Hacking the Olympics - The He Kexin Story

Via Fox News -

A determined U.S. computer expert has delved into cached pages on the Internet to unearth Chinese official documents showing a gymnast who took gold in the uneven bars competition, edging the U.S.'s Nastia Liukin, may indeed be underage.

Controversy over whether He Kexin is under the minimum age of 16 has surrounded her participation in the Beijing Olympics. The latest challenge over the age of the tiny Olympian comes from the discovery through a cyberspace maze of Chinese official documents listing her date of birth.

She may not look as if she has reached the minimum competing age of 16, but China said her passport, issued in February, gives her birthday as Jan. 1, 1992. The International Olympic Committee said proof from her passport is good enough.

The latest unofficial investigation was carried out by computer security expert for the Intrepidus Group, whose site, Stryde Hax, revealed a detailed forensic search for He’s age.

First he simply tried Google, only to find that an official listing by the Chinese sports administration that had given her age could no longer be accessed. Then he tried the Google cache, only to find that He’s name had been removed.

Finally, he tried the cache of Chinese search engine Baidu. There, he found that Baidu lists two spreadsheets in He's name, both giving her date of birth as January 1, 1994 — making her 14 years and 220 days old and too young to compete at the Beijing games.

The lists were compiled by the General Administration of Sport of China.

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The US Team should file an appeal with the IOC...even if the IOC doesn't listen.

The IOC is so worried about the Olympic image in China that they are allowing an information controlling government to manipulate their "objective" view.

Why didn't the IOC see this before?

Because they were too busy issuing a DMCA takedown notice to Youtube for a "Students For A Free Tibet" protest video.

If the Chinese government is found to be attempting to trick the IOC, they should be held accountable...and I hope it would be the same for any nation found to be doing so - including the US.

Big ups to Stryde, nice work man.

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UPDATE (8/22/2008) - The IOC has asked the FIG to look into the issue.