Nastia Liukin's mom watches from the stands (video)

Brett Singer — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Apparently Nastia Liukin's mother, Anna Kotchneva Liukin, has a hard time watching her gold-medal winning daughter compete. According to the NBC commentators, she spent some of the recent Beijing events shopping. This time, though, she stuck it out, but not without some difficulty. They didn't mention it, but I don't think she knows the guy she's sitting next to, despite the fact that she almost ends up in his lap.

My kids aren't terribly athletic (at least not yet) so I don't know what it's like to see your offspring in an intense competition, and the Olympics are as big as it gets for gymnasts. Anna knows from being on that big stage: she was a champion gymnast herself. Not sure if that makes it harder or easier to see your kid out there; judging from this video, I'd say it must be pretty tough.

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Brett Singer — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:54:00 GMT

He Kexin won a gold medal in the uneven bars and also contributed to the Chinese beating out the U.S. in the team gymnastics event. She looks really really young, and there have been questions about her age for awhile now. The IOC has begun to formally investigate whether or not, "Chinese authorities covered up the true age of their gold-medal winning gymnastics star because she was too young to compete," because of, "'discrepancies' that have come to light about the age of He Kexin." You kind of have to wonder what took them so long, but apparently someone, described as an "American hacker" by the U.K.-based Times Online, has uncovered documents that offer proof that Kexin is too young.

Watching the games, the judging also seemed biased, although that's more subjective. Still, I'm pretty sure I saw a member of the Chinese team fall in one event and not get any deduction, whereas an American who had a similar fall lost points. Béla Károlyi told Bob Costas that, "The lack of competence of certain judges is obvious," and it was tough to disagree.

Károlyi's wife Marta has attacked the age issue the way her gymnasts attacked their events, and while I think she went a little overboard, I agree that the whole thing is very suspicious.

Would the Chinese government lie about an athlete's age in order to gain a competitive advantage? And if so, what happens? The medals get stripped, but should they be banned from the Olympics for a time after that?

So – how old do you think she looks? 14? 16? Do I hear 12?

Source/image: TimesOnline

Strollerderby : nastia luikin

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