An Olympic Medalist’s 8-Year-Long Secret Was Exposed, Medals Stripped
A promising Olympian’s career ended before it could truly begin.
Dong Fang Xiao became a member of the Chinese National Team at just ten years old. By age 13, she was illegally competing as a senior gymnast in international competitions, being too young at the time to qualify. After helping China win bronze at the 1999 World Championships in Tianjin, she went on to enter the 2000 Summer Olympics despite being still two years too young to compete. At the time, Dong Fang Xiao was 14 years old.
Her incredible performance helped China’s team win a bronze medal at the Olympics, but that medal would be stripped eight years later. When Dong applied to work at the 2008 Summer Olympics as a technical official, she submitted a passport with the birthdate January 23, 1986. This sparked an investigation by the International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG) because, while competing, Dong had submitted a passport that had January 20, 1983 as her birthdate.
After an investigation, China was stripped of the bronze medals Dong had helped it win at both the 1999 World Championships and the 2000 Summer Olympics. This decision sparked public outcry, given that Dong’s career ended before she could have ever legally qualified. In 2001, at the age of fifteen, Dong was forced to retire from gymnastics due to bone necrosis in her leg. She would have finally qualified in 2002.
Competing for her local team in the Chinese National Games, she damaged her knee permanently, in order to win an Olympic medal for the national team, her age was hidden (I don’t dare to use the word ‘falsify’ which may cause trouble) and she has been humiliated. It’s enough to make you cry.
— Li Jia Yang, Netease sports columnist
Dong, who now lives in New Zealand with her husband, has not spoken publically about FIG’s ruling.
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