The Chinese Olypmic Conspiracy

To summarize, several questionable events have surrounded China's medal perfomances in the Womens's Gymnastics this Olympics.

In defense of China:

• The Chinese gymnasts are world-class athletes and perform well.


• Hosting the ceremonies does not allow the Chinese any more native judges on the panel.


• You can't tell just by looking that the girls are younger than 16.


• The appearance of questionable situations may be a distortion of American-focused media coverage (there could have been just as many questionable situations involving Brazil, Latvia, or Mars that weren't broadcast on NBC).

In favor of Conspiracy:

• The Chinese are not the best, as is evidenced by them not winning every medal.


• Based on the example of the Salt Lake City scandal, nationality of judges is not necessarily a factor in swinging the vote.


• According to a now banned web article, one of the gymnasts was appraently only 13 last year (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/sports/olympics/27gymnasts.html)


• The American coverage was already bent in China's favor and could have done little more to portray the Chinese as deserving of every medal.


• Though the individual questionable situations may be able to be explained away, that everyone of them ended up benefitting China leaves one with unsettled questions.