Chinese Official Blames Paperwork

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 Chinese City Games, 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 today 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 City Games that the New China News Agency 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.

If the age reported by New China was correct, that would have meant He was too young to be on the Chinese team that beat the United States to clinch China's first women's team Olympic gold in gymnastics.

Cui's explanation comes as officials from the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) pored over documents in hopes of putting to rest, once and for all, persistent questions about the ages of all but one member of the six-person team.

Chinese gymnastics officials handed over passports, identification cards and family residence permits after the FIG -- at the request of the International Olympic Committee -- asked for additional documentation on He, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan, Deng Linlin and Li Shanshan.

Gymnasts must turn 16 during the Olympic year to be eligible. Some media reports and online documents have suggested they could be as young as 14.

"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."

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