The International Olympic Committee has stripped the Chinese women's team of the bronze medal it won at the 2000 Olympic Games and has said it would award the medal to the U.S. women, who originally placed fourth in team finals.
The long anticipated decision about whether to take China's team bronze medal away was made this morning in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where the IOC executive board was meeting.
Gymnasts are required to be at least 16 by the end of the Olympic year. The Chinese entered Dong in Sydney saying she was 17, but Dong later applied for a media credential to the 2008 Olympic Games and stated that her birthday fell in February 1986, which would have made her only 14 during the Olympics.
Further evidence that Dong's age was faked included her resume and personal blog, where she listed her birthday as February, 1986.
In February, the International Gymnastics Federation concluded a long investigation into whether China's Dong was underage in 2000 by stripping her of her competition results at the Olympics and 1999 World Championships, where she finished sixth all around. At the time, the FIG also recommended to the IOC that the Chinese be stripped of its team bronze medal.
On Wednesday, it was.
"I was shocked and surprised and totally thrilled for each and every one of these athletes," said Kelli Hill, the head coach of the 2000 and 2004 U.S. women's Olympic teams and personal coach of 2000 Olympic team members Dominique Dawes and Elise Ray. "It was earned and deserved 10 years ago."
Hill, who coaches in Maryland, said she had talked to both Dawes and Hill since the news broke. "Elise is just absolutely ecstatic," she said. "She was absolutely thrilled, just kept laughing."
When asked if she ever expected China to be stripped of its Olympic medal, Hill said: "No. Never."
“USA Gymnastics is grateful that the FIG and IOC took the time to thoroughly review and address this issue that was first raised at the Beijing Olympics,” added Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics, in a press release. “Every athlete dreams about winning an Olympic medal. In 2000, our athletes and coaches worked tirelessly leading up to the Olympics and this recognition will certainly have great meaning."
The members of the 2000 U.S. Women’s Olympic Gymnastics Team are Amy Chow, Jamie Dantzscher, Dominique Dawes, Kristin Maloney, Elise Ray and Tasha Schwikert, along with Morgan White, who was named to the team but was injured prior to the Games. Alyssa Beckerman was the alternate. Bela Karolyi was the national team coordinator, with Kelli Hill as head coach and Steve Rybacki as assistant coach.
Schwikert, reached by phone this morning, said she was delighted to finally be able to say she was an Olympic medalist.
"I'll take it," she said about the U.S. being awarded the team bronze 10 years after the fact. "I never thought I'd get this call, 10 years later...I'm just excited and it's just nice to know that all our hard work finally paid off."
Schwikert, who competed for UCLA after making a run at the 2004 Olympic team, now lives in Los Angeles, where she and sister Jordyn work on the ABC Family show "Make It or Break It."
Schwikert said that as an Olympian, she was so focused on her own performance that it never occured to her to wonder whether any gymnast was underage.
"I was oblivious to a lot of the politics and stuff," she said about her Olympic experience in Sydney. "Watching gymnastics now, I have a few questions." She intered for MSNBC at the 2008 Olympics and was able to watch 2008 Chinese team members Deng Linlin, Yang Yilin and He Kexin, all of whom were suspected of being underage, in competition as well as in their everyday lives.
She has not come to a definitive conclusion about whether any of the 2008 Chinese team members, who won gold over the U.S., were age ineligible for competition.
"It's so hard because all the gymnasts are small," she said. "Everyone looks young."
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Comments
Wow... I wasn't expecting them to strip them. Congrats to the US who had a lot of toughness and guts. Not sure how much it means now 10 years later but still congrats are in order!
Silivas and Dobre didn't have to give back the medals they won when they were underaged...
I believe the reason that Silivas and Dobre weren't stripped of their medals was because there is a 10-year statue of limitations, so they found out about the two being underage too late to take away their medals.
This is a pretty sad commentary on the state of Olympic athletes. What happened to integrity? I don't know if those of you reading this article recall the controversy over this but there was little doubt that they cheated and if I remember correctly, there was another similar controversy in the last summer Olympics. Of course the US Team should get the Bronze, but the punishment is not harsh enough for the cheaters that stole the medal, the win, the glory, the pride and the sense of achievement from those who were rightfully entitled to it. I think that the Chinese OWomen's Olympic Gymnastic team should not be able to compete in the next olympics . . . I belive that is what it will take for them to stop their cheating ways.
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