-any-cost attitude comes out. It's unfortunate that this was said about the gymnasts and China, because chances are there was no controversy and now the Chinese team will forever have that skepticism over them.
ReplyDelete