Olympics: China Insists Gymnasts Were Old Enough to Compete

China's deputy sports minister has once more insisted that all the members of the Chinese gold-medal winning women's gymnastics team were old enough to take part in the Olympics. Cui Dalin has blamed the confusion on a paperwork error that occurred when He Xenin, who won two gold medals at the Games but now faces accusations of competing while underage, transferred from a local team to the national team last year.

"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."

The Chinese government news agency, Xinhua, identified He as a 13-year-old during China's Cities Games last year. Gymnasts must turn 16 during the Olympic year to be eligible for the Games. He was part of the team that beat the United States to take China's first women's team Olympic gold in gymnastics and also won individual gold on the uneven bars.

The International Gymnastics federation are currently sifting through paperwork, passports, ID cards and and family residence permits to determine whether the Chines gymnasts have broken the rules. The process has proved slow so far and there is no deadline for the investigation.

"The international federation has required the delivery of birth certificates and all the documents like family books, entries in schools and things like that," the IOC president Jacques Rogge said today. "They have received the documents, and at first sight it seems to be OK."