He Kexin, 18 Aug 2008

Olympic officials have ordered an investigation into allegations that China's gold medal-winning gymnast He Kexin is too young to compete.

International Olympic Committee officials say the IOC has asked the International Gymnastics Federation to investigate after discrepancies came to light regarding He Kexin's age.

The Gymnastics Federation has accepted He Kexin's passport as proof that the gymnast is old enough to compete. Olympic rules introduced in 1997 say athletes must be at least 16 years old in the year they compete.

But journalists outside of China have published a series of reports citing documents found on the Internet that indicate He Kexin is only 14 years old.

Chinese Olympic officials insist that suspicions about the ages of He Kexin and other Chinese gymnasts are unfounded.

Foreign journalists have also raised questions about the eligibility of two of He Kexin's teammates, Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin, also based on official Chinese reports published on the Internet.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.