The International Gymnast article
Rewind about twenty years, and you will find that Kim Gwang Suk of the People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) was listed as 15 (the proper age at the time) from 1989 to 1991. Unsurprisingly, this raised eyebrows, leading the FIG to ban North Korea from the 1993 World Championships.
I guess North Korea thought the FIG had a short memory, because it’s just come to light that Hong Su Jong has been listed under three different dates of birth at different international competitions. During the 2004 Athens Olympics, she was listed as being born March 6, 1985. For the Asian Games in 2006 and the World Championships in Stuttgart in 2007 [I was there!], her date of birth was given as March 6, 1986. Note to officials who didn’t catch this in 2007: get a new job. For this year’s upcoming Worlds, Hong Su Jong’s birthdate was listed as March 6, 1989. The new (probably correct) date of birth would mean Hong Un Jong wasn’t eligible for the Athens Olympics that she competed in.
What makes this even more comedic is the fact that Hong Su Jong has a sister Hong Un Jong. The two look remarkably alike, and Hong Un Jong’s birthdate was March 6, too–but it has always been listed as March 6, 1989. So it appears that the sisters were twins all along, but North Korea chose to falsify only one sister’s age.
It doesn’t exactly shock anyone, either. Not only has North Korea done this before with Kim Gwang Suk, there has been an enormous flap lately over the Chinese falsifying ages. The North Koreans probably thought themselves above such rules, and being a dictatorial country, pretty much anything goes if that’s what the government wants. It’s easier than pie (so to speak) in such a country to falsify ages. One might expect them to have attempted to be sneakier. I mean, this was exceptionally blatant; at least China had their paperwork all properly falsified, and they didn’t switch the dates of birth every five minutes. What’s remarkable is that it took this long to catch the problem.
Luckily, the Hong sisters are of age by now, so they ought to be able to compete as long as North Korea isn’t banned again. I mean, it isn’t their fault they were told to compete at the age of two for the honor of the glorious leader (God, somebody shut that country down please and put some sane people in charge).
