He Kexin
Encyclopedia
He Kexin is a Chinese gymnast
. At the 2008 Olympics
in Beijing she won gold medals on the uneven bars (her specialty) and as a member of the Chinese Artistic Gymnastics team. In 2008, she won two World Cup titles on the uneven bars. On the bars she was one of the few gymnasts in the world to score over 17.00 under the 2005–2008 Code of Points. With an A-score of 7.7 in 2008, she had one of the highest difficulty scores in the world in the event, along with Yang Yilin
, Nastia Liukin
and Beth Tweddle
. As with several of her teammates, questions were raised in the international press when earlier reports surfaced indicating she may not have been old enough to compete in the 2008 Olympics, but an official investigation found in her favor.
, He was recruited for the Chinese National Team in 2007, after her uneven bars win at the Intercity Games drew the attention of head coach Huang Yubin.
He made her international debut in 2008, participating in several events on the World Cup circuit. At her first meet, the World Cup in Doha
, she scored 16.550 on the uneven bars; at her second, the Cottbus Cup, she scored 16.800. The mark was the highest uneven bars score posted at an international event under the current Code of Points, besting Nastia Liukin
's mark of 16.65 at the 2008 Pacific Rim Championships
. On May 15, 2008 He participated in the Tianjin World Cup, breaking two world records.
At the 2008 Olympics, He was a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese team. In the uneven bars final, she and American Nastia Liukin
both posted final marks of 16.725, and earned identical A and B-panel scores of 7.70 and 9.025, respectively. Because He's individual B-panel marks had a lower variance
, she won the gold medal as per the Olympic tiebreaker rules of the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
(FIG).
He Kexin is currently an event specialist on the uneven bars. She intends to diversify into an all-arounder following the Olympic season. In the 2009 World Championships
held in London
, she defended her bars title and won a gold medal with a score of 16.000, with a 7.1 D-score. It is important to note that the 2009–2012 Code of Points counts the top 8 elements (instead of the top 10 elements as were previously counted) in the routine towards the D-Score. Thus, D-Scores around the world have dropped since 2008.
During the team finals in the 2010 World Gymnastics Championships, He Kexin contributed the highest score of the night to her team total. But a fall in the event finals, left her way out of the medals and unable to defend her world title. In the qualifications of the 2011 World Gymnastics, He Kexin fell once and had a major dead hang and didn't make the event finals. Although she did not compete in any event in the team final, he remained on the China team which eventually won the Bronze medal.
. Chinese officials maintained that He was in fact old enough to compete, stating that Xinhua had not confirmed He's age before filing their news reports and attributing the discrepancies in the reporting He's age to faulty paperwork when He was transferred from Beijing to Hubei. He herself, speaking to reporters after the Olympic team final, said, "my real age is 16. I don't care what other people say". In another interview He Kexin stated "I don't get upset because I have answered this question many times, there's no need to explain anymore". On August 2, the International Olympic Committee
stated that they would not investigate the discrepancy in He's reported age because the FIG's own verification system was sufficient proof of eligibility. The FIG, in responding to the situation, stated that they would not ask for additional proof of age beyond the passport already supplied by Chinese officials.
However, the matter continued to be a source of controversy among members of the gymnastics community and the media.
The Times
reported that a computer expert "Stryde" had recovered one of the now deleted registration lists showing He's birth date as January 1, 1994 birth date through cached pages on the search engine Baidu
. On August 21, the IOC announced that they had asked the FIG to open an investigation into He and her teammates' ages. On Friday August 22, 2008, the IOC said they had not uncovered any evidence of wrongdoing "so far" and expressed confidence that the Chinese Federation's documents were correct. However, the FIG held an emergency meeting about the situation on August 23 and requested additional documentation for every gymnast on the Chinese team, with the sole exception of team captain Cheng Fei
. On August 24, a Chinese official addressed the registration lists found online, stating that the discrepancy was due to an administrative error which took place when He was transferred between teams while participating in the InterCity Games in 2007.
On October 1, 2008, the FIG concluded their investigation, finding that He and her Olympic teammates were old enough to compete. However, some international media outlets continued to voice doubts that He and her teammates were old enough to compete.
Gymnast
Gymnasts are people who participate in the sports of either artistic gymnastics, trampolining, or rhythmic gymnastics.See gymnasium for the origin of the word gymnast from gymnastikos.-Female artistic:Australia...
. At the 2008 Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
in Beijing she won gold medals on the uneven bars (her specialty) and as a member of the Chinese Artistic Gymnastics team. In 2008, she won two World Cup titles on the uneven bars. On the bars she was one of the few gymnasts in the world to score over 17.00 under the 2005–2008 Code of Points. With an A-score of 7.7 in 2008, she had one of the highest difficulty scores in the world in the event, along with Yang Yilin
Yang Yilin
Yang Yilin is a Chinese gymnast. She is the 2008 Olympic all-around bronze medalist and a member of the gold medal winning Chinese Olympics gymnastics team. Yang was also the 2007 World Championships bronze medalist on the uneven bars.-Gymnastic career:...
, Nastia Liukin
Nastia Liukin
Anastasia Valeryevna "Nastia" Liukin is a Russian-American artistic gymnast. She was the 2008 Olympic individual all-around Champion, the 2005 and 2007 World Champion on the balance beam, and the 2005 World Champion on the uneven bars...
and Beth Tweddle
Beth Tweddle
Elizabeth "Beth" Kimberly Tweddle MBE is an English gymnast. Tweddle is a three time world champion having won the 2010 World Championships and 2006 World Championshipson the uneven bars and the 2009 World Championships on the floor...
. As with several of her teammates, questions were raised in the international press when earlier reports surfaced indicating she may not have been old enough to compete in the 2008 Olympics, but an official investigation found in her favor.
Gymnastics career
He Kexin trained at the Shichahai Sports School in Beijing. She participated in China's National Games in 2006 and Intercity Games in 2007. According to China DailyChina Daily
The China Daily is an English language daily newspaper published in the People's Republic of China.- Overview :China Daily was established in June 1981 and has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in the country...
, He was recruited for the Chinese National Team in 2007, after her uneven bars win at the Intercity Games drew the attention of head coach Huang Yubin.
He made her international debut in 2008, participating in several events on the World Cup circuit. At her first meet, the World Cup in Doha
Doha
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...
, she scored 16.550 on the uneven bars; at her second, the Cottbus Cup, she scored 16.800. The mark was the highest uneven bars score posted at an international event under the current Code of Points, besting Nastia Liukin
Nastia Liukin
Anastasia Valeryevna "Nastia" Liukin is a Russian-American artistic gymnast. She was the 2008 Olympic individual all-around Champion, the 2005 and 2007 World Champion on the balance beam, and the 2005 World Champion on the uneven bars...
's mark of 16.65 at the 2008 Pacific Rim Championships
Pacific Rim Championships
The Pacific Rim Championships is a major regional biennial gymnastics competition. It is open to teams from member nations of the Pacific Alliance of National Gymnastics Federations, including the Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, USA and other nations on the Pacific coast...
. On May 15, 2008 He participated in the Tianjin World Cup, breaking two world records.
At the 2008 Olympics, He was a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese team. In the uneven bars final, she and American Nastia Liukin
Nastia Liukin
Anastasia Valeryevna "Nastia" Liukin is a Russian-American artistic gymnast. She was the 2008 Olympic individual all-around Champion, the 2005 and 2007 World Champion on the balance beam, and the 2005 World Champion on the uneven bars...
both posted final marks of 16.725, and earned identical A and B-panel scores of 7.70 and 9.025, respectively. Because He's individual B-panel marks had a lower variance
Variance
In probability theory and statistics, the variance is a measure of how far a set of numbers is spread out. It is one of several descriptors of a probability distribution, describing how far the numbers lie from the mean . In particular, the variance is one of the moments of a distribution...
, she won the gold medal as per the Olympic tiebreaker rules of the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
The Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique or International Federation of Gymnastics is the governing body of competitive gymnastics. Its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was founded on July 23, 1881 in Liège, Belgium, making it the oldest international sport organisation...
(FIG).
He Kexin is currently an event specialist on the uneven bars. She intends to diversify into an all-arounder following the Olympic season. In the 2009 World Championships
2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 41st World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was held at The O2 arena in London, United Kingdom, on 12 October to 18 October 2009. Similar to the World Championships in 2005, there were no team competitions...
held in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, she defended her bars title and won a gold medal with a score of 16.000, with a 7.1 D-score. It is important to note that the 2009–2012 Code of Points counts the top 8 elements (instead of the top 10 elements as were previously counted) in the routine towards the D-Score. Thus, D-Scores around the world have dropped since 2008.
During the team finals in the 2010 World Gymnastics Championships, He Kexin contributed the highest score of the night to her team total. But a fall in the event finals, left her way out of the medals and unable to defend her world title. In the qualifications of the 2011 World Gymnastics, He Kexin fell once and had a major dead hang and didn't make the event finals. Although she did not compete in any event in the team final, he remained on the China team which eventually won the Bronze medal.
Age controversy
During and after the Olympics, He's actual age became the subject of controversy. Her passport and the Chinese Olympic Committee list her date of birth as January 1, 1992, which would make her old during the 2008 Olympic opening ceremonies and therefore old enough to compete. However, before the 2008 Olympics, He's age was reported by the Chinese press, including the state news service, Xinhua, as 13 in 2007 and 14 in 2008 in news articles that were later taken off-line. Her birth date has also been given on several registration lists of the General Administration of Sport in China, the Chengdu Sports Bureau and other registration sources as "1994-1-1" (January 1, 1994), which would have made her old during the Opening ceremonies, and therefore too young to participate in the 2008 Summer Olympics2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
. Chinese officials maintained that He was in fact old enough to compete, stating that Xinhua had not confirmed He's age before filing their news reports and attributing the discrepancies in the reporting He's age to faulty paperwork when He was transferred from Beijing to Hubei. He herself, speaking to reporters after the Olympic team final, said, "my real age is 16. I don't care what other people say". In another interview He Kexin stated "I don't get upset because I have answered this question many times, there's no need to explain anymore". On August 2, the International Olympic Committee
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
stated that they would not investigate the discrepancy in He's reported age because the FIG's own verification system was sufficient proof of eligibility. The FIG, in responding to the situation, stated that they would not ask for additional proof of age beyond the passport already supplied by Chinese officials.
However, the matter continued to be a source of controversy among members of the gymnastics community and the media.
The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
reported that a computer expert "Stryde" had recovered one of the now deleted registration lists showing He's birth date as January 1, 1994 birth date through cached pages on the search engine Baidu
Baidu
Baidu, Inc. , simply known as Baidu and incorporated on January 18, 2000, is a Chinese web services company headquartered in the Baidu Campus in Haidian District, Beijing, People's Republic of China....
. On August 21, the IOC announced that they had asked the FIG to open an investigation into He and her teammates' ages. On Friday August 22, 2008, the IOC said they had not uncovered any evidence of wrongdoing "so far" and expressed confidence that the Chinese Federation's documents were correct. However, the FIG held an emergency meeting about the situation on August 23 and requested additional documentation for every gymnast on the Chinese team, with the sole exception of team captain Cheng Fei
Cheng Fei
Cheng Fei is a Chinese gymnast. She is a three-time World Champion on the vault and 2006 World Champion on floor exercise. She was a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese teams for the 2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Aarhus, Denmark and 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China...
. On August 24, a Chinese official addressed the registration lists found online, stating that the discrepancy was due to an administrative error which took place when He was transferred between teams while participating in the InterCity Games in 2007.
On October 1, 2008, the FIG concluded their investigation, finding that He and her Olympic teammates were old enough to compete. However, some international media outlets continued to voice doubts that He and her teammates were old enough to compete.
Skills
- Uneven bars: Healy (Forward giant in reverse grip with full spin on one arm to end in eagle or mixed grip) - Ling JieLing JieLing Jie is a retired Chinese artistic gymnast. She was the 1999 World Champion on the balance beam, the 2000 Chinese all-around national champion, and the silver medalist on the uneven bars at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney....
(Forward giant in eagle grip with full spin on one arm to end in eagle grip) - Li YaLi YaLi Ya is a former Chinese gymnast. She was a member of the Chinese team that won the team competition at the 2006 World Championships and was a member of the 2004 Olympic Team...
release (Jaeger with half turn to regrasp in mixed grip) - straddled Jaegar; Full Pirouette from Eagle Grip- Jaeger in a laid-out position-Pak salto to the low bar; Cast to Handstand with Half Turn- Toe on Shoot up to High Bar; Clear Hip Circle-Higgins Roll (Backward giant with half turn to eagle)- Ling 1/2 (See above)- full twisting double back dismount.
- Vault: Double twisting YurchenkoYurchenko (vault)Yurchenko is the name of both a specific vault and a vault family in artistic gymnastics. The Yurchenko was named after Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko, who originated the vault in the early 1980s....
- Floor Exercise: 2½ twist to front layout 1/1; tucked double Arabian; back layout 3/1; double pike back; triple spin; switch 1/2; tour jete 1/2
- Beam: Round-off to back layout; switch leap to back tuck; front tuck; korbut; leg-up full turn; sheep jump; side aerial; round-off to 2½ twist dismount
Competitive history
| Year | Competition Description | Location | Apparatus | Rank-Final | Score-Final | Rank-Qualifying | Score-Qualifying |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | World Championships | Toyko | Team | 3 | 3 | 230.370 | |
| Uneven Bars | 80 | 12.733 | |||||
| 2010 | Asian Games Asian Games The Asian Games, officially known as Asiad, is a multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until the 1978 Games. Since the 1982 Games they have been organised by the... |
Guangzhou Guangzhou Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port... |
Team | 1 | 234.150 | - | - |
| Uneven Bars | 1 | 16.425 | 1 | 16.100 | |||
| World Championships | Rotterdam Rotterdam Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre... |
Uneven Bars | 7 | 13.966 | 1 | 16.066 | |
| 2009 | World Championships | London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its... |
Uneven Bars | 1 | 16.000 | 1 | 15.975 |
| 2008 | World Cup/Series | Cottbus Cottbus Cottbus is a city in Brandenburg, Germany, situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree. As of , its population was .- History :... |
Uneven Bars | 1 | 16.850 | 1 | 16.800 |
| Doha Doha Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar... |
Uneven Bars | 1 | 16.550 | 1 | 16.450 | ||
| Olympics Games | Beijing Beijing Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's... |
Team | 1 | 188.900 | 1 | 248.275 | |
| Uneven bars | 1 | 16.725 | 6 | 15.725 | |||
| World Cup/Final | Madrid Madrid Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan... |
Uneven Bars | 1 | 16.250 | |||
Floor Music
- 2008 "Travel to India" (Track14) and "The Awakening" (track 16) from Jackie Chan's Movie "The Myth" soundtrack
- 2010 Aankhein Khuli Hoo by Shahrukh Khan