Finally, the Beijing debacle is over, and debacle it was, indeed. After some of the details that have come to light about how the truth was played with there, it casts a pall over every medal awarded.
Perhaps one of the very worst examples of bending the rules done by the host country came to light in the gymnastics venue, where He Kexin, took gold on the uneven bars. The child, for so she most obviously was, "won" her medal under false pretenses. Cui Dalin, vice minister of the General Administration of Sport of China, has gone on record to assure doubters that "a series of misunderstandings" about her age all arise from one mistake made on one registration form when she moved from one team to another last year. He's spreading around enough bullshit to grow a whole field of daises with that one. His see-through lie fails to deal at all with the registration list for a 2006 intercity competition in Chengdu, China, and several other online registries in China including national registries compiled by the state sports bureau wherein the child's birth date is listed as January 1, 1994. Do the math, Cui Dalin, if you're capable. After you finish working with your calculator, maybe you could also explain why a government that has naught to hide would take the step of blocking access to many of the registries since the first report surfaced last month accusing the Chinese of having played loose with the facts.
What happened to the ruling that says Olympians must be 16 in the year of the games in which they compete? One has to ask, if that rule can so obviously be sidestepped, then why couldn't other rules be bent to benefit athletes who are not Chinese? In the men's 200, Wallace Spearmon was first placed as the winner of the bronze, and Churandy Martina as the silver medallist, but then both were disqualified for having stepped outside their lanes. Really, what could possibly be so bad about stepping outside their lanes while they ran, when He Kexin was taking medals even though she was outside her lane too, so to speak?
Beijing declared its intent to play with the truth right from the word "go", starting with its pathetic voice dubbing decision for the opening ceremonies. Little Yand Pelyi was deemed too ugly to represent her country. Take a good look at her and see if you can tell what the little one's downfall was. Is it the baby teeth that are a little less than perfect? What was it, exactly? Whatever it was, China decided she wasn't good-looking enough to meet its lofty standards, so it substituted 9-year-old, pig-tailed Lin Miaoke, already a veteran of TV ads, and had her mouth the words. Somehow, they just forgot to be honest with the rest of the world and say they were hiding the real singer in the wings. Now who could possibly question the veracity of statements made by such a regime? Even though He Kexin is listed here, there and everywhere as only 14, China says she is 16, and the rest of us are expected simply to accept their lies.
The furor over protests staged during the games has helped to keep China under a smog of deception and dissimulation. No matter that they had assured the IOC, as part of their being given the games, that they would allow protests during the games. They designated three parks as protest zones and then denied the applications of 77 would-be protesters, with the end result that only a few small, "illegal" protests took place in Beijing. Again, having made the promise that the international media would be allowed the freedom to cover events in Beijing, other than just the games, was no problem for China. They had simply lied, yet again, and proved it by roughing up any journalists who tried to cover the protests.
The Olympics often bring out the very best and the very worst in both the competing athletes and the host country, but this time it would seem that China has taken the duplicity to new heights, or should it be said, new lows?
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