U.S. girls come of age
1-2 finish in all-around puts cheating Chinese in their place
BEIJING -- It is not possible to have two Mary Lous at once, as we've been looking for just one for nearly a quarter of a century. But in a night that lined up as good vs. evil, women's gymnasts vs. exploited kids, and yes, American vs. China, the right side won.
American Nastia Liukin, who came into the Olympics as The Other One, won the women's individual all-around gold this morning. American Shawn Johnson, the presumptive next-Mary Lou, won silver. And China's Yilin Yang, who is apparently underage, won bronze.
(AP)
``She fixed my mistake,'' he said.
Yang had a chance for gold, as Liukin and Johnson still had their floor routines to go. And Liukin nailed it with her best performance ever, at the most important moment.
``That's what Dad said,'' Liukin recalled. `` `Don't go out and do what you can't do.' ''
Don't overdo it. Johnson followed with another great performance, but it wasn't enough. And Liukin was no longer in Johnson's shadow.
``Of course, Nastia has a very strong character and it wasn't easy (always being No. 2),'' Valeri said. ``I did strongly believe her time was coming.
Liukin and Johnson were able to steal a night away for a sport that has spent the week in scandal. Johnson's story is of a girl growing up in the heartland, Des Moines, going to public school, living at home and not over-training in a factory, where the race is always to see which comes first: a beaten body or a championship.
So they were the winners. And the sport itself was the winner.
Meanwhile, though, they were both still robbed this week, winning silver in the team competition when China was using gymnasts who weren't eligible.
We already knew. The looks on their little faces, the children's expressions. It was always obvious that China was cheating with gymnasts who were not going to be 16 this year, as rules call for.
They were doctoring passports to fix the ages, and all the Olympic organizations and governing bodies have sat quietly, not wanting to smear these Games or, far more importantly, tick off the corporate sponsors who want to open up the Chinese markets.
You know, the people who the Games are here for.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Olympic Committee has sat on hands in fear of ticking off the IOC, not wanting to hurt Chicago's chances of getting the 2016 Olympics.
But there is no more denying the cheating. Nine months before the Olympics, the Chinese government's news agency, Xinhua, reported that gymnast He Kexin, 13, was one of the ``big new stars.'' The Associated Press found the story on-line on Xinhua's archives, then reported it.
Suddenly, Xinhua's story has been taken down, and Zhang Hongliang, an official with China's gymnastics federation, is saying the story had been misreported by China's own agency.
``It's definitely a mistake,'' he said. ``Never has any media outlet called me to check the athletes' ages.''
No. Wrong. Liar. Cheater. It's time for China to give back that team gold. And the U.S. women, who finished second, should be awarded gold.
It's time for the U.S. Olympic Committee, and USA Gymnastics to stop going along with this, stop trembling in fear of ticking off Nike or the IOC.
The U.S. women were ripped off, fans defrauded and even bigger, young girls exploited in gymnastics. Again.
I don't want to make villains out of the Chinese gymnasts. I feel bad for Yang, really, even though that little girl won a bronze medal. It's the system that's wrong, the system that's the bad-guy.
It's time to step up and show some decency. People are being hurt.
And this is going right to the heart of the problem with these Olympics.
Distrust. The Western world doesn't trust China, and China doesn't trust us. Part of the idea is to break down walls. ``One World, One Dream.'' God knows how many times I've seen that on the streets and in the venues.
It's amazing, because I don't think I've met one person who hasn't been profoundly nice here. All the way down to the woman who sits behind the desk on my hotel floor. When I leave for the elevator, she has taken to telling me, ``See. . .you,'' very slowly and carefully, smiling, sometimes giggling and using the slang she has apparently learned from me.
But China has been denying everything about everything the past few weeks. Protesters disappear. The father-in-law of the American volleyball coach was stabbed to death by a Chinese man, and the Chinese government says it was not out of anti-American feelings, just some disturbed guy.
And you never can really tell.
But a scandal that involved a government falsifying passports, and a government saying that the government-run news agency was wrong, well, they can't really deny this one anymore.
It's certainly not going to build trust.
You might wonder why it helps a team to have younger girls competing. One theory is that the smaller girls _ the Chinese gymnasts average 77 pounds _ can flip themselves around easier on the equipment.
But moreso, those age-rules were put in place to stop overly pressuring these young girls' minds, psyches and bodies of this grueling sport, which has been so cruel to young girls for so long.
America has had its own trouble with this, these long, daily, grinding workout sessions: His name is Bela Karolyi. And he still has influence.
That doesn't excuse China.
``We already explained this very clearly,'' said Zhang Hongliang, the Chinese official. ``There's no need to discuss this thing again.''
No, you are not going to just shut this one down.
Evidence has it that at least three Chinese gymnasts were underage. The International Gymnastics Federation has said that China has shown valid passports, not bothering to look deeper.
One world is watching, China. But at the risk of sounding xenophobic, today was America's.