Not Watching the Beijing Olympics

[Asher]

Personally, I'd be more impressed if they built an army of robots to do the opening ceremony.

[DaShi]

We'll have to wait for the next Olympics in Japan for that. Of course, they will all be sexbots, but I don't think there will be many complaints.

[Naked Gents Rut]

Why would they give Japan another Olympics when there are so many more great cities in China?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Naked Gents Rut
Why would they give Japan another Olympics when there are so many more great cities in China?

Japan > China

[Naked Gents Rut]

Not anymore.

[Asher]

Yup, still. China's attempt to go overboard at this Olympics confirmed it. They're overcompensating. It's all show, just like Communism.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Phelps has done it! Yay!

[GePap]

I am only glad that he Phelps story will finally go away.
Its obviously great for him that he did it, but I simply couldn't make myself give a **** about it.

More intresting was the 100meter dash. Usain Bolt made it look so damned easy. Its incredible that he could have smashed the world record by even more if he hadn't decided to start celebrating before winning the race.

[Naked Gents Rut]

I'm glad the swimming is over, as Phelps was singlehandedly keeping the Americans in the race for most gold medals. We're still ahead by 11 and the U.S. is unlikely to close the gap now.

[Asher]

Originally posted by GePap
I am only glad that he Phelps story will finally go away.
Its obviously great for him that he did it, but I simply couldn't make myself give a **** about it.

More intresting was the 100meter dash. Usain Bolt made it look so damned easy. Its incredible that he could have smashed the world record by even more if he hadn't decided to start celebrating before winning the race.

People keep talking about his premature celebration like it was a good thing. I thought it was a bit disrespectful and stupid.

Phelps is the better man and more deserving of the attention.

[Zero]

i did 100m in high school. for someone to be running like that.... is just simply amazing.

u may be right about cocky and disrespectful, but that was one of the best moment in this olympics.

[Zero]

and need MOAR drama. all china vs us events should be like this.

cmon, just be upfront and honest about ur rivalries. none of this sportmanship bs!

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080818/SPORTS17/80818055/&imw=Y

MOAR

[DaShi]

Poor China! They are getting pwnt in silver and bronze.

[Lord Avalon]

Baidu cache offers more evidence of underage Chinese gymnasts

One of the controversies that's been swirling around the Chinese Olympic Games since they began is the age of several of China's gymnasts. According to Chinese officials (and, of course, official passports and ID cards), both He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan are 16, and therefore old enough to compete in the Olympic Games. Unfortunately for China, there's a growing body of evidence pointing in the opposite direction, including online evidence a gumshoe hacker discovered lurking in the cache of Baidu, China's equivalent of Google.

If these allegations prove true, it would scarcely be the first time China has lied about the age of an athlete. In 2000—three years after the minimum qualifying age for Olympic Gymnastic competition was raised to 16—Chinese gymnast Yang Yun won a bronze medal for her performance on the uneven bars. Yang's passport showed her as 16 years old at the time, but the gymnast herself later admitted on Chinese national television that she and her coaches had lied about her age, and that she had been just 14 at the time. There's also evidence that Chinese gymnast Li Ya was just 13 when she competed at the World Championships in Anaheim back in 2003.

A story that ran Beijing Evening News on December 2, 2007, reported that He Kexin was 13, while the New York Times turned up evidence in other Chinese papers that cited her age as 14, with a birth date of January 1, 1994. Currently, He's passport lists her date of birth as January 1, 1992. Similarly, Jiang Yuyuan's own national identification card lists her birth date as October 1, 1993.

Now, new information gathered from Baidu's cache further confirms these allegations. Over at Stryde Hax, the anonymous author describes his search for official information on He Kexin's real birth date. Google, rather suspiciously, has been scrubbed clean—searching the engine's cache reveals references to He Kexin, but He's name and data have been removed. As for Baidu, the main search function returns only government-approved data—a spreadsheet that purports to show information on Kexin has also been deleted—but checking the engine's cache proves that a copy of the document is still preserved. He Kexin's age, as listed in the preserved copy of an official Chinese document? 14.

The IOC has refused to investigate this situation, claiming that it's the responsibility of the Federation International Gymnastics (FIG) to verify the ages of competitors. The FIG verifies age by checking an official, government-approved passport. Whatever the passport says is what the FIG goes by, even if the girl in question barely looks 12, much less 16.

Legendary gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi noted that this sort of cheating has been a problem for years and cited the case of a girl the North Korean Gymnastics Federation listed as 15 for three straight years. As Karolyi told the NYT, "Oh, come on, she [the North Korean gymnast] was just in diapers and everyone could see that, just like some of the Chinese girls are now." If you look close, you can see they still have their baby teeth. Little tiny teeth!"

When asked if the underage allegations could be proven, Karolyi doubted it. "The paperwork is changed just too good. In a country like that, they’re experts at it. Nothing new." He, of course, would know—Karolyi developed the entire Romanian gymnastics machine that produced Nadia Comaneci and her 1976 perfect 10 scores, and coached both Romanian and, after his defection, American teams to championships.

Cheating isn't unique to China, and it's not unique to gymnastics—as Karolyi said, the problem has been embedded in the system for decades, partly because its easier for younger, smaller girls to handle certain types of physically difficult routines. The IOC's lackadaisical attitude towards the situation, however, is befuddling, especially at a time when drug testing and anti-cheating measures are at an all-time high.

The apparently-incriminating Baidu cache also demonstrates the folly of attempting to rewrite history. While it's possible to alter passports, birth certificates, and ID cards, digital data is much more difficult to zero out.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080820-evidence-of-age-fraud-mounts-china-insists-gymnasts-are-16.html

Apparently China has much to learn about uncloggin their intertubes. It's amazing what gets stuck in there.

[Jaguar]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/sports/olympics/21protest.html?hp

August 21, 2008
Two Women Sentenced to ‘Re-education’ in China
By ANDREW JACOBS

BEIJING — Two elderly Chinese women have been sentenced to a year of “re-education through labor” after they repeatedly sought a permit to demonstrate in one of the official Olympic protest areas, according to family members and human rights advocates.

The women, Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, had made five visits to the police this month in an effort to get permission to protest what they contended was inadequate compensation for the demolition of their homes in Beijing.

During their final visit on Monday, public security officials informed them that they had been given administrative sentences for “disturbing the public order,” according to Li Xuehui, Ms. Wu’s son.

Mr. Li said his mother and Ms. Wang, who used to be neighbors before their homes were demolished to make way for a redevelopment project, were allowed to return home but were told they could be sent to a detention center at any moment. “Can you imagine two old ladies in their 70s being re-educated through labor?” he asked. He said Ms. Wang was nearly blind.

A man who answered the phone at the Public Security Bureau declined to give out information about the case.

At least a half dozen people have been detained by the authorities after they responded to a government announcement late last month designating venues in three city parks as “protest zones” during the Olympics. So far, no demonstrations have taken place.

According to Xinhua, the state news agency, 77 people submitted protest applications, none of which were approved. Xinhua, quoting a public security spokesperson, said that apart from those detained all but three applicants had dropped their requests after their complaints were “properly addressed by relevant authorities or departments through consultations.” The remaining three applications were rejected for incomplete information or for violating Chinese law.

The authorities, however, have refused to explain what happened to applicants who disappeared after they submitted their paperwork. Among these, Gao Chuancai, a farmer from northeast China who was hoping to publicize government corruption, was forcibly escorted back to his hometown last week and remains in custody.

Relatives of another person who was detained, Zhang Wei, a Beijing resident who was also seeking to protest the demolition of her home, were told she would be kept at a detention center for a month. Two rights advocates from southern China have not been heard from since they were seized last week at the Public Security Bureau’s protest application office in Beijing.

Ms. Wu and Ms. Wang were well known to the authorities for their persistent campaign for greater compensation for the demolition of their homes. Mr. Li said his family had given up their home in 2001 with the expectation that they would get a new one in the development that replaced it. Instead, he said, the family has been forced to live in a ramshackle apartment on the capital’s outskirts.

“I feel very sad and angry because we’re only asking for the basic right of living and it’s been six years, but nobody will do anything to help them,” Mr. Li said.

He said that he and Ms. Wang’s daughter tried to apply for their own protest permit on Tuesday but that the police would not even give them the necessary forms.

The two elderly women were given administrative sentences to re-education through labor, known as laojiao, which seeks to reform political and religious dissenters and those charged with minor crimes like prostitution and petty theft. Government officials say that 290,000 people are detained in re-education centers for terms ranging from one to three years, although detentions can be extended for those whose rehabilitation is deemed inadequate.

Human rights advocates have long criticized the system because punishment is handed down by officials without trials or means of appeal. Last year, the government briefly grappled with revamping the system but backed off in the face of opposition from public security officials.

Although it is unlikely that women as old as Ms. Wu and Ms. Wang would be forced into hard labor, many of those sentenced to laojiao often toil in agricultural or factory work and are forced to confess their transgressions.

Tang Xuemei contributed research.