Gymnastics Investigation
That would be sweet! I used to spar kick boxers when I did Kung Fu, it takes a hell of a lot of stamina!
It happened in America awhile ago. A relay team won the team gold, years later it sohwed that one of the memebers was using steriods. So they had to take the gold from all of the memebers, not just the one cheating.
I think that although the atheltes should be stripped of their medals, it's not necessarily their fault.
Some say that they should have been disqualified before the Olympics, but that couldn't be helped.
The only reason the IOC's investigating it now is because the pressure intensified later on in the games.
Everyone had suspicions from the very beginning. The IOC just didn't want to take action until after the games because they were afraid of China's reaction. They could have just taken their punishment, or they could have cancelled the Olympics or started a war. They were just being cautious.
Some are saying that the athletes deserve the medals anyway, because they won. Some even say that the US should just suck it up because a bunch of 12 year olds beat us.
In women's gymnastics, being younger is a huge advantage. 12 year olds are about 30 pounds lighter and 8 inches shorter than 16 year olds. They're more flexible due to their age as well. The smaller you are, the bigger of an advantage you have. A female gymnast's peak is at about 11-14 years old.
When athletes such as Shawn Johnson were that age, they were much better than they are now.
Gymnastics in China are very different from other countries as well.
They're taken away from their families at the age of 3 for intense training their entire lives.
The Chinese government doesn't give them voices. Such intese training at such a young age gives them medical problems that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
The entire point of the olympic games is to bring countries together and promote good sportsmanship.
Being the host country does not excuse you from cheating.
I think cheating in all sporting events is inevitable. It will always happen. There will always be some new drug, some new method, some new way of forging documents, etc. But the IOC has every right to investigate, and if they find something, they MUST take action. Even if it means awarding a higher medal to the ones that finished after the Chinese gymnasts (aka, the silver medalist gets bumped to gold, bronze gets bumped to silver, 4th place gets bumped to bronze), SOMETHING must be done to make a statement that cheating has consequences.
It is a tough decision. In my county last year, there was a high school that was undefeated all year. Then, right before the state championships, it was discovered that several of their star players were not eligible to attend that school because their home address was listed in another county, and therefore were not eligible to play football for that team. So the whole team was not allowed to compete in the championship and their undefeated record was erased from the school's record. Does this suck for the players on the team? ABSOLUTELY. But, every other school (as far as we know) all followed the rules. I'm sure every other high school team would LOVE to travel around the state, pick the best players, and have them bussed to their district so their team will be better. But they didn't, and they followed the rules and only allowed students that were eligible to be on the team. It's not fair for one school to win using another school's players.
It all comes down to what you think is more important- winning, or being fair. Fairness is such a hard thing to achieve, but that doesn't mean that you stop trying. I would say the exact same thing if it was discovered that Shawn Johnson was actually 14 instead of 16. The rule is there for a reason.
After all this, do we actually know anything yet? Cause as far as I'm concerned it's all speculation.
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