China accepts decision to strip 2000 medal

BEIJING (AFP) The Chinese Olympic Committee said Thursday it accepted a decision to strip China of a gymnastics bronze medal won at the 2000 Sydney Games after one of its female athletes was found to be under age. Dong Fangxiao was listed as 17 years old at the time, but an investigation by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) discovered she was in fact just 14, well below the strict minimum age of 16. The Chinese Olympic Committee has always been committed to safeguarding the fair-play principle in sports and has always ordered its athletes and officials to comply with all rules and regulations of the relevant international federations, said a statement reported by the state-run Xinhua news agency. The COC has learned a lesson and will endeavour to prevent a repeat of such incidents in future, it added. The decision to strip China of the womens gymnastics team bronze was endorsed by the International Olympic Committees (IOC) executive committee meeting in Dubai on Wednesday. The US womens team will be awarded the bronze medal, an IOC statement said. Dongs case came to light at the 2008 Beijing Olympics when she applied for accreditation as a team official. She declared her birth date as January 23, 1986, which made her 14 during the Sydney Olympics. In February, the Chinese Gymnastics Association denounced the initial findings by the FIG, saying there was insufficient evidence. But Xinhua quoted an unnamed spokesman for the association as saying it now accepted the penalty. The CGA is consistent with the International Gymnastics Federation in the fight against unsportsmanlike behaviour such as age falsification, the spokesman said. The CGA will follow the IOC decision. Dongs teammate Yang Yun, a bronze medallist in the team event as well as the uneven bars and who was also under investigation, was cleared in February of breaking the rules but issued with a warning. Age suspicions surrounding some of Chinas female gymnasts also surfaced at the Beijing Games, prompting an FIG inquiry, but the team was cleared after submitting documents which FIG said backed up Chinas age claims. China dominated gymnastics at the Beijing Games, with the mens and womens squads both winning team gold as well as several individual gold medals.