Growing pains on display

BEIJING - Yang Yilin, through no fault of her own, has been one of the stories of these Games because of questions about whether she and two other gymnasts on the Chinese team are old enough to compete. China insists they are, but that hasn't erased the doubts that they may be under the minimum age of 16.

Reporters got a close-up look at this 4-foot-11-inch figure of controversy as she waited for her medal winners' news conference to begin.

How fragile she looked, like a baby deer in the headlights of an oncoming SUV. Little pink hearts and the word "love" in blue letters decorated her hair clips. The glitter on her forehead twinkled under the lights. Chalk was encrusted where the skin met her slender fingernails. So thin, so uneasy, so out of place she seemed, in a downstairs room in Beijing's National Indoor Stadium. She'd just won an Olympic bronze medal in all-around gymnastics, one of the toughest sporting tests there is.

Two Americans had stood with her on the podium. Nastia Liukin got the gold, Shawn Johnson the silver, and they were late. As minutes passed, reporters crowded around Yang, scrutinizing, asking questions.

Unlike Johnson, who arrived later, obviously delighted with her medal, Yang displayed little outward emotion. She smiled obediently, all small teeth, when reporters asked her to pose for photos. Her little mouth pursed again when the lenses were turned away.

Perhaps Yang is shy by nature. But, really, she just seems to have been sheltered by the Chinese coaches who direct her life.

"For the drug test," coach Liu Qunlin said, passing Yang a bottle of water so she would be able to provide a sample for the dope-testers.

Then, a little hesitantly, Yang started to answer the questions. And the more she said, the more shocking it was. The answers were brief, spoken without heart. What emerged was a picture of a young girl who has been kept largely cut off from family and the outside world for more than a year, so she could be intensely trained to win medals for China at its own Olympics.

Were your parents here to see you compete, among the cheering crowds?

"I don't know."

When was the last time you went home?"

"Ummm . . . before I joined the national team," Yang said, her small voice hard to hear.

When was that?

"More than a year ago."

Will you go on holiday after the Games?

"I don't know."

How many holidays do you get a year?

"I have not had a holiday since I joined the national team."

Yang, He Kexin, and Jiang Yuyuan are among the six Chinese gymnasts who beat the United States this week to win China's first women's team gold. Questions have been raised about those three because of Chinese competition records and media reports that suggested they may be underage - and therefore more flexible and less troubled by old injuries or fear.

The body that runs gymnastics and the International Olympic Committee say they've checked the girls' passports, issued by Chinese authorities, and they show they are old enough to be here.

For someone who supposedly turns 16 this August, Yang still seems to have a lot of growing up to do. If the Chinese passports are correct, then Johnson is only 7 months older than Yang. But the age difference seems much larger than that. At the news conference, Johnson was bubbly, talkative, self-assured - everything Yang was not.

"They are very confident," Yang noted of the American women.

When questions turned to what Yang might like to do after sports, coach Liu interjected.

"It's too soon," she said. "She hasn't done enough gymnastics yet."

Then, after a few final questions, the curtain closed again.

"Let her rest a little," the coach said, cutting the moment short.

And to Yang: "Drink some water." (AP)