Gymnasts of the Chinese team stand on the podium after winning the gold in the women’s team final of the artistic gymnastics event of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing on August 13, 2008

Thousands of athletes in southern China are likely to have faked their ages to gain an advantage, a government probe has found, adding fuel to a controversy that flared during last year’s Olympics.

The tests were carried out on mainly teenaged athletes registered at provincial sports academies, according to the report posted on its website last week.

At least one of the athletes was up to seven years older than the registered ages, but most only differed by a year or two, said the report, which listed the names and disciplines of all those tested.

“We must ensure that those athletes faking their ages cannot find any way to take advantage (in competition),” local press quoted bureau officials as saying.

“Based on the bone X-ray examinations, we will review all the results of youth sports competition in 2008.”

The Guangdong Sports Bureau would begin using bone X-ray examinations to verify ages while also stepping up registration requirements for athletes, the reports said.

Chinese athletes have faced repeated accusations of age faking in recent years, most prominently involving the nation’s gold-medal winning gymnastic team at the 2008 Olympics in August last year.

Some of the gymnasts were alleged to have been listed as older than their actual age so they could circumvent a rule banning competitors younger than 16.

After an investigation, the International Federation of Gymnastics, the sport’s governing body, cleared them of any wrongdoing.

In December last year, the Chinese Basketball Association also said it had discovered 36 players with false ages.

New Jersey Nets forward Yi Jianlian, who is from Guangdong Province, is officially listed as being 21 years old, but local press reports late last year said his real age was 24.

The investigation into the 13,000 athletes came as Guangdong prepares to host the 2010 Asian Games.

The province will this year also host the four-yearly China National Sports Games. In 2011, the World University Games will be held in Shenzhen, a major city in Guangdong that borders Hong Kong.

China’s state-controlled newspapers have not reported on the issue extensively in recent days.

However some newspaper editorials and Internet blogs blamed the “age faking” on the government-backed sports academies that are tasked with producing world class athletes and winning Olympic gold medals.

“The sporting world is the frontrunner in giving fake ages… because faking ages has become institutionalized,” the Qianjiang Evening News said in a commentary.

Weeding out the practice would be difficult because coaches and sports bureaucrats know that using such methods have proven to be successful in the careers of many of their athletes, it said.

Source: AFP