China is being busted by IOC! Finally!!

Are they old enough?

IOC seeks probe into China gymnasts' ages

There have been persistent questions that some Chinese gymnasts are underage
The IOC said previously it had verified the passports of all Olympic athletes
But it requested the probe Friday, saying "more information has come to light"

Online records and media reports suggest three Chinese gymnasts -- Jiang Yuyuan (above), He Kexin and Jang Yilin -- may be as young as 12.

BEIJING (AP) -- The International Olympic Committee has asked gymnastics officials to investigate whether the Chinese women's gymnastics team that won the gold medal at the Beijing games had underage athletes, saying that more information had come to light.

"We've asked the gymnastics federation to look into it further," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said Friday. "If there is a question mark and we have a concern, which we do, we ask the governing body of any sport to look into it."

It was not immediately clear what new information prompted the IOC to act now, three days after the gymnastics competition ended.

Messages for the International Gymnastics Federation were not immediately returned.

A gymnast must be 16 in an Olympic year to compete at the games. But questions about the ages of at least three of the athletes have persisted. Online records and media reports suggest three Chinese gymnasts -- He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan and Jang Yilin -- may be as young as 12-14.

The gymnastics federation has said repeatedly that a passport is accepted proof of a gymnast's eligibility to compete, and that China's gymnasts have presented ones showing they are age eligible.

The IOC had said previously that it had verified the passports of all athletes competing at the games.

"We are not in a position to say `It's good, it's not good.' It's a government document," FIG president Bruno Grandi said earlier this week in an interview with The Associated Press.

The Chinese women won six medals, including the team gold and a gold on uneven bars by He. Online records and media reports -- including a Nov. 3 story by the Chinese government's news agency, Xinhau -- have suggested He is only 14. She was asked about her age again after winning the uneven bars title, beating American Nastia Liukin in a tiebreak.

"I was born in 1992 and I'm 16 years old now," He said Monday. "The FIG has proved that. If I'm under 16, I couldn't have been competing here."

Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s, after the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to protect young athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997.

North Korea was barred from the 1993 world championships after FIG officials discovered that Kim Gwang Suk, the gold medalist on uneven bars in 1991, was listed as 15 for three years in a row. Romania admitted in 2002 that several gymnasts' ages had been falsified, including Olympic medalists Gina Gogean and Alexandra Marinescu.

Even China's own Yang Yun, a double bronze medalist in Sydney, said during an interview aired on state broadcaster China Central Television that she was 14 in 2000