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China’s women’s gymnastics team in the 2000 Olympics has been stripped of its bronze medal after an investigation revealed that Dong Fangxiao was 14 years old at the time, not 16 as international rules require. How did our intrepid investigators figure this out? Like so:

Dong worked as a national technical official for the Beijing Olympics. Her accreditation information listed her birthday as Jan. 23, 1986, which would have made her 14 in Sydney. Also, Dong’s blog said she was born in the Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac (Feb. 20, 1985, to Feb. 8, 1986).

Obviously China’s athletic authorities are accustomed to pretty lackadaisical standards in the cover-up arena. Subtlety and thoroughness probably aren’t especially urgent in authoritarian states, after all. But if they’re going to compete with the West, they need to lift their game. Better coverups, please.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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