Olympic line of the week

Complicated tie-breaking rules cost American gymnast Nastia Liukin a gold medal on the uneven bars Monday, and she finished second to China's tiny He Kexin, right, despite being given the same score of 16.725. Kexin, you might remember, is one of the Chinese gymnasts of doubtful age. She's supposed to be 16.

Liukin and He remained even when the first and then second tie-breakers were applied. The third one — the average of the three lowest of the four counting judges' deductions — gave the edge to the Chinese.

Columnist Gil LeBreton of the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth offered a better tie-breaker — birth certificates.

http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/columnists/gil_lebreton//story/842829.html

Let's hear it for private initiative

Seven members of the Russian track and field team are accused of tampering with their urine samples, and the head of the International Olympic Committee says, sadly, that it appears that “systematic doping” is still going on.

Do tell.

"I think it is just frustrating to find that such type of cheating — planned cheating — is still going on," Arne Ljungqvist said Tuesday. "That's very disappointing to find."

Arne, just wait till you get a good look at the Chinese.

But we’re with you Arne; Americans prefer individual doping, not this state-sponsored crap. It’s a freedom-of-expression thing with us and is — if I’m not greatly mistaken — protected by the First, Fourth and Fifth amendments to our Constitution and probably several others I’m only vaguely aware of …

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/trackandfield/news/story?id=3519823

And Jack Benny is still 39

According to a Jeré Longman and Juliet Macur story in The New York Times, two budding gymnasts on the host Olympic team might be underage — not that it can be proven when the country providing the passports for the athletes has a government as totalitarian as the People's Republic of China.

Younger gymnasts — He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan are both suspected of being 14 — are said to have an advantage in lightness, flexibility and, possibly, fearlessness.

Bela Karolyi, the coach of the U.S. team, notes that age is an easy thing to alter in an authoritarian country, he said, because the government has such strict control of official paperwork.

Karolyi, the story continues, remembered one North Korean gymnast — Kim Gwang Suk — who in the 1991 world championships stood 4-foot-4, weighed 62 pounds, still had what appeared to be baby teeth, and claimed to be 16.

At one point, the North Korean Gymnastics Federation listed her at 15 for three straight years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/sports/olympics/27gymnasts.html?ref=olympics&pagewanted=print

Enjoy the Games

This from the BBC:

“Human rights activist Hou Wenzhuo said she was locked up in Beijing's notorious Qincheng Prison last month.

The 38-year-old says she was interrogated for 18 days — without being charged — before being released. Her release was as sudden as her arrest.

A number of other political activists have also been detained by a government that does not want any protests at the Games.

‘I think it's unacceptable that the year of the Olympic Games is made a year to destroy human rights," said Ms Hou.’ ”

Hou may or may not know it, but she got off easy. Ask Bike Zhang.

According to the China Aid Federation, Zhang, chairman of the Federation House Church, and his wife, Xie Fenglan, were kicked out of their Beijing home in early July by Public Security Bureau officers. A friend took them in, but the police forced them out.

A hotel owner took them in, then — under pressure — turned them out. When the couple tried to travel to another city to find a place to stay, they were stopped, grabbed and interrogated all night “without food, drink or rest.”

In the morning, Xie Fenglan collapsed but wasn’t taken to the hospital for five hours. In the days following her release, she and her husband have been prevented from finding shelter — even with Xie Fenglan’s sister — and at last report, were living on the street.

Why this treatment?

There are state churches in China, which are regulated by the government. But many Christians in China belong to “house churches,” underground churches. And though there are some reasons to believe the communist government is slowly coming to terms with a rise in faith — and especially Christianity — (see link to a June 22 Chicago Tribune story below), the authorities remain twitchy, especially with the Olympic Games nearing.

Zhang’s most serious crime apparently was meeting with an American congressional delegation.

According to the China Aid Association, when it asked why it was treating the pastor and his wife in that way, it was told, "Because Bike Zhang met the Americans and destroyed the harmony of the Beijing Olympic Games."

Ah, harmony. We must have harmony. We WILL have harmony.

Links:

About Hou Wenzhuo: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7500343.stm

About Zhang and his wife: http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=28496&ref=BPNews-RSSFeed0718

About Christianity in China:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-jesus-1-1-webjun22,0,2458211.story