For every reason that is rationalized to say having underaged gymnasts is an advantage, I can easily think of a disadvantage. This is unadulterated whining. It's not just gymnastics. I've noticed a flurry of American whining in Boxing, Taekwondo and even in Track when Lauryn Williams messed up.

Bob, New London, U.S.

The rule states that you must be 16 in the year of Olympics to compete in gymnastics. This is not the first time that this has happened. Another Chinese gymnast admitted that her age was lowered in the 2000 games. The Romanians admitted that they did it for2 of their gymnasts a few years ago.

Marlene, Alexandria, VA, USA

Wow-you guys are reallyl being had on the U.S. What would you do if your child were knocked out of a lifelong dream by someone who lied to get in front of them wouldn't you do everything in your power to fix it? After all the underage girl can still complete when she REALLY turns 16 legally.

Patsy, Lexington, USA

Even if the girls wait until they are really 16 being small is an advantage over the US already without cheating. It's a test of skill and dexterity and the age limit is a breaking point that is set for a reason. Why can't people just follow the rules and enjoy the show? WHY LIE AND CHEAT?

Patsy, Lexington, USA

If there'a a rule that say "You MUST be 16 to compete" than you MUST be 16 to compete. That's all.
He is a great gymnast, but if she's really 14 then she should have waited for London 2012 to win the gold. I can't believe somebody can justify cheating at the olympics...

Federica, Massa, Italy

like someone said on TV when pouty little miss america got beaten by a chinese girl and she did not congratulate her. AMERICANS DONT LIKE TO LOSE. I did not hear any other country complain

ray , Buderim, Australia

I used to lie about my age to get into nightclubs when I was younger.

I admit, while it's not entirely the same thing, I reckon I might lie about my age to get into my home Olympics and a chance for eternal glory.

Give her coaches a fine maybe, but don't go taking that medal.

Miles, Brisvegas, United States of Australia

is her responsibility to prove her innocent, american idiots? sour losers!

Cris, melbourne, australia

Karoly also said that age should not matter. NBC hyped everything. There is a Jamaican sports doctor who on CNN said to check hand x-rays. Like tree rings, he says there are differences between a 12-14 year old hand and a 16-17 year old hand. He says it is incontrovertable proof.

Tom, Chicago, USA

i believe there may be a problem, but not that big. someone who has never been there has no right to judge fairly. anyone should not easily believe others' words, he should only rely on his own eyes.

wd, NY, US

while it's about age issues, it's necessary and important, while it's about the tie-breaking rules, it's arbitrary and unnecessary. I just can't get it.

laura, new york, US

The gymnastic age controversy was hyped by NBC for ratings. Bela Karoly was over the top and balanced after his initial comments by a composed Tim Daggett & Peter Vidmar. The USA suffered through years of eastern bloc age cheating and doping. They believed it to be over.

Mike, Florida, USA

Assumin the girls were too young to compete, then yes, unfortunately China broke the rules and this would be classified as cheating. I am of Chinese btw. However, you cannot downplay the sheer magnificance and talent of the Chinese girls. The blame does not lie with the girls.

Lenie, Leicester, UK

NOT the girls fault. If they were really fourteen, how much control do you think they will have of the situation? They are children at the end of the day. What concerns me is their plight. US team will lead a comfortable life regardless but not the poor girls with a tarnished reputation.Poor victims

Risa, Loughborough, UK

The premises of the skepticism is that the IOC officials are idiots: they do not care if the athletes are eligible or not, and they cannot tell whether the old and new passports, old birth certificate etc are authentic or not. Where's common sense?

Edward, Bristol, UK

chat rooms that said she was 14. But Penny said he was not really concerned.

“If they have valid passports, bring ’em on,” Penny said. “If they say they’re good, we’re going to beat them.”

Implication?

solshih, KL, Malaysia

You break the rules when winning a medal, you should have it taken away from you. If the age cover-up wasn't discovered, or there wasn't any to begin with, this whole discussion will be moot, and we did lose, fair and square.

Only a matter of time...

JR, Long Beach, CA, USA

I think the problem is less that the girl may or may not be underage (half of them looked about 12 anyway), than the tie-breaking rules seemed arbitrary and unnecessary. Liukin and He should both have received gold, and Liukin not be penalised for a smaller variance of score.

Natalie, Hemel Hempstead, UK

Why didn't they check her out BEFORE the competition? So lame. Why embarrass her now? It's not like they can do the games over!

Mac, NY, NY

Rules are rules. If 14 year old Chinese gymnasts are competing in the games, then not only are the rule-abiding gymnasts missing out on their share of more games (this might have been Nastia's 2nd, say), but more importantly some 16 year old Chinese gymnast had her fair chance at a dream robbed.

Cary, Pittsburgh, USA

I don't so much care that the US lost gold; I care because the Chinese government views medal wins as further affirmation of their repressive regime. Their 'indignance' that nobody trusts their assertion of the girls ages is laughable - as was their justification of the Tiananmen square massacre.

Beez, Yorktown, US

Hey Thomas of Geneva. Have you ever been to Beijing? I suggest you go there and buy a one of those genuine Swiss Rolex watches for $20 and see how long it lasts. Do you think the Chinese could possibly cheat and lie? No, couldn't be. It could only mean the Swiss produce junk, right?

Jim, SAN DIEGO,

Now in America is one guilty until proven innocent ?

Chen, SG, Singapore

Tomas of Geneva:
No one minds being defeated in a fair contest-when ALL play to the same rules. While most other countries ensure that their gymnasts are 16 in the Olympic year--It does appear that China didn't follow that rule. Call it what YOU want, but most call that cheating. What else is it?

Pat Reilly, New York, NY, USA

Tomas - You have no understanding of the American mind. We admire accomplishment and generally applaud it wherever it is found. Yes, we care about winning, just as every nation with Olympic athletes does. But if the winners aren't within the rules it's not really a win is it? We care about fair play

Amy, Ohio, USA

"Truth aside (like whether OJ Simpson "did" or not), how can a "US computer expert uncover Chinese government document"? "

The gentleman who uncovered the documents merely found official ChiGov results sheets in Google's cache. It's not magic and it's not illegal. You can't "delete" the internet.

John Pierce, Denver, CO

The insecurity, touchiness, ultra-nationalism and gracelessness in defeat of the Americans on this board is cringe worthy. How can any of you lot write without any self-awareness or embarrassment?

Tomas, Geneva, CH

Kathleen - In the USA "innocent until proven guilty" applies only to the entity that has the power to incarcerate: the government. It provides for the accused to have a fair hearing IN COURT. We all make judgements about guilt every day because as private citizens we have the right to hold opinions.

Amy, Dayton, USA

Truth aside (like whether OJ Simpson "did" or not), how can a "US computer expert uncover Chinese government document"?
(1) isn't that implying that the US government sanctions hacking?
(2) whether such uncovering document will have legal admissibility is in serious doubt

As american Im shamed

Well L Urich, Ft. Laudedale, FL,

The basic premise of this editorial is incorrect. I haven't observed any real buzz about this. We would like our team to have won. Any team that breaks the rules should be disqualified. If this means a US win, great. Otherwise ... who's Obama's running mate?

Mark, Columbia MD, USA

so...the rules aren't important? i don't think it matters who DIDN'T win, RULES should be applied. I can guarentee that if the americans were the ones in question there would be a complete investigation to uncover the TRUTH.
KATHLEEN i am NOT ASHAMED to be an american.
I AM PROUND OF THE USA!

DANIELLE, San Diego, USA

The age limit is to PROTECT the gymnasts, girls who are pushed so hard so young to peak at 13-14 have long term bone and joint damage because their bodies are still at crucial stages of development when they are being pounded 9 hours a day. Its the coaches/ govt who should be ashamed, not the girls

beth, towson, usa

As an american I'm ashamed. whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? the investigation will go on but until then everyone needs to stop jumping to conclusions. the US needs to stop acting like they have a perfect record when it comes to cheating. hacking isnt exactly legal either.

Kathleen, Arlington, USA

What if the documents that motivated a strong country to invade another small country were forged? Who is going to be responsible for this cheating action? is the strong country going to be sanctioned? The principle on this planet is just power, never justice.

Dennis Zhang, commerce twp, USA

The age limit is an arbitrary, unnecessary rule. If you're 3 years old and can gymnastically compete, have at it. With that said, the rule states "16" so that's what it should be held to. Change the rule! Nastia performed better against He and her balance checks anyway so the tie was bogus.

LL in La, New Orleans, LA, USA

In the words of Jim Lampley, after commenting on the fact that 40% of GB's medals had been won in cycling: "Now, if only the Games had snooker, darts and a dog show."

Steve, Redmond, USA

Make He Give the medals BACK!!!

Blade Runner, Albany, USA! USA!

Ok I will have to say it is not about who won or who lost, it is about following the rules, The rule states one must be 16 or turning 16 in the olympic year... Not 14..... This is blatant cheating. It an athlete gets caught doping then they are disqualified and the lose their medal because it is

Stacey, Philadelphia, USA

because she was sick she broke the rules so she lost the medal. And here comes these little Chines gymnast who think that they don't have to follow the rules. Well that is just plain wrong. I will say again rules are rules. If they don't have to follow the age rule then no other country shoul have

Stacey, Philadelphia, USA

exempt from these rules, be they from USA, Russia, Romania, etc, etc, etc... It has been proven that dates of births on passports can be changed. A Korean girls passport birth date kept changing and this was caught. I really fell that the officials eye were closed because they did not want to

Stacey, Philadelphia, USA

Put this silly story to REST! How many times are we going to read about this heresay garbage?? They have LEGAL passports with their age being SIXTEEN. They are there because they are the best! And because everyone is trying to bring them down, I hope China wins all the individual medals in gymnastic

Colin, Sydney, Australia

Competition on an equal playing field is the premise on which the Olympic Games are based. If the Chinese produced false documents to allow a 14 year old girl to compete then He should definitely be stripped of all medals and the Chinese goverment should be sanctioned for their deception.

Ken Davis, Raleigh, USA

Ok, it wouldn't matter if He was from Germany, France-where ever. What matters to me is that a country-the Olympic HOST country no less, may have forged documents to reflect this girl's age to get her into the Olympics. That is plain wrong no matter what country she is from.

Chris Peterson, Norwalk, USA

I agree with Kerry. It's the cheating that rankles. The Chinese did outperform the U.S.A. but, if their gymnasts were underage, they did have an unfair advantage over the rest of the field. If proof can be found that China was cheating, then China should be held accountable.

Mary, Cleveland, USA

I watched these venues and was a little perplexed that the scoring systems seemed against the US. There were many minor trips and landings on the Chinese that seemed not to matter when it came to scoring. Especially the girl for North Korea on the vault.
It just shows the corruption in the IOC.

Jeff, Phx, AZ, USA

Hey David in Memphis why are you so thin-skinned and touchy? The article is fair and neutral.But you have to respond with smears and insults.
I wonder how many medals GB would win if it had 5 times the population of the USA?

Anyways lose the hate you might enjoy life more.

Michelle, London, GB

This is a dumb rule and should be rescinded. Other than the fact that this girl is probably 14, what has she or her teammates done to "cheat" the Americans out of a gold medal. Being underage does not provide an unfair advantage. Does anyone think the Americans would raise the issue if they won?

Greg Ford, Dallas, USA

I actually think this controversy has blown over in the US, mostly because the American women did so well anyway, with Nastia Liukin winning the all-around gold. It seems there's more indignation in the UK now because Beth Tweddle so narrowly missed the bronze.

Tony, New York, USA

Its markedly over the top to tie gymnastics as a contest between the US and China with NBC's desire to cover the events prime time. Gymnastics & ice skating are shown duriing the evenings because they attract women viewers to the Olympics. Capitalism & overnight ratings, not nationalism, are key.

Richard Pytel, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

It seems that some are looking at this as sour grapes from the US side. I acknowledge that the Chinese gymnastics team performed better than the American ladies. The real issue is the basic Olympic concepts of fair play and non-cheating. The host country is apparently not held to these standards.

Kelly, Dallas, USA

Of course every medal counts. If the silver and bronze medals don't count, then why give them out? Of course, this is coming from a typical jealous European who's country will never have the most medals or golds, American medals are more meaningful anyways. They were earned and not given by judges.

David, Memphis, USA