Child Labor Issues - Olympic Style
Aug. 13th, 2008 10:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
webfarmerAnyone who watched the women's gymnastics finals last night had to wonder how old those little kid gymnasts from China were. It's bad enough that these kids are turned into national pride products. Anyone seriously think these kids are all 16?
IOC Refuses to Doubt China's Kid Gymnasts - Sports Illustrated - 13 Aug 08
"The Chinese gymnasts could have picked out their leotards from Thumbelina's closet as they performed gymnastics in miniature on Wednesday. Wearing blue eye shadow with their hair pulled back, He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin looked like girls who had just rummaged through their mothers' makeup. This was a ladies' final, though. Somehow, it was hard to see how they qualified as women.
Amid pre-Olympic hand-wringing over why the birthdates of He, Yank and Jiang didn't jibe with other registration materials that showed they might be as young as 14, China swore on its stars' passport stamps that the tots are the legal tumbling age of 16. But while the tiny trio helped their nation whisk the gold medal away from a suddenly clumsy U.S. group in the team competition, it was impossible to deny the visual evidence of something unjust in China. Take a look at these photos and judge for yourself."
IOC Refuses to Doubt China's Kid Gymnasts - Sports Illustrated - 13 Aug 08
"The Chinese gymnasts could have picked out their leotards from Thumbelina's closet as they performed gymnastics in miniature on Wednesday. Wearing blue eye shadow with their hair pulled back, He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin looked like girls who had just rummaged through their mothers' makeup. This was a ladies' final, though. Somehow, it was hard to see how they qualified as women.
Amid pre-Olympic hand-wringing over why the birthdates of He, Yank and Jiang didn't jibe with other registration materials that showed they might be as young as 14, China swore on its stars' passport stamps that the tots are the legal tumbling age of 16. But while the tiny trio helped their nation whisk the gold medal away from a suddenly clumsy U.S. group in the team competition, it was impossible to deny the visual evidence of something unjust in China. Take a look at these photos and judge for yourself."
