Five hours ago, the AP released an article stating that the FIG is now including the Chinese gymnastics team from the 2000 Sydney Olympics in their investigations into age falsification. Strangely, the article gave no explanation for the shift in the investigation and it definitely did not mention the video Mike “Stryde Hax” Walker and I released on Monday. Kind of an interesting coincidence, considering that as of last week, the FIG didn’t have anything new to report about the on-going investigation when they were asked about it by Stephen Hutcheon, a reporter from the Sydney Morning Herald. Last Thursday, no comment. On Monday, Mike and I release a video showing Yang Yun and the narrator of the state-produced video stating that she was fourteen at the time of the Sydney Games. This Thursday, suddenly the FIG has something to say.
I don’t know about you, but it sounds like we’re getting somewhere.
As for Yang Yun herself, she’s claiming it was merely a slip of the tongue. “Everyone has misspoken before,” she says. “On television shows, there are always slips of the tongue.”
I can relate to that, Yang Yun, anybody could. I’ve been on television in heated interviews before, I know how intense those situations can be. But normally the serious slips of the tongue regarding something as personally significant as your age happen during live TV, not during previously recorded – then thoroughly edited – interviews. And that mistake is certainly not then repeated by the narrator. Such mistakes are usually caught, and either corrected mid-sentence or during the editing process. Personally, I find it difficult to believe that a simple slip of the tongue would be stated so plainly and with such confidence, then repeated later by a narrator who’s reading from a prepared script, then the full text written into subtitles, then the whole program makes its way through extensive editing and fact checking, before being released on national television; surely someone would have caught that slip of the tongue before it went through that entire process, right?
I’m sorry, Yang Yun, but I’m not buying it. Not when this is viewed against all the other myriad discrepancies that exist as of this moment.
Our thanks to Stephen Hutcheon and the Sydney Morning Herald for their remarkable reporting. Good on ya! Another thank you to Hillary Bates for all of her invaluable assistance and support in spreading the word.
Last, but certainly not least, a huge thank you to everyone who has taken the time to contact the FIG to let them know about the video. It took only a few days for your voices to be heard; a few days to change the course of the FIG’s investigation. And although our work didn’t get mentioned by the AP – yet – it’s already having an impact. And believe me when I say, it’s just the beginning! Thanks for your help, now let’s finish what we started, shall we? Let’s keep up with the emails and get the resolution to this investigation that’s justly deserved and long since overdue.