BEIJING — After the Chinese women’s gymnastics team won its first ever Olympic gold medal on Wednesday, its diminutive gymnasts celebrated on the arena floor, hopping and hugging and mugging for the cameras.
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Times journalists and special contributors explore the Olympics in Beijing and on the Web from every angle — the politics, the culture and the competition.
The team final had come down to the United States and China and was close until the final rotation, when the Chinese team pulled away in front of a packed crowd that chanted, “Come on China!” The Americans made several notable and atypical mistakes, including two falls by the team leader Alicia Sacramone that paved the way for China.
One day after its men’s team won gold, China’s women matched the feat. While they celebrated, Martha Karolyi, the United States national team coordinator, continued to question the ages of some of China’s gymnasts. Concerns over eligibility on the six-member team surfaced before the Olympics and have continued all week.
“One of the girls has a missing tooth,” Karolyi said, suggesting that the gymnast was so young that she lost a baby tooth and had yet to have a permanent one emerge.
The grin of Deng Linlin, a Chinese gymnast who is listed as 16, indeed revealed a wide gap. To be eligible for the Olympics, gymnasts must turn 16 this year.
“I have no proof, so I can’t make an affirmation,” Karolyi said. “But it possibly could be true. That doesn’t give an even playing field. Certain countries go by the rules, and certain countries may not.”
China’s coach, Lu Shanzhen, bristled when the age issue arose again on the day his gymnasts had upset the Americans, the reigning world champions. He would not explain Deng’s missing tooth.
“It’s unfair that people keep saying the Chinese are too young to compete,” Lu said 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?”
Half of the team — He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan — would be under age, according to online sports registration lists in China. The international gymnastics federation, however, said those gymnasts were eligible and that the ages on their passports were correct.
Yang, who turns 16 at the end of the month, said, “It’s unreasonable for people to think I’m too young.” She will compete in the all-around final on Friday.
Because China and the United States competed on the same events each rotation, it was easier to notice differences in their body types. The Chinese gymnasts lack curves, have an average height of 4 feet 9 inches and weigh an average of 77 pounds. Deng is the smallest, at 4-6 and 68 pounds. The women on the United States team, generally more muscular and shapely than the Chinese, are an average of 3 ½ inches taller and 30 pounds heavier.
Sacramone, who is 20 and the oldest of all the female Chinese and American gymnasts competing, said she thought her competitors for China did not look 16.
“No, they looked pretty young,” said Sacramone, who is listed at 5-1 and 117 pounds. “But I’m not one to judge. I don’t look 20.”
Nastia Liukin, who will compete in Friday’s all-around final, said: “Martha makes little jokes about it. ‘Oh, look at the little babies!’ We’ve always have a good laugh about that.”
China is not the first team to be in this position. In 1991, a North Korean gymnast, Kim Gwang Suk, showed up at the world championships with two missing front teeth, raising questions about her age. She was 4 feet 4 inches and about 62 pounds, and she claimed to be 16. At one point, the North Korean Gymnastics Federation listed her at 15 for three straight years; it was later barred from the 1993 world championships for falsifying ages.
Whatever their ages, the Chinese captivated the crowd Wednesday. They scored 188.900 for the team victory. The United States claimed silver by scoring 186.525, well ahead of the 181.525 recorded by Romania, which followed its gold at the 2004 Athens Games with a bronze medal here.
On the uneven bars, breathtaking routines by two Chinese gymnasts were given scores above 16.8. Their only major mistake came on the next event, the balance beam. The team’s star, the 20-year-old Cheng Fei, fell during a tumbling pass. Nearly everyone inside the arena gasped. When her routine was over, she rushed off the platform, startled by her error.
But China’s chances of winning gold were still very much alive, as the United States team faltered. First came Sacramone’s beam routine. Sacramone, a sophomore at Brown University, had to wait for some time before starting. Then she fell during her mount. Afterward, she fought back tears.
