February 29, 2024 • 27 mins
Explore the intense world of the 2000 Sydney Olympics gymnastics competition, where the quest for gold resulted in actions that undermined the core principles of fair competition and athlete welfare. Few could have predicted that the fierce rivalry between the US and China would culminate in a scandal that shook the international gymnastics community to its core.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to Playing Dirty Sports Scandals. I'm your host,
Jay Harris. I've had over twenty years of experience as
a journalist and sportscaster, hosting a variety of ESPN shows
from Sports Center to Outside the Lines. On this show, though,
I'm not just giving you the blow by blow, I'm
taking you way behind the scenes into the heart of
(00:28):
the scandals that's shocked and sometimes forever changed the world
of sports. People who play sports are still human. It's
natural to look up to the Lebron James and Michael
(00:49):
Phelps of the world who achieved feats previously relegated to
the likes of superheroes like Spider Man and Captain Marvel.
But at the end of the day, our sports idols
are just like the rest of us in the ways
that count the most. We all put our pants on
one leg at a time, we all have our good
days and our bad days, and we all are fallible.
When giants fall, it reverberates. Scandals are juicy. We crave
(01:14):
them while simultaneously being appalled by them. Going behind the
scenes to check out what really happened allows us to
imagine lives that we don't lead. That's pretty cool. Dare
I say even a little refreshing. Let's be honest here,
we're all friends, right. It's natural for people to derive
vicarious pleasure and the rule breaking of others, in witnessing
(01:35):
the exaggerated sense that there are good and bad people,
and being empowered to ask for forgiveness from the transgressors,
and to be distracted from the tedium of our own lives. Ah. Yes,
whether we like to admit it or not, Psychologists the
world over would concur that us humans are drawn to
scandal like moths to a flame, and the one we're
(01:58):
flipping into today is among the juiciest. So make like
an athlete, grab that thirst quencher, drink up and join
me flipping, tumbling, spinning and winning. Who knows. Today we're
(02:20):
going to crack open one of the most infamous Olympic
gymnastics scandals, the mayhem and mischief of the two thousand
Sydney Olympics Games. It's not every day, every four years,
or even once a century, that most countries have a
metal strip for breaching child protection regulations, but the cloud
of underage competitors in Sydney signaled a storm for the
(02:42):
world of gymnastics and the Olympic movement in sports, and
particularly at the Olympics, where the very top athletes in
the world lay everything on the line to compete for gold.
Sometimes the goal of winning overshadows judgment, resulting in unthinkable
and even criminal behaviors. To be fair, two thousand was
(03:03):
a wild year before the world converged in Sydney. It
was the turn not just of the century, but of
the millennium. Y two K. It was called Everyone predicted
a computer catastrophe that never happened. The United States needlessly
spent around one hundred billion dollars preparing for the Y
two K that wasn't. NFL coach Bill Belichick became the
(03:25):
coach of the New England Patriots, ushering in an era
that would see him lead the Patriots, along with a
guy named Tom Brady, to a remarkable six Super Bowl wins.
And speaking of six championships, two thousand was also the
year six time NBA champion Michael Jordan returned to the NBA,
this time as the owner of the Washington Wizards. Michelle
(03:46):
Kwan lands seven triple jumps to become the first American
woman to win three World championships. In figure skating since
American legend Peggy Fleming. Finally, Tiger Woods wins his first
US Open Championship golf, and it's fair to say another
sports legend destined to wobble on his own scandalous tightrope
(04:07):
enters the scene. Bottom line. Two thousand was already a
full on action, packed up and down year before Sydney happened.
The Sydney Olympic Games started out like a great date.
The opening ceremony was spectacular, fireworks all over the place,
(04:29):
horses running around with impassioned riders waving flags, a packed
cheering audience, inspiring music, stomping dancers, and a nice tribute
with Australian Aboriginal four hundred meter champion Kathy Freeman lighting
the famous Olympic cauldron. The Australians wowed the world and
we were all on the edge of our seats wanting more. Sadly,
(04:53):
our love affair with the Sydney Games was marred because
two parties, both alike in dignity, were feuding. These guys
were far larger and more domineering than the Capulates and
Montague's had ever been for Romeo and Juliet. Heck, these
entities and odds were actually two superpowers, the United States
of America and China. These countries entered the two thousand
(05:15):
Olympic Games already at one another's throats, and the gymnasts
on their women's teams at the Sydney Superdome were competing
under a shadow of corruption that knew no bounds, as
capitalism and communism vied for global recognition of superior governance.
The truth is that the US women's gymnastics team had
(05:35):
a lot to live up to going into Sydney. Just
four years before, the US women's gymnastics team, made up
of Carrie Strugg, Dominic Dawes, Amanda Borden, J C. Phelps,
Shannon Miller, Amy Chow, and Dominique Mucianu had been dubbed
the Magnificent Seven for their incredible gold medal winning performances
(05:55):
at the nineteen ninety six Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.
They were less. Carrie Strug, in particular, had vaulted into
the history books and led the team to victory on
an ankle with torn ligaments. To put this in context,
tears in the ligaments of the knee often ends entire
seasons for the men of the National Football League, sometimes
(06:16):
even careers and strug was barely eighty seven pounds and
just eighteen years old, and she injured her ankle on
the first of two vaults, which means she had to
pound down the vault runway, strike the beatboard with all
her might, and land after flipping and twisting in the air.
This feat is also known as a springboard, where the
(06:38):
gymnast takes a run, gathers momentum as he or she
nears the apparatus, rebounds off the springboard, and with hands
on the apparatus, vaults over it. Would you feel like
springing on an ankle with torn ligaments while the whole
world watched you? Judging that kind of athletic and mental
courage is a lot to live up to. It is extraordinary.
(07:01):
Dominic Dawes was also smashing through glass as the first
African American woman to make the national team. The Sydney
Olympics would be the third Olympics for the trailblazing gymnastics
competitor Dominic Dawes. But despite the magnitude of the Magnificent
seven US women's gymnastic team's accomplishments at the Atlanta Olympic
Games in Sydney four years later. Gymnast Amy Chow, jam
(07:25):
Jamie Dansher, Dominic Dawes, Christian Maloney, Elise Ray, and Tasha
Schweikert all believed they were up to the task. They
were the US women's gymnastics team for two thousand. They
too had Olympic spirit and strong personal resolve. Dawes and
Chow were part of the gold medal winning team from
ninety six and they anchored the team. Elise Ray, aged eighteen,
(07:49):
came into the Sydney Olympics as reigning US national champion.
There were high hopes the US could repeat as Olympic champions.
In the words of Dominic Dawes, when teams work together,
they win together. But the Chinese women's gymnastics team believed
themselves to be up to the task in two thousand
(08:11):
and two, and they were undoubtedly serious competition. Once an underdog,
the Chinese gymnastics team had risen the world prominence in
the lead up to Sydney. This wasn't by chance. Their
states sponsored recruiting and training, which sees athletes taken from
their parents as young as four years old. If they
show early talent stands in start contrast to the individualistic
(08:33):
approach of the United States. One Chinese sporting official Till
of the New York Times that children from rural areas
or from families that are not so good economically, they
adapt especially well to the hardships. This myopic mindset, where
winning is more important than child welfare, presented and continues
to pose a formidable challenge. It wasn't until nineteen eighty
(09:00):
that Olympic athletes from the United States were even permitted
to earn money through sponsorships, So while China's athletes had
financial support while training, it was up to the US
athletes to obtain their own sponsors. As a result, many
of them went into the Sydney Olympic Games without anything.
Insider reviewed a survey of five hundred elite athletes, and
(09:22):
sixty percent sixty percent said that they felt financially unstable.
Can you imagine hitting the gym at least seven hours
a day, starting at six am, six days a week,
where you're not sure you can afford to make rent
next month. In contrast, Chinese olympians have been and continued
to be sponsored by their government with housing, coaching, training,
(09:46):
and living expenses. Covered in full. The two thousand Olympic
stage was set for a physical and ideological showdown between
two gymnastic and political powerhouses, the United States of America
and China. Okay, taking a big sip of my juice here,
because before we do the blow by blow of how
(10:07):
Sidney played out, you have to know, really know who
Dong Fang Shiao is. Otherwise it's like I'm trying to
tell you about the Netflix show Inventing Anna without explaining
who fake heiress Anna Delvi is first. Nowadays, Dong Fang
Xiao is a thirty seven year old, nondescript resident of Hamilton,
the fourth largest city in New Zealand, located on the
(10:29):
banks of the Waikato River. She teaches gymnastics at the
Huntley Gym Club. But if you ask her employers anything
about her past experience with the sport, don't expect them
to go into detail. After all, Dong had them swear
to silence about her controversial past as a condition of
her hiring. That's according to the New Zealand Herald. You
(10:49):
see back in Sydney in two thousand, Dong was a
powerhouse gymnast for Team China. At four feet three and
a quarter inches tall and just under seventy three. Dong
was notably small, even in a sport where most competitors
are petite, but she was fierce. Before the Sydney Games,
Dog had already established herself as a professional gymnast. She
(11:12):
placed at the Canberra Cup all the way back in
nineteen ninety seven. She was China's highest scoring gymnast in
the all around at the nineteen ninety nine World Championships,
and she took bronze in the World Cup at Glasgow
in two thousand in the floor exercise category. If your
eyes are glazing over hearing her list of achievements, then
(11:33):
juice up and listen carefully now, because this next piece
of information is equal parts crucial, tragic, and impressive as
all get out. When Dong Fengzhiao competed for China and
the Sydney Olympic Games in two thousand, she was fourteen
years old. I could barely get my growing self out
of bed and off to school by eight am at
fourteen years old, and there was Dong powerfully flipping, tumbling
(11:57):
and staying composed on sports biggest stage. She must have
felt like the weight of the world was on her
small shoulders, but spectators certainly didn't feel her pressure as
she soared through the air seemingly effortlessly. So how is
it that this incredible gymnast, indomitable athlete, and composed teenager
(12:17):
found herself in the center of an international sports scandal. Well,
here's the deal, the crux of the scandal, if you will.
Gymnastics is a sport dominated by children. It has been
ever since. Romania sent fourteen year old Nadia Komenicci to
the nineteen seventy six Montreal Olympics, and she ruled, achieving
(12:38):
perfection with the first ever perfect ten in Olympic gymnastics history.
Comonici's grace, precision, and sheer athleticism set a new standard
for excellence. She was also incredibly focused and tough. The
only way to escape fear, she declared, is to trample
it beneath your feet. The world fell in love with
(12:59):
Nadia Comonicici, and her stars shone brightly. But there was
a dark side to Cominici's success too. The idea of
using younger, more flexible, and more athletic girls took off
like a rocket across competitive gymnastics. Initially said at fourteen
The minimum age to compete was raised to fifteen in
the nineteen eighties in an attempt to protect young athletes
(13:19):
from the serious injuries from sprains and strains to dislocations
and head injuries that are a hallmark of such a
difficult sport. Gene Doprak, a prominent sports medicine physician at
the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, argued point blank that
a child athlete's immature skeleton just isn't ready to handle
the day to day stresses that will occur during training.
(13:43):
Stresses imposed on only partly developed systems by competitive gymnastics
are almost certain to cause physical damage that will continue
into adulthood. The International Gymnastics Federation, known as FIG pronounced
like the fruit FIG from its founding origins, and Belgium
and France implemented another rule change in nineteen ninety seven,
(14:04):
increasing the minimum age for international competition to sixteen. Around
this time, studies found that the intense training and serious
injuries reported actually made gymnastics the most dangerous sport for girls.
A sixteen year American study of gymnastics injuries concluded that
gymnastics has injury rates comparable to those found in boys.
(14:26):
Who play soccer, basketball and hockey. But in a sport
where serious competition can start as early as age seven,
the rule changes proved to be a substandard protection. So
by the time that the Sydney Games rolled around in
two thousand, countries out to win medals at any cost
just might be willing to falsify their athlete's ages if
(14:47):
it helped tip the scales of fate in their favor.
Don't you think in the People's Republic of China, where
toddlers were taken from parents to train full time, where
gojog Win, the head of the Chinese Olympic commit he declared,
we must resolutely ensure we are first in gold medals
and we're Olympic champion and sportscaster Matthew Pinsett told the
(15:08):
BBC that children were being pushed beyond acceptable limits in
pursuit of excellence. Is it any wonder that questions were
already brewing when China's pint sized gymnastics star Dong Feng
Chiao hit the floor. US coach Kelly Hills said they'd
all heard the rumors that there were suspicions that some
of the Chinese gymnasts were not at least sixteen years old.
(15:31):
A storm was brewing with young Dong feng Xiao smack
in the eye of it. Meanwhile, the US Women's Olympics
gymnastics team was also under a cloud in Sydney, and
it wasn't just the pressure of living up to expectations
after the Magnificent Sevens nineteen ninety six goal winning performance
in Atlanta. It's easy to lay the blame for what
(15:53):
happened in Sydney solely at China's doorstep, but it's more
complicated than that. Pushing child gymnasts to the dream and
the pursuit of national pride of medals is an endemic,
industry wide disease. That's the truth. The dark, deep roots
of child exploitation had taken hold in their freedom loving
anything as possible attitude capitalist country of the United States
(16:16):
of America two when it came to gymnastics, and this
reality was on full display with the two thousand US
Women's Olympics gymnastics team. The head coach of the US
women's gymnastics team was legendary Hungarian Romanian Bella COOLi and
his wife Marta. They coached Romanian prodigy Nadiacomonici as she
scored her perfect tens and changed gymnastics forever. Soon afterward,
(16:41):
they defected from then communist Romania and immigrated to the
United States of America. Bella, Coole and Marta have coached
many American gymnastics legends, including Carrie Strug, Dominic Dawes, and
Mary lou Rettin. They have also been accused by many
of these same gymnasts of horrific practices, from starvation to
physical abuse. In fact, Romanian authors de Jaro Alaru wrote
(17:05):
in his book Nadia c Secure Tat that the trail
blazing Nadia Comanici is among the victims who were starved
to the point of developing eating disorders, slapped and denied
medical treatment by Bella Coroli. Starving the gymnasts was a
regular practice by the Corolis. Olara wrote, the girls ate
toothpaste at night before going to bed. This is how
(17:27):
hungry they were. In some cases they talked about drinking
water from the toilet tank in secret, because they were
often not allowed to drink water. Some ended up suffering
from bolimia. They became experts in stealing food, which they
hid in places they thought no one would discover like
the hem of the curtain. Comanici claimed she had been
(17:47):
slapped and starved for up to three consecutive days. In
a previously unpublished interview included in Olaro's book, it alleges
Bella Coroli eight meals, including steak and fries, in front
of the allegedly underfed athletes. This is the coach. This
is who the United States put in charge of training
their elite female gymnasts. I look back and feel there
(18:11):
was a lot of verbal and physical abuse. Dominique Moncianu,
who trained with Bella Coaroli for four years, remembers I
felt it was my problem. We need to educate our
elite coaches more and have a better approach to teaching
the athletes about how to be healthy, rather than berate them,
humiliate them, use tactics that could scar them for life.
I'm sure Bella saw injuries, but if you were injured,
(18:34):
Bella didn't want to see it, you had to deal
with it. I was intimidated. He looked down on me.
He was six feet something and I was four foot nothing.
Bella Corooli doesn't shy away from his perspective, despite the
claims which have emerged over the years by nature. I
am never satisfied, Bella Coroli told The Daily Mail in
an interview, it's never enough. Never. My gymnasts are the
(18:58):
best prepared in the world, and they win. That's all
that counts. While the myopic Caroli had coached many Olympians,
two thousand was the first time he was named the
national team coordinator. This was a big deal for him.
It meant that he decided who would make the Olympic team,
and he decided what gymnasts would compete on each apparatus
(19:19):
as part of the team competition. This role requires an
understanding of the unique strategies that play in gymnastics. Coroli
had to ensure each of the athletes competing on each
apparatus was capable of performing a routine that could equal
or beat those of the athletes from the other countries.
He also had to decide if each young athlete could
(19:40):
withstand the harsh glare of the Olympic spotlight, or if
they might be prone to nerves that could cause metal
losing mistakes for the team, for the United States and
for him. Can we really honestly say that the West
took the high road leading up to the two thousand
Olympic Games in Sydney. With all of this going on,
even Bella Coroli himself voiced shared ethics, shared beliefs with
(20:04):
Eastern Chinese training protocol. Coroli said that he disagreed with
age limits in gymnastics, calling for the International Olympic Committee
to abolish it. He praised the Chinese for their competitiveness
and skills during the competitions, and said that he objected
to the possibility that they were being used by their government.
They do good gymnastics and are a good service for
(20:26):
the sport. He said. They have the ultimate effective training program.
You feel it, I feel it. This cannot end well.
We're destined for a sports scandal. The pressure on the
(20:46):
US and China women's gymnastics teams is boiling over. The
temptation to bend the rules is peaking, and West and
East are headed for a face off of unprecedented proportions
on the greatest in international sports stage, the Olympics. The
first hurdle the US gymnastics team had to overcome at
(21:09):
Sydney was to actually qualify for the team finals. No
one could have imagined how close they would come to
a total wipeout. On Sunday, September seventeenth, at least, Ray,
the US national champion, scored a nine point six eighty
seven on beam, but Dominic Dawes, normally steady on beam,
had a fall after a difficult skill and only received
(21:32):
an eight point six on floor. Amy Choo and Krista
Maloney both scored nine point five two five. Ray and
Chow both scored nine point four to six ' eight
on vault, and Ray even scored the top bar score
of the day with a nine point six eighty seven,
but Amy Chow uncharacteristically faltered mid routine and only received
(21:55):
a nine point four. These scores may sound strong, but
they were just barely good enough to place the team
in sixth for the day. The US team had qualified
for the competition, but their performance didn't bode well for
a team hoping to win it all. Russia, Romania, and
China qualified in the first three positions. It was fast
(22:16):
becoming clear that this US team seemed destined for a
bronze if they could beat the Chinese. Two days later,
the team competition began. Bellacaroli had decided which athletes would
compete in each event in an effort to secure that
coveted team medal in a sport where balance and mental
focus of paramount, the shaka finishing sixth and qualifying had
(22:38):
to weigh on these young women and appear to affect
their performances. In the team finals, Romania and Russia fought
it out for gold and silver, finishing within a point
of each other, with Romania winning gold and the Russians
winning the silver. The US and Chinese teams battle it
out for the bronze, and yet another heartbreak for the
(23:00):
US women in Sydney, the Chinese team just edged them
out by one point one point. It was complete heartbreak.
The US women's gymnastics team's failure to even meddle in
the team competition generated plenty of bad press back home.
(23:23):
Gymnastics is a highly mental sport, where focus and confidence
or as much of a required skill as any dismount,
double backflip or full turn. The New York Times alone
has run several articles throughout the years highlighting this issue,
most recently when gymnastics legend Simone Biles took a stand
and spoke out about her mental health struggles. Kristin Maloney,
(23:46):
a member of the two thousand Olympic team in Sydney
expressed being pushed to do more than was probably medically
advisable because she didn't want to show the selection committee
any signs of weakness. You felt like you had to
do everything they asked you to, no matter what, no
matter how injured you were. Maloney said, I remember a
time when I had to come crawling back on the
(24:07):
vault runway because my shin was hurting so bad, but
you had to keep going. The crushing level of effort
that had gone into their Olympic effort, coupled with the
shocking failure to even meddle well, the US women's gymnastics
team never recovered in Sydney. Meanwhile, China's gymnastics team, of
(24:29):
which Dong Fang Shiao was notable, showcased incredible skill and precision.
Like Chinese teams in the past, these girls were all
slight and looked younger than the age the team said
they were. They were all required to be sixteen at
some point during two thousand, as were all the gymnasts
in Sydney, but they weren't because Dong fang Shao was
(24:51):
only fourteen. The Chinese Gymnastics Federation had falsely registered her
in fig records as having been born in nineteen eight,
And even though the Chinese government was about to uphend
Dong fang Shao's entire life blaming their act on her
young shoulders on top of the years of NonStop training
and abuse, nobody really knew, not definitively about the full
(25:14):
fallout of Sydney's gymnastics scandal for the gymnasts, the Chinese
and US governments, the Olympics legacy, and the sport as
a whole, until ten years later. So the US women's
gymnastics team went home from the Sydney Olympic Games without
a single medal, but with plenty of lingering questions about
whether it was a fair competition. What a terrible thing
(25:37):
for them to be wondering after an Olympics experience that
the Greeks had conceived all the way back in seven
to seventy six BCE in the spirit of ethical, respectful,
and above all fair competition. The women's gymnastics showdown between
the United States of America and China and the results
of the Sydney Olympics would reverberate for years, but it
(26:00):
wasn't until two thousand and eight that serious questions arose
that jeopardized the Chinese team's bronze medal, and it wasn't
until twenty ten that it was proven and accepted by
the Chinese government that their team had in fact cheated.
Would the US gymnasts get their bronze medals so many
years later, and given how both sides broke Olympic principles
(26:23):
leading up to the Sydney Games, undermining athlete welfare and
exploiting children, were medals really even the point anymore? Find
out how this gymnastics scandal shakes out in our next
episode of Playing Dirty Sports Scandals. Playing Dirty Sports Scandals
(26:49):
is a production of Dan Patrick Productions, Never Ever Productions
and Workhouse Media from executive producers Dan Patrick, Paul Anderson,
Nick Panela, Maya Glickman, and Jennifer Clary. Hosted by Jay Harris,
Written and produced by Jen Brown, Francie Haiks, Maya Glickman,
and Jennifer Clay.
Hello, and welcome to Playing Dirty Sports Scandals. I'm your host,
Jay Harris. I've had over twenty years of experience as
a journalist and sportscaster, hosting a variety of ESPN shows
from Sports Center to Outside the Lines. On this show, though,
I'm not just giving you the blow by blow, I'm
taking you way behind the scenes into the heart of
(00:28):
the scandals that's shocked and sometimes forever changed the world
of sports. People who play sports are still human. It's
natural to look up to the Lebron James and Michael
(00:49):
Phelps of the world who achieved feats previously relegated to
the likes of superheroes like Spider Man and Captain Marvel.
But at the end of the day, our sports idols
are just like the rest of us in the ways
that count the most. We all put our pants on
one leg at a time, we all have our good
days and our bad days, and we all are fallible.
When giants fall, it reverberates. Scandals are juicy. We crave
(01:14):
them while simultaneously being appalled by them. Going behind the
scenes to check out what really happened allows us to
imagine lives that we don't lead. That's pretty cool. Dare
I say even a little refreshing. Let's be honest here,
we're all friends, right. It's natural for people to derive
vicarious pleasure and the rule breaking of others, in witnessing
(01:35):
the exaggerated sense that there are good and bad people,
and being empowered to ask for forgiveness from the transgressors,
and to be distracted from the tedium of our own lives. Ah. Yes,
whether we like to admit it or not, Psychologists the
world over would concur that us humans are drawn to
scandal like moths to a flame, and the one we're
(01:58):
flipping into today is among the juiciest. So make like
an athlete, grab that thirst quencher, drink up and join
me flipping, tumbling, spinning and winning. Who knows. Today we're
(02:20):
going to crack open one of the most infamous Olympic
gymnastics scandals, the mayhem and mischief of the two thousand
Sydney Olympics Games. It's not every day, every four years,
or even once a century, that most countries have a
metal strip for breaching child protection regulations, but the cloud
of underage competitors in Sydney signaled a storm for the
(02:42):
world of gymnastics and the Olympic movement in sports, and
particularly at the Olympics, where the very top athletes in
the world lay everything on the line to compete for gold.
Sometimes the goal of winning overshadows judgment, resulting in unthinkable
and even criminal behaviors. To be fair, two thousand was
(03:03):
a wild year before the world converged in Sydney. It
was the turn not just of the century, but of
the millennium. Y two K. It was called Everyone predicted
a computer catastrophe that never happened. The United States needlessly
spent around one hundred billion dollars preparing for the Y
two K that wasn't. NFL coach Bill Belichick became the
(03:25):
coach of the New England Patriots, ushering in an era
that would see him lead the Patriots, along with a
guy named Tom Brady, to a remarkable six Super Bowl wins.
And speaking of six championships, two thousand was also the
year six time NBA champion Michael Jordan returned to the NBA,
this time as the owner of the Washington Wizards. Michelle
(03:46):
Kwan lands seven triple jumps to become the first American
woman to win three World championships. In figure skating since
American legend Peggy Fleming. Finally, Tiger Woods wins his first
US Open Championship golf, and it's fair to say another
sports legend destined to wobble on his own scandalous tightrope
(04:07):
enters the scene. Bottom line. Two thousand was already a
full on action, packed up and down year before Sydney happened.
The Sydney Olympic Games started out like a great date.
The opening ceremony was spectacular, fireworks all over the place,
(04:29):
horses running around with impassioned riders waving flags, a packed
cheering audience, inspiring music, stomping dancers, and a nice tribute
with Australian Aboriginal four hundred meter champion Kathy Freeman lighting
the famous Olympic cauldron. The Australians wowed the world and
we were all on the edge of our seats wanting more. Sadly,
(04:53):
our love affair with the Sydney Games was marred because
two parties, both alike in dignity, were feuding. These guys
were far larger and more domineering than the Capulates and
Montague's had ever been for Romeo and Juliet. Heck, these
entities and odds were actually two superpowers, the United States
of America and China. These countries entered the two thousand
(05:15):
Olympic Games already at one another's throats, and the gymnasts
on their women's teams at the Sydney Superdome were competing
under a shadow of corruption that knew no bounds, as
capitalism and communism vied for global recognition of superior governance.
The truth is that the US women's gymnastics team had
(05:35):
a lot to live up to going into Sydney. Just
four years before, the US women's gymnastics team, made up
of Carrie Strugg, Dominic Dawes, Amanda Borden, J C. Phelps,
Shannon Miller, Amy Chow, and Dominique Mucianu had been dubbed
the Magnificent Seven for their incredible gold medal winning performances
(05:55):
at the nineteen ninety six Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.
They were less. Carrie Strug, in particular, had vaulted into
the history books and led the team to victory on
an ankle with torn ligaments. To put this in context,
tears in the ligaments of the knee often ends entire
seasons for the men of the National Football League, sometimes
(06:16):
even careers and strug was barely eighty seven pounds and
just eighteen years old, and she injured her ankle on
the first of two vaults, which means she had to
pound down the vault runway, strike the beatboard with all
her might, and land after flipping and twisting in the air.
This feat is also known as a springboard, where the
(06:38):
gymnast takes a run, gathers momentum as he or she
nears the apparatus, rebounds off the springboard, and with hands
on the apparatus, vaults over it. Would you feel like
springing on an ankle with torn ligaments while the whole
world watched you? Judging that kind of athletic and mental
courage is a lot to live up to. It is extraordinary.
(07:01):
Dominic Dawes was also smashing through glass as the first
African American woman to make the national team. The Sydney
Olympics would be the third Olympics for the trailblazing gymnastics
competitor Dominic Dawes. But despite the magnitude of the Magnificent
seven US women's gymnastic team's accomplishments at the Atlanta Olympic
Games in Sydney four years later. Gymnast Amy Chow, jam
(07:25):
Jamie Dansher, Dominic Dawes, Christian Maloney, Elise Ray, and Tasha
Schweikert all believed they were up to the task. They
were the US women's gymnastics team for two thousand. They
too had Olympic spirit and strong personal resolve. Dawes and
Chow were part of the gold medal winning team from
ninety six and they anchored the team. Elise Ray, aged eighteen,
(07:49):
came into the Sydney Olympics as reigning US national champion.
There were high hopes the US could repeat as Olympic champions.
In the words of Dominic Dawes, when teams work together,
they win together. But the Chinese women's gymnastics team believed
themselves to be up to the task in two thousand
(08:11):
and two, and they were undoubtedly serious competition. Once an underdog,
the Chinese gymnastics team had risen the world prominence in
the lead up to Sydney. This wasn't by chance. Their
states sponsored recruiting and training, which sees athletes taken from
their parents as young as four years old. If they
show early talent stands in start contrast to the individualistic
(08:33):
approach of the United States. One Chinese sporting official Till
of the New York Times that children from rural areas
or from families that are not so good economically, they
adapt especially well to the hardships. This myopic mindset, where
winning is more important than child welfare, presented and continues
to pose a formidable challenge. It wasn't until nineteen eighty
(09:00):
that Olympic athletes from the United States were even permitted
to earn money through sponsorships, So while China's athletes had
financial support while training, it was up to the US
athletes to obtain their own sponsors. As a result, many
of them went into the Sydney Olympic Games without anything.
Insider reviewed a survey of five hundred elite athletes, and
(09:22):
sixty percent sixty percent said that they felt financially unstable.
Can you imagine hitting the gym at least seven hours
a day, starting at six am, six days a week,
where you're not sure you can afford to make rent
next month. In contrast, Chinese olympians have been and continued
to be sponsored by their government with housing, coaching, training,
(09:46):
and living expenses. Covered in full. The two thousand Olympic
stage was set for a physical and ideological showdown between
two gymnastic and political powerhouses, the United States of America
and China. Okay, taking a big sip of my juice here,
because before we do the blow by blow of how
(10:07):
Sidney played out, you have to know, really know who
Dong Fang Shiao is. Otherwise it's like I'm trying to
tell you about the Netflix show Inventing Anna without explaining
who fake heiress Anna Delvi is first. Nowadays, Dong Fang
Xiao is a thirty seven year old, nondescript resident of Hamilton,
the fourth largest city in New Zealand, located on the
(10:29):
banks of the Waikato River. She teaches gymnastics at the
Huntley Gym Club. But if you ask her employers anything
about her past experience with the sport, don't expect them
to go into detail. After all, Dong had them swear
to silence about her controversial past as a condition of
her hiring. That's according to the New Zealand Herald. You
(10:49):
see back in Sydney in two thousand, Dong was a
powerhouse gymnast for Team China. At four feet three and
a quarter inches tall and just under seventy three. Dong
was notably small, even in a sport where most competitors
are petite, but she was fierce. Before the Sydney Games,
Dog had already established herself as a professional gymnast. She
(11:12):
placed at the Canberra Cup all the way back in
nineteen ninety seven. She was China's highest scoring gymnast in
the all around at the nineteen ninety nine World Championships,
and she took bronze in the World Cup at Glasgow
in two thousand in the floor exercise category. If your
eyes are glazing over hearing her list of achievements, then
(11:33):
juice up and listen carefully now, because this next piece
of information is equal parts crucial, tragic, and impressive as
all get out. When Dong Fengzhiao competed for China and
the Sydney Olympic Games in two thousand, she was fourteen
years old. I could barely get my growing self out
of bed and off to school by eight am at
fourteen years old, and there was Dong powerfully flipping, tumbling
(11:57):
and staying composed on sports biggest stage. She must have
felt like the weight of the world was on her
small shoulders, but spectators certainly didn't feel her pressure as
she soared through the air seemingly effortlessly. So how is
it that this incredible gymnast, indomitable athlete, and composed teenager
(12:17):
found herself in the center of an international sports scandal. Well,
here's the deal, the crux of the scandal, if you will.
Gymnastics is a sport dominated by children. It has been
ever since. Romania sent fourteen year old Nadia Komenicci to
the nineteen seventy six Montreal Olympics, and she ruled, achieving
(12:38):
perfection with the first ever perfect ten in Olympic gymnastics history.
Comonici's grace, precision, and sheer athleticism set a new standard
for excellence. She was also incredibly focused and tough. The
only way to escape fear, she declared, is to trample
it beneath your feet. The world fell in love with
(12:59):
Nadia Comonicici, and her stars shone brightly. But there was
a dark side to Cominici's success too. The idea of
using younger, more flexible, and more athletic girls took off
like a rocket across competitive gymnastics. Initially said at fourteen
The minimum age to compete was raised to fifteen in
the nineteen eighties in an attempt to protect young athletes
(13:19):
from the serious injuries from sprains and strains to dislocations
and head injuries that are a hallmark of such a
difficult sport. Gene Doprak, a prominent sports medicine physician at
the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, argued point blank that
a child athlete's immature skeleton just isn't ready to handle
the day to day stresses that will occur during training.
(13:43):
Stresses imposed on only partly developed systems by competitive gymnastics
are almost certain to cause physical damage that will continue
into adulthood. The International Gymnastics Federation, known as FIG pronounced
like the fruit FIG from its founding origins, and Belgium
and France implemented another rule change in nineteen ninety seven,
(14:04):
increasing the minimum age for international competition to sixteen. Around
this time, studies found that the intense training and serious
injuries reported actually made gymnastics the most dangerous sport for girls.
A sixteen year American study of gymnastics injuries concluded that
gymnastics has injury rates comparable to those found in boys.
(14:26):
Who play soccer, basketball and hockey. But in a sport
where serious competition can start as early as age seven,
the rule changes proved to be a substandard protection. So
by the time that the Sydney Games rolled around in
two thousand, countries out to win medals at any cost
just might be willing to falsify their athlete's ages if
(14:47):
it helped tip the scales of fate in their favor.
Don't you think in the People's Republic of China, where
toddlers were taken from parents to train full time, where
gojog Win, the head of the Chinese Olympic commit he declared,
we must resolutely ensure we are first in gold medals
and we're Olympic champion and sportscaster Matthew Pinsett told the
(15:08):
BBC that children were being pushed beyond acceptable limits in
pursuit of excellence. Is it any wonder that questions were
already brewing when China's pint sized gymnastics star Dong Feng
Chiao hit the floor. US coach Kelly Hills said they'd
all heard the rumors that there were suspicions that some
of the Chinese gymnasts were not at least sixteen years old.
(15:31):
A storm was brewing with young Dong feng Xiao smack
in the eye of it. Meanwhile, the US Women's Olympics
gymnastics team was also under a cloud in Sydney, and
it wasn't just the pressure of living up to expectations
after the Magnificent Sevens nineteen ninety six goal winning performance
in Atlanta. It's easy to lay the blame for what
(15:53):
happened in Sydney solely at China's doorstep, but it's more
complicated than that. Pushing child gymnasts to the dream and
the pursuit of national pride of medals is an endemic,
industry wide disease. That's the truth. The dark, deep roots
of child exploitation had taken hold in their freedom loving
anything as possible attitude capitalist country of the United States
(16:16):
of America two when it came to gymnastics, and this
reality was on full display with the two thousand US
Women's Olympics gymnastics team. The head coach of the US
women's gymnastics team was legendary Hungarian Romanian Bella COOLi and
his wife Marta. They coached Romanian prodigy Nadiacomonici as she
scored her perfect tens and changed gymnastics forever. Soon afterward,
(16:41):
they defected from then communist Romania and immigrated to the
United States of America. Bella, Coole and Marta have coached
many American gymnastics legends, including Carrie Strug, Dominic Dawes, and
Mary lou Rettin. They have also been accused by many
of these same gymnasts of horrific practices, from starvation to
physical abuse. In fact, Romanian authors de Jaro Alaru wrote
(17:05):
in his book Nadia c Secure Tat that the trail
blazing Nadia Comanici is among the victims who were starved
to the point of developing eating disorders, slapped and denied
medical treatment by Bella Coroli. Starving the gymnasts was a
regular practice by the Corolis. Olara wrote, the girls ate
toothpaste at night before going to bed. This is how
(17:27):
hungry they were. In some cases they talked about drinking
water from the toilet tank in secret, because they were
often not allowed to drink water. Some ended up suffering
from bolimia. They became experts in stealing food, which they
hid in places they thought no one would discover like
the hem of the curtain. Comanici claimed she had been
(17:47):
slapped and starved for up to three consecutive days. In
a previously unpublished interview included in Olaro's book, it alleges
Bella Coroli eight meals, including steak and fries, in front
of the allegedly underfed athletes. This is the coach. This
is who the United States put in charge of training
their elite female gymnasts. I look back and feel there
(18:11):
was a lot of verbal and physical abuse. Dominique Moncianu,
who trained with Bella Coaroli for four years, remembers I
felt it was my problem. We need to educate our
elite coaches more and have a better approach to teaching
the athletes about how to be healthy, rather than berate them,
humiliate them, use tactics that could scar them for life.
I'm sure Bella saw injuries, but if you were injured,
(18:34):
Bella didn't want to see it, you had to deal
with it. I was intimidated. He looked down on me.
He was six feet something and I was four foot nothing.
Bella Corooli doesn't shy away from his perspective, despite the
claims which have emerged over the years by nature. I
am never satisfied, Bella Coroli told The Daily Mail in
an interview, it's never enough. Never. My gymnasts are the
(18:58):
best prepared in the world, and they win. That's all
that counts. While the myopic Caroli had coached many Olympians,
two thousand was the first time he was named the
national team coordinator. This was a big deal for him.
It meant that he decided who would make the Olympic team,
and he decided what gymnasts would compete on each apparatus
(19:19):
as part of the team competition. This role requires an
understanding of the unique strategies that play in gymnastics. Coroli
had to ensure each of the athletes competing on each
apparatus was capable of performing a routine that could equal
or beat those of the athletes from the other countries.
He also had to decide if each young athlete could
(19:40):
withstand the harsh glare of the Olympic spotlight, or if
they might be prone to nerves that could cause metal
losing mistakes for the team, for the United States and
for him. Can we really honestly say that the West
took the high road leading up to the two thousand
Olympic Games in Sydney. With all of this going on,
even Bella Coroli himself voiced shared ethics, shared beliefs with
(20:04):
Eastern Chinese training protocol. Coroli said that he disagreed with
age limits in gymnastics, calling for the International Olympic Committee
to abolish it. He praised the Chinese for their competitiveness
and skills during the competitions, and said that he objected
to the possibility that they were being used by their government.
They do good gymnastics and are a good service for
(20:26):
the sport. He said. They have the ultimate effective training program.
You feel it, I feel it. This cannot end well.
We're destined for a sports scandal. The pressure on the
(20:46):
US and China women's gymnastics teams is boiling over. The
temptation to bend the rules is peaking, and West and
East are headed for a face off of unprecedented proportions
on the greatest in international sports stage, the Olympics. The
first hurdle the US gymnastics team had to overcome at
(21:09):
Sydney was to actually qualify for the team finals. No
one could have imagined how close they would come to
a total wipeout. On Sunday, September seventeenth, at least, Ray,
the US national champion, scored a nine point six eighty
seven on beam, but Dominic Dawes, normally steady on beam,
had a fall after a difficult skill and only received
(21:32):
an eight point six on floor. Amy Choo and Krista
Maloney both scored nine point five two five. Ray and
Chow both scored nine point four to six ' eight
on vault, and Ray even scored the top bar score
of the day with a nine point six eighty seven,
but Amy Chow uncharacteristically faltered mid routine and only received
(21:55):
a nine point four. These scores may sound strong, but
they were just barely good enough to place the team
in sixth for the day. The US team had qualified
for the competition, but their performance didn't bode well for
a team hoping to win it all. Russia, Romania, and
China qualified in the first three positions. It was fast
(22:16):
becoming clear that this US team seemed destined for a
bronze if they could beat the Chinese. Two days later,
the team competition began. Bellacaroli had decided which athletes would
compete in each event in an effort to secure that
coveted team medal in a sport where balance and mental
focus of paramount, the shaka finishing sixth and qualifying had
(22:38):
to weigh on these young women and appear to affect
their performances. In the team finals, Romania and Russia fought
it out for gold and silver, finishing within a point
of each other, with Romania winning gold and the Russians
winning the silver. The US and Chinese teams battle it
out for the bronze, and yet another heartbreak for the
(23:00):
US women in Sydney, the Chinese team just edged them
out by one point one point. It was complete heartbreak.
The US women's gymnastics team's failure to even meddle in
the team competition generated plenty of bad press back home.
(23:23):
Gymnastics is a highly mental sport, where focus and confidence
or as much of a required skill as any dismount,
double backflip or full turn. The New York Times alone
has run several articles throughout the years highlighting this issue,
most recently when gymnastics legend Simone Biles took a stand
and spoke out about her mental health struggles. Kristin Maloney,
(23:46):
a member of the two thousand Olympic team in Sydney
expressed being pushed to do more than was probably medically
advisable because she didn't want to show the selection committee
any signs of weakness. You felt like you had to
do everything they asked you to, no matter what, no
matter how injured you were. Maloney said, I remember a
time when I had to come crawling back on the
(24:07):
vault runway because my shin was hurting so bad, but
you had to keep going. The crushing level of effort
that had gone into their Olympic effort, coupled with the
shocking failure to even meddle well, the US women's gymnastics
team never recovered in Sydney. Meanwhile, China's gymnastics team, of
(24:29):
which Dong Fang Shiao was notable, showcased incredible skill and precision.
Like Chinese teams in the past, these girls were all
slight and looked younger than the age the team said
they were. They were all required to be sixteen at
some point during two thousand, as were all the gymnasts
in Sydney, but they weren't because Dong fang Shao was
(24:51):
only fourteen. The Chinese Gymnastics Federation had falsely registered her
in fig records as having been born in nineteen eight,
And even though the Chinese government was about to uphend
Dong fang Shao's entire life blaming their act on her
young shoulders on top of the years of NonStop training
and abuse, nobody really knew, not definitively about the full
(25:14):
fallout of Sydney's gymnastics scandal for the gymnasts, the Chinese
and US governments, the Olympics legacy, and the sport as
a whole, until ten years later. So the US women's
gymnastics team went home from the Sydney Olympic Games without
a single medal, but with plenty of lingering questions about
whether it was a fair competition. What a terrible thing
(25:37):
for them to be wondering after an Olympics experience that
the Greeks had conceived all the way back in seven
to seventy six BCE in the spirit of ethical, respectful,
and above all fair competition. The women's gymnastics showdown between
the United States of America and China and the results
of the Sydney Olympics would reverberate for years, but it
(26:00):
wasn't until two thousand and eight that serious questions arose
that jeopardized the Chinese team's bronze medal, and it wasn't
until twenty ten that it was proven and accepted by
the Chinese government that their team had in fact cheated.
Would the US gymnasts get their bronze medals so many
years later, and given how both sides broke Olympic principles
(26:23):
leading up to the Sydney Games, undermining athlete welfare and
exploiting children, were medals really even the point anymore? Find
out how this gymnastics scandal shakes out in our next
episode of Playing Dirty Sports Scandals. Playing Dirty Sports Scandals
(26:49):
is a production of Dan Patrick Productions, Never Ever Productions
and Workhouse Media from executive producers Dan Patrick, Paul Anderson,
Nick Panela, Maya Glickman, and Jennifer Clary. Hosted by Jay Harris,
Written and produced by Jen Brown, Francie Haiks, Maya Glickman,
and Jennifer Clay.
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