The Chinese Gymnastics Association (CGA) on Tuesday provided copies of the ID cards and passports of two of its top female gymnasts to prove they are old enough for the Beijing Games.
The International media organizations including the New York Times and Agence France-Presse earlier raised questions about the age of China's Olympians He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan, saying they might not yet be 16, the minimum age for the Olympic eligibility.
The CGA said in a statement that He and Jiang had competed in a number of international gymnastics events, and that the sport's governing body FIG had checked their passports to make sure they are old enough for events such as the world championships, World Cup and the Olympic Games.
Under FIG rules, any gymnast born after December 31, 1992 will be barred from competing at the Beijing Games.
"All the Chinese Olympic gymnasts' passports were issued according to their legal ID cards provided by their regional gymnastics associations," the statement said.
According to the statement, He applied for her first passport in July 2007, which identified her birthday as January 1, 1992.
As for Jiang, the statement said her hometown sports bureau first registered her at the National Sports Bureau in 2002, and the registered year of birth is 1991 and has remained unchanged since.
Moreover, the CGA said it also asked the local authorities at the end of last year to check the athletes' registration information posted on the website.
The international media organizations quoted several online records and reports as evidence that He, China's top competitor on uneven bars, and Jiang, the floor and uneven bars champion in the World Cup in Shanghai, might be too young to compete in Beijing.
"There are countless pieces of information on the web and some of them are erroneous," the CGA said, adding that some foreign media quoted an incorrect report run by a Chinese English newspaper indicating Jiang is only 14 but ignored the fact that the newspaper ran a corrected piece days later.
Jiang competed at the 2007 World Championships and He participated in the World Cup in Cottubus and Doha last year, and all these events were authorized by the FIG, the CGA added.
(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2008)