Gymnastics at the 2008 Summer Olympics

Gymnastics at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Artistic
Qualification		men		women
Team all-around		men		women
Individual all-around		men		women
Vault		men		women
Floor		men		women
Pommel horse		men
Rings		men
Parallel bars		men
Horizontal bar		men
Uneven bars				women
Balance beam				women
Rhythmic
Team all-around				women
Individual all-around				women
Trampoline
Individual		men		women

At the 2008 Summer Olympics, three different gymnastics disciplines were contested: artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline. The artistic gymnastics events were held at the Beijing National Indoor Stadium on August 9–19. The rhythmic gymnastics events were held at the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium on August 21–24. The trampoline events were also held at the Beijing National Indoor Stadium on August 16–19.

Competition schedule

All times are China Standard Time (UTC+8)

Artistic gymnastics

Rhythmic gymnastics

Medal summary

Artistic gymnastics

Men's events

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Team all-around	China (CHN) Chen Yibing Huang Xu Li Xiaopeng Xiao Qin Yang Wei Zou Kai	Japan (JPN) Takehiro Kashima Takuya Nakase Makoto Okiguchi Koki Sakamoto Hiroyuki Tomita Kōhei Uchimura	United States (USA) Alexander Artemev Raj Bhavsar Joseph Hagerty Jonathan Horton Justin Spring Kai Wen Tan
Individual all-around	Yang Wei China (CHN)	Kōhei Uchimura Japan (JPN)	Benoît Caranobe France (FRA)
Floor	Zou Kai China (CHN)	Gervasio Deferr Spain (ESP)	Anton Golotsutskov Russia (RUS)
Pommel horse	Xiao Qin China (CHN)	Filip Ude Croatia (CRO)	Louis Smith Great Britain (GBR)
Rings	Chen Yibing China (CHN)	Yang Wei China (CHN)	Oleksandr Vorobiov Ukraine (UKR)
Vault	Leszek Blanik Poland (POL)	Thomas Bouhail France (FRA)	Anton Golotsutskov Russia (RUS)
Parallel bars	Li Xiaopeng China (CHN)	Yoo Won-Chul South Korea (KOR)	Anton Fokin Uzbekistan (UZB)
Horizontal bar	Zou Kai China (CHN)	Jonathan Horton United States (USA)	Fabian Hambüchen Germany (GER)

Women's events

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Team all-around	China (CHN) Cheng Fei Deng Linlin He Kexin Jiang Yuyuan Li Shanshan Yang Yilin	United States (USA) Shawn Johnson Nastia Liukin Chellsie Memmel Samantha Peszek Alicia Sacramone Bridget Sloan	Romania (ROU) Andreea Acatrinei Gabriela Drăgoi Andreea Grigore Sandra Izbaşa Steliana Nistor Anamaria Tămârjan
Individual all-around	Nastia Liukin United States (USA)	Shawn Johnson United States (USA)	Yang Yilin China (CHN)
Vault	Hong Un Jong North Korea (PRK)	Oksana Chusovitina Germany (GER)	Cheng Fei China (CHN)
Floor	Sandra Izbaşa Romania (ROU)	Shawn Johnson United States (USA)	Nastia Liukin United States (USA)
Uneven bars	He Kexin China (CHN)	Nastia Liukin United States (USA)	Yang Yilin China (CHN)
Balance beam	Shawn Johnson United States (USA)	Nastia Liukin United States (USA)	Cheng Fei China (CHN)

The group of top six AA female qualifiers face the judges before the start of competition.

Rhythmic gymnastics

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Group all-around	Russia (RUS) Margarita Aliychuk Anna Gavrilenko Tatiana Gorbunova Elena Posevina Darya Shkurihina Natalia Zueva	China (CHN) Cai Tongtong Chou Tao Lü Yuanyang Sui Jianshuang Sun Dan Zhang Shuo	Belarus (BLR) Olesya Babushkina Anastasia Ivankova Ksenia Sankovich Zinaida Lunina Glafira Martinovich Alina Tumilovich
Individual all-around	Yevgeniya Kanayeva Russia (RUS)	Inna Zhukova Belarus (BLR)	Anna Bessonova Ukraine (UKR)

Trampoline

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's individual	Lu Chunlong China (CHN)	Jason Burnett Canada (CAN)	Dong Dong China (CHN)
Women's individual	He Wenna China (CHN)	Karen Cockburn Canada (CAN)	Ekaterina Khilko Uzbekistan (UZB)

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China (CHN)	11	2	5	18
2	United States (USA)	2	6	2	10
3	Russia (RUS)	2	0	2	4
4	Romania (ROU)	1	0	1	2
5	North Korea (PRK)	1	0	0	1
	Poland (POL)	1	0	0	1
7	Canada (CAN)	0	2	0	2
	Japan (JPN)	0	2	0	2
9	Belarus (BLR)	0	1	1	2
	France (FRA)	0	1	1	2
	Germany (GER)	0	1	1	2
12	Croatia (CRO)	0	1	0	1
	South Korea (KOR)	0	1	0	1
	Spain (ESP)	0	1	0	1
15	Ukraine (UKR)	0	0	2	2
	Uzbekistan (UZB)	0	0	2	2
17	Great Britain (GBR)	0	0	1	1
Total		18	18	18	54

Qualification

Champions Gala

The traditional Gymnastics Champions Gala took place on August 20 at the National Indoor Stadium. Participants are mainly selected from the 2008 Olympic trampoline and artistic gymnastics, as well as medalists from world championships. In addition, some Chinese pop stars appeared in the Gala.

The performances included Olympic disciplines such as floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, parallel bars, horizontal bar, uneven bars, balance beam, rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline gymnastics; non-Olympic discipline such as tumbling and acrobatic; and art performances such as dancing, martial art, instrument performance and chorus.

Age controversy

After initially accepting the ages of all members of the Chinese women's gymnastic team, on August 21, 2008 the I.O.C. instructed the International Gymnastics Federation, known as the F.I.G., to investigate allegations that China's dual gold medal winning gymnast He Kexin is underaged and therefore was not eligible to compete during China's Olympic gymnastics competition.^[1] F.I.G was instructed to take up the issue with the Chinese gymnastics federation and report back to the I.O.C. later on Friday, August 22.^[2] Currently, the International Gymnastics Federation sets the age requirement for competition at 16 years old in the year of the Olympiad.^[1] The IOC had initially accepted the ages of all the Chinese participants, but new documents surfaced placing He Kexin's birth year at 1994, not 1992 as initially reported on her Chinese passport.^[1] This would place her at age 14 and ineligible for competition.^[1] According to online sports registration lists in China, over half the team — He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan, Deng Linlin — would be under age.^[2] The F.I.G., however, previously said that those gymnasts were eligible and that the ages on their passports were correct.^[2]

The investigation was initiated after an American blogger and hacker identified as Mike Walker allegedly discovered a cached official Excel spreadsheet showing He Kexin's birthday as January 1, 1994.^[1][3] His discoveries support earlier reports from The New York Times^[2] and other online bloggers regarding He Kexin's age discrepancy. Earlier, several bloggers found links to news stories and photo captions - in both English and Chinese published in 2007 and in early 2008 in several publications, including the state-run Xinhua news service, which cited He Kexin's age as 13.^[1] One cached version of a story published in May 2008 referred to her as being aged 14.^[1]

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said on Sunday, August 24 that "at first glance", the paperwork supplied by the Chinese Federation supported the position, that all six members of its gold medal women's gymnastics team were old enough to compete at the Beijing Games. However, the FIG continued to investigate the age controversy, and requested additional information on every member of the team except for Cheng Fei.

On October 1, 2008, the FIG ended their second investigation and concluded that He Kexin and her teammates from the 2008 Olympic games were old enough to compete.^[4] Though some American media outlets have voiced doubts about the decision,^[5][6][7] the gymnasts have been cleared by the FIG of any wrongdoing.

In 2014, North Korean female gymnast Cha Yong-hwa was a subject of disciplinary hearing because of false passport used to falsify her age. The FIG decided to withdraw her license and nullify all her results, including the results from 2008 Olympics.^[8]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2008 Summer Olympics gymnastics.

• Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics
• Federation Internationale de Gymnastique

See also

• Olympic medalists in gymnastics (men)
• Olympic medalists in gymnastics (women)
• 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
• Underage Gymnasts Controversy at 2008 Summer Olympics

Gymnastics at the Summer Olympics 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 List of medalists (men, women) List of venues