He Kexin's age discrepancies due to team transfer:
[quote] BEIJING (AP) -- China's deputy sports minister has attributed the confusion about the age of one of its gold medalist gymnasts to a paperwork mistake during a team transfer.
At last year's China's Cities Games, Chinese officials decided to move He Kexin, who won two gold medals during the Beijing Games, from a local team to the national team. China's deputy sports minister Cui Dalin said Sunday that it was during this transfer that a "misunderstanding appeared" about her age.
"Last year at the all-city competition, He Kexin moved from one team to another and during the process of registering during the move, there appeared this age discrepancy," Cui said during a news conference.
"So it was the appearance of a mistake in the process of transferring teams that the misunderstanding appeared. However, I can right here accurately say that the ages of the members of our gymnastics delegation entirely conform to the requirements for participation in the Beijing Olympic Games."
It was at last year's China's Cities Games that the Chinese government's news agency, Xinhua, identified He as one of "10 big new stars" who made a splash at the event and gave her age as 13 in a Nov. 3, 2007, report.
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FIG will make a full report to the IOC, which expects it to clear China's team of the allegations that the Chinese gymnasts are underage and don't meet the 16 year old in the Olympic year age requirement:
[QUOTE]"All information is in Chinese and the (federation) is making as thorough analysis as possible of the papers," the FIG said in a statement Saturday. "This process may take some time, but in due course, the FIG will make a full report of our findings to the International Olympic Committee."
There is no deadline for the investigation, and the Chinese have insisted the entire team is old enough to compete.
"The international federation has required the delivery of birth certificates and all the documents like family books, entries in schools and things like that," IOC president Jacques Rogge said Sunday. "They have received the documents, and at first sight it seems to be OK."
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