Gotta admit, the Chinese are good.
"It's unfair that people keep saying the Chinese are too young to compete," Lu told reporters in Mandarin on his way out of the National Indoor Stadium. "If they think they can tell someone's age just by looking at them, well, if you look at the foreign athletes, they have so much more muscles than the Chinese. They are so strong. Do you then say that they are doping?"
Sheesh. There are at least two of those girls who can't possibly be 16 years old. Whether or not one of them appears to have recently lost a baby tooth that we generally lose at about 10 years old.
As far as big rippling muscles and well-developed bodies, that's called "generations of eating well -- including meat products". Except for the past 50 years or so (and probably not even that long), most Chinese haven't eaten the way we do (and frankly, most probably still don't). And by the way -- I didn't notice any lack of muscle in their male gymnasts. So what about doping in that case, Coach Lu? Or are we only talking about our girls, who actually eat a decent diet, and happen to look womanly at 16?
I saw a comment over at Rachel's that put forward a good idea -- make the qualification weight-based rather than age-based. Seems like it would be a lot more fair that way.
And like some other people commented: Why would we ever trust the Chinese to be telling the truth here? I'm sorry, but in every sport -- every sport -- in which I've seen them compete, I could see the fear behind the athletes' eyes that said "If I blow this, I'm sunk".
That's no way to run an Olympics team. And that's why the whole Olympic ideal is a sham.
