The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into mounting allegations that Chinese authorities covered up the true age of their gold-medal winning gymnastics star because she was too young to compete.

An IOC official told The Times that because of "discrepancies" that have come to light about the age of He Kexin, the host nation’s darling who won gold in both team and individual events, an official inquiry has been launched that could result in the gymnast being stripped of her medals.

The investigation was triggered as a US computer expert claimed yesterday to have uncovered Chinese government documents that he says prove she is only 14 - making her ineligible to compete in the Olympics - rather than 16, as officials in Beijing insist is her age.

Mike Walker, a computer security expert, told The Times how he tracked down two documents that he says had been removed from a Chinese government website. The documents, he said, stated that He’s birth date was January 1 1994 - making her 14 - and not January 1 1992, which is printed in her passport.

Expert View

The gymnastics team event was the one gold the US had to have... and China got it

Owen Slot

• More

• Post a comment

Back to reality for golden generation

Olympic heroes will discover if the last 17 days has been a life-changing experience or a glorious but brief interlude

• Team GB to be rewarded with gold for gold

• Hard work starts now as British sailors look towards London 2012

• Public support gained from success in Beijing needs to last four years

BACKGROUND

• How the Brits became world beaters

• London double-decker arrives in Beijing

• Olympics proves capacity for greatness

• New dawn for British sport as Olympic sun sets

Multimedia

• Simon Barnes in Beijing

• Bring back the tug-of-war

• Top 100 Olympic athletes of all time

Related Links

• Federation demands further proof of age

• Hacker 'proves' gymnast underage

• Commentary: why so upset? For the US little matters more

He’s true age has been a subject of swirling controversy since the Games began. Questions over her eligibility intensified after she edged out the US gymnast Nastia Liukin for the gold medal in the uneven bars on Monday, and was part of the team gold triumph last week. She also edged Britain’s Beth Tweddle out of the medals.

Bela Karolyi, the former gymnastics coach whose wife, Martha, coaches the US women’s team, has repeatedly accused the Chinese of fielding underage female gymnasts. The ages of two other team members have also aroused suspicion: Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin. Time magazine reported that government records, that have since disappeared, showed both girls to be 14. Gymnasts must be 16 to compete.

The minimum age for female gymnasts was increased from 14 to 15 in 1981, and up to 16 in 1997, to protect the physical and mental health of young athletes.

Nadia Comaneci was 14 when she won her fist Olympic gold medal in 1976. Yet despite her stardom, there were criticisms that young girls were being pushed too hard at an age when their bodies and bones were still growing, causing permanent damage. Ironically her coach was Mr Karolyi.

There were also concerns about their mental health, because of the pressure of competing on the world stage at such a young age, and that they were vulnerable to exploitation and even physical abuse by coaches.

"They are obviously kids," Mr Karolyi said. "Twelve, 14 max - and they’re telling the world they are 16? What arrogance." Although the US team has deliberately steered clear of the controversy, his wife suggested after the US team’s loss to China that the Chinese gymnasts were still losing their baby teeth. "One of the girls has a missing tooth," she said.

Mary Lou Retton, the US Olympic gymnastics gold-medallist in the 1984 Games, told the New York Times last month: "The girls are so little, so young. They say they are 16, but I don’t know." The IOC has been accused of deliberately ignoring the issue because it feared offending China.

Yet Giselle Davies, an IOC spokesperson, said tonight that because of troubling new developments, the committee had instructed the International Gymnastics Federation, the sport’s governing body, to investigate.