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!”
