a little hard to believe

So apparently everyone on the Chinese gymnastics team is 16 years old.

They all look super young to me; but I suppose that gymnasts do tend to be short in stature.

The commentators did not really do much to hide their suspicions..."the IOC says that all of the ages on the passports received were 16."

Tough to say, I guess...I mean, it's really up to each country that sends a delegation out to the olympics, right? If the country really wants to send out underaged atheletes, they ultimately will find a way to do it - it's not like a government issues documents that are forgeries...(they might just be "errors", right?)

It's not as if the IOC can go claiming shennanagins on the officially government issued documentation of each athlete that is competing.

liking the Olympics

Have been watching the latest round of the Olympics fairly closely....keep hoping that they'll be showing something of the Beijing that I knew - but no luck on that so far.

Some things that caught my attention:

1. Announcers on NBC can't pronounce "Chaoyang park" (朝阳公园)...they keep saying "Chaoyong park"...doesn't seem like that should be so hard to say.

2. There was some Budweiser(?) sponsored ad supposedly showing some popular 'local' bar in Beijing...but it sure looked like a generic blues bar that was sparsely filled - really wonder how they came to even know of that bar.

Although it is fair to say that I'm totally out of touch with the Beijing bar scene, however, I do know what a popular 'Chinese' bar tends to look like - this wasn't it.