KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images

The athletes on China's gold-winning 2008 women's Olympic gymnastics team were not underage, the International Gymnastics Federation has declared after an investigation. Female gymnasts must at least turn 16 in the year of competition to be eligible, and many people suspected that some of the gymnasts were underage due to inconsistent reporting of their ages. In reference to some of the gymnasts' childish body sizes, Bela Karolyi, who coached Mary Lou Retton and Nadia Comaneci, had gone so far to say that China was competing with "half-people."

Not everyone is in the clear, though. It turns out that two members of China's bronze-winning 2000 Sydney team might have been underage. Dong Fangxiao, who was a technical official at this year's games, got her Beijing credential with documents saying she was born Jan. 23, 1986, which would have made her too young to compete in Sydney, the Associated Press reports. Even her blog says she was born in the Year of the Ox (Feb. 20, 1985, to Feb. 8, 1986). Meanwhile, Sydney gymnast Yang Yun said in a June 2007 interview on China Central Television that she was 14 at the 2000 Games. Last week, she told the Associated Press that she had misspoken.

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You've got to hand it to the Chinese. They know how to put on a show, as the world saw during the opening of the Beijing Olympics in August—and today for closing ceremony of the Paralympics.

And the world's media were a pushover audience, according to a new study led by the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA) at the University of Maryland and conducted by the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change.

How did media cover the Olympics? Overwhelmingly as a sporting event rather than as a political power game. Prior to the Olympics, there was much speculation that the global press would turn the games into an international anti-China campaign—after all there had been extensive coverage of the protests against China's human rights record during the global torch relay and of the rioting in Tibet.

But that all essentially disappeared off the front pages of global newspapers. The brilliantly conceived and staged opening ceremony attracted 'gee-whiz' coverage. The press ignored the attending heads of state—and even, in most instances, the parade of their own countries' athletes—to focus on the new Chinese superpower flexing its muscles with choreographed musicians, lights and fireworks.

The first week of athletic competition was also treated as almost pure spectacle. The reporting—not just of the athletes, but of China—was overwhelmingly either positive or neutral in tone.

Which regions of the world were most favorably disposed towards China? The Arab news outlets were the most positive, followed by other Asian countries (such as India), then Latin America, then Europe and the United States. Which region had the most jaundiced eye? Africa.

The Olympics study also looked at other issues. For example: Were mens' or women's events better covered? The press in the Arab world emphasized the achievements of male athletes and the African media focused on women. The Chinese media offered the most balanced coverage of male and female contestants.

The study, conducted live during the Olympics by faculty and students attending the Salzburg Academy in Salzburg, Austria, looked at the coverage of the first week of the games, from August 8 – 14. Working in their native languages—Afrikaans, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish—the researchers analyzed 68 leading newspapers, in 29 countries, across six continents (click here for the full list of countries).

Susan Moeller is director of ICMPA and associate professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism and School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, College Park.

There are many ways to count Olympic medals for country rankings, but by the two most common ways -- by total medals or just golds -- China is leaving the rest of the world in the dust when it comes to Paralympic medals.

The Paralympic Games close tomorrow (or today, if you're several time zones ahead of Passport), and the standings as of the timing of this post show that China has won 207 total medals, more than double No. 2 Britain's 102. When it comes to just golds, China has won 87, again more than double No. 2 Britain's 42.

As discussed on the Becker-Posner blog, a country's Olympic performance can be predicted by factors such as population, per capita income, presence of an authoritarian government, and whether a country is hosting the Olympics. My hunch is that these factors also predict Paralympic performance, but perhaps other factors include how many people in a country's population meet the Paralympics' eligibility criteria and how well a country supports those with disabilities.

China also dominated the Paralympics' medal count (by total medals and by golds) in the 2004 Athens Games. Australia had the most medals and golds at the 2000 Sydney Games, and by the same counts, the United States was on top at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Photo by Guang Niu/Getty Images

The Olympic Games may have closed more than two weeks ago, but that doesn't mean the Water Cube and other venues are standing dormant. The Paralympics opened this weekend!

On Sunday, China competed against Britain in five-a-side soccer. For those not familiar with the game, each team has five players on the field -- all of whom are blind or visually impaired, with the exception of the goalkeeper, who may be sighted. All except the goalkeepers wear eyeshades to ensure fairness. The ball makes a noise when it moves, and each team has a guide behind the opponent's goal to direct players. The field is surrounded by walls, so there are no throw-ins.

Here, David Clarke of Britain (in white) and Chen Shanyong (#3, at right) fight for the ball. China ended up winning 3-0.

MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images

We're still a year away from learning who will host the 2016 Summer Olympics. But, while Beijing is fresh in our minds, I thought it'd be high time to consider the lessons and legacies of the 2008 games with an eye on the future.

If we learned one thing from Beijing 2008, it's that the Olympics are a perfect pretext for a massive security crackdown. So why not award the 2016 games to a city that could actually use a massive security crackdown?  

The murder rate in the state of Rio de Janiero is down to 39 per 100,000, from a high of 64 per 100,000 people in the mid-1990s. That's still high, and one still encounters machine guns while browsing shopping stalls. Some think meditation may do the trick, but an Olympic effort to crack down on petty crime (not political opposition, mind you) could do wonders.

The other finalist host cities are Chicago, Tokyo, and Madrid. The United States recently hosted in 2002 and 1996, Japan in 2006, and Spain in 1992. South America has never hosted the Olympics. Considering Brazil's growing economic clout, the time seems to be about right to finally change that.

Plus, India is gearing up for a 2020 bid of its own. With Beijing 2008, Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, and New Delhi 2020, all of the BRICs would get the recognition they deserve as the 21st century's rising powers. 

Of course, it is important that Rio be truly ready. As my colleague Josh Keating argues in today's Web exclusive, hosting international sporting events can do more harm than good for a country's reputation. The 2010 World Cup in South Africa, for one, appears to be headed toward disaster. But Brazil insists that it successfully hosted the 2007 Pan America Games, and would have proper practice after hosting the 2014 World Cup. Here's hoping Rio gets a good look from the IOC next fall.

Jeff Gross/Getty Images

Boris Johnson may have ruffled some feathers in Beijing by declaring London the "sporting capital of the world" and boasting about Britain inventing ping pong. But the London mayor still had some kind words for China after his Olympic visit.

Chinese bloggers and members of the Chinese media, on the other hand, did not take kindly to the performance of Britain -- and Johnson in particular -- during the Olympic changeover ceremony. One blogger blasted Johnson for not buttoning his suit jacket, while another said the mayor appeared "rude and arrogant" while interacting with his counterpart from Beijing. 

Some of the harshest words, however, were reserved for Jimmy Page and David Beckham:

Unfortunately, the singer and Jimmy Page are absolutely not famous enough to be known or recognised by millions of the Chinese audiences. As for David Beckham, he was supposed to kick the football towards the red circle in the centre of the Bird's Nest, in the end, just like any of his penalties at a football match, he totally missed it. 

Ouch. The Brits may not be rallying for Chinese press freedom anytime soon.

BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images

Remember Angel Matos, the Cuban Olympic martial artist who kicked a referee in the face after he was disqualified from a bronze-medal taekwondo match? According to Fidel Castro, he was totally justified since the match was obviously fixed:

"They had tried to buy his own coach," Castro wrote in his essay, published in state media. "He could not contain himself."

Cuba is accustomed to winning gold in boxing, but settled this year for four silver and four bronze medals. Overall, Cuba took home only two gold medals, down from nine in Athens four years ago.

"I saw when the judges blatantly stole fights from two Cuban boxers in the semi-finals," Castro wrote. "Our fighters ... had hopes of winning, despite the judges, but it was useless. They were condemned beforehand."

After their ejection, Matos's coach alleged that he had been offered a bribe before the match by their Kazakh opponents.

Castro vowed big changes for Cuban sports in the four years in order to counter the "European chauvinism, judge corruption, buying of brawn and brains...and a strong dose of racism" that they were sure to encounter in 2012.

I never like to tell a fellow blogger what he should be writing about, but it seems to me that Castro would better serve Cuban sports by praising an exceptional Cuban athlete like hurdler Dayron Robles, who turned in one of Beijing's more dominating performances, rather than sticking up for an unprofessional bully like Matos.

Madonna, lover of all types of attention, kicked off her world tour on Saturday. Guess we know how she'll be voting in November:

The BBC reported that the two-hour show took a political turn when, in a lead-in to a remixed version of "Like a Prayer," a video sequence showed flashing images of destruction followed by pictures of Hitler, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and then Senator John McCain. Senator Barack Obama popped up in another video interlude, but his montage included Gandhi, John Lennon and Al Gore. The tour arrives in North America on Oct. 4.

In other seriously dumb arts news, Visit London featured a portrait of notorious English murderer Myra Hindley in a promotional video at a London 2012 event in Beijing. Can't wait for those games!

JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images

Angel Valodia Matos (L-red) of Cuba lands a kick on the referee Chakir Chelbat (R) of Sweden after he lost his bronze medal contest in the men's +80 kg taekwondo competition against Arman Chilmanov of Kazakhstan during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 23, 2008.

Story here.

How should Olympic medals be counted for country rankings? Some people say countries should be listed by total medals won; others say gold medals should count more than silver and bronze. Still others have suggested counting medals on a per capita basis.

The International Olympic Committee stresses that the games are between athletes, not countries, and Rule 58 of the Olympic charter says, "The IOC and the OCOG shall not draw up any global ranking per country." (The IOC apparently reads the rule loosely, though. On its Web site, it lists countries by number of gold medals, tagging a disclaimer to the bottom of the list, reports the New York Times.)

A letter to the editor in yesterday's Washington Post offers a novel way to rank countries: weighing medals -- for example, 1.0 for gold, 0.9 for silver, and 0.8 for bronze -- to account for the extra prestige of winning a gold. Using this weighing system with the medal results as they stand at the moment of this post, the top five countries are:

1. United States (91.4 weighted total)
2. China (82.3)
3. Russia (50.8)
4. Britain (40.1)
5. Australia (37.4)

In comparison, the top five countries by total medals won are:

1. United States (102 total medals)
2. China (89)
3. Russia (57)
4. Britain (44)
5. Australia (42)

And the top five by gold medals -- where the rankings completely change -- are:

1. China (47 gold medals)
2. United States (31)
3. Britain (18)
4. Russia (17)
5. Germany (14)

Really, though, variations on how to rank countries can go on ad nauseum because countries are in various "weight classes" based on their populations, GDPs, GDPs per capita, etc. (For more on factors that affect Olympic success, check out the Becker-Posner Blog.) Of course, that didn't stop FP from selecting five countries as "the world's worst Olympians" -- factoring in GDP and how many Olympics they've participated in -- for one of its recent Lists.

Disappointing attendance in the country that helped birth "ping-pong diplomacy" is driving home a point that traditional tennis learned a long time ago: sex sells.

In a sport where women often wear baggy shorts and shirts, table-tennis officals think more form-fitting attire may help draw fans:

We are trying to push the players to use skirts and also nicer shirts, not the shirts that are made for men, but ones with more curves," International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) vice president Claude Bergeret said.

While I do love a good game of ping pong, maybe the problem is most people see table tennis as a hobby and not an Olympic sport. Then again, maybe Bergeret should have simply found a way to get Serbia's Biba Golic (above) into the Olympics this year.

When people talk about China's threat to the West, I don't think this is what they mean:

THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images

Misty May-Treanor (L-back to camera) of the US hugs China's Tian Jia (L-facing) as Kerri Walsh (2nd R) of the US hugs China's Tian Jia Wang Jie (R-facing) at the end of their women's final beach volleyball match at Beijing's Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground on August 21 during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The US team won 2-0 and took the gold medal.

Just asking. Because it's really annoying that nearly every time I hit the NYT homepage, the paper has an above-the-fold picture giving away that evening's big events. Would it kill the Gray Lady to tuck its Olympics coverage somewhere out of sight, so that people who actually want to enjoy the games can do so in peace?

massacremap.com

The makers of this week's map want to remind visitors to Beijing of the violent history lurking behind the glitz and glamor of the Olympic Games. Freedom House's Ellen Bork along with the Weekly Standard's design director Philip Chalk and Tiananmen survivor Tian Jian have created this map for Beijing tourists interested in visiting the sites of the June 4, 1989 massacre of the Tiananmen Square protestors. Each number shows the place where where one of the 176 victims were killed or the hospitals to which their bodies were taken.

You can find information on the victims here and read Bork's explanation of the map at the New York Sun's site.

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

Baseball may be on the way out as an Olympic sport, but observers anticipating the eventual clash of civilizations between the United States and China may have seen a sneak preview on the diamond Monday:

The U.S. beat China 9-1 in the Olympics Monday night, and it was awful. China’s pitchers hit five U.S. batters, sending one to the hospital. U.S. baserunners plowed over two China catchers, likely knocking one out of the Games.

While some reporters at the scene think "Our relations with China were nearly broken at the plate," I wouldn't go that far. After all, the manager of the Chinese team -- who was ejected from Monday's game -- is an American who has been helping establish the national pastime in China since 2003. Personally, I'm still more outraged about the Chinese gymnasts.

Remember way back when people were asking whether we should "politicize" the Olympics? Isn't it just supposed to be about sports and itty bitty gymnasts doing their best? I have to say, in China, that question is bizarre. The Olympics is politics: that is the point.

Take the case of Owen, a torch-bearer living in the youth camp of the Olympic village. He is not a star athlete, but he's certainly well-spoken and smart as a whip. When you ask him what it was like to run those 30 meters he ran with the torch, he begins his story this way:

There is a garden next to the youth camp. In 1860, warriors broke into it and killed everybody. And that was the start of a terrible part of Chinese history, but now, within 140 years, I, as a representative of the youth, stand on the same ground and hold the torch showing that China is ready to be one of the strongest countries in the world. It's completely new and it's completely meaningful. And all of this is seen by the grass and by the land, by the earth, so I kissed it."

After telling us more about the Olympic compound, which is a heavily fortified, expansive prep school surrounded by green walls with the slogan "the youth are the future" scribbled across them, Owen went on. (By the way, at the Olympic youth camp, the youth are provided with soccer fields, basketball courts, swimming pools, a variety of stores and post offices. It is not dissimilar to Oberlin, Ohio, where I went to college, except you can't get in and out of the Village without a pass or the Olympic torch.)

We have dreamed about having the Olympic games for about 100 years. And we've tried so many times, but we failed so many times. If you give the holding rights to a city, it means you have to say that the city is good. We want to hear that you are respecting our behavior, our hard work. Whenever you hold the Olympic games it is a chance for a country or for a city to improve. And that will eventually benefit each and every Chinese.

Years later, when you look at history, you will see, we have made great progress. After we've had so hard time, we've survived. All of the Chinese are strong. We can never be defeated! You can kill us with your gun. But we will never be defeated. We survive. That's what the Olympics can tell the world."

Olympics 2008: It's not just sports; it's not just politics. What it's about is China.

Editor's note: Zoe Chace is an independent public radio producer who is in China for the Olympics. She'll be filing periodic dispatches for Passport about what it's like to be in the middle of the world's biggest spectacle, the 2008 Olympic Games. Got any questions or thoughts on what she should report on? Post your thoughts in the comments below.

Previous posts:

• Olympic Diary, Day 5: Hating the Olympics
• Olympic Diary, Day 2: China's lonely chairman
• Olympic Diary, Day 1: Where is everyone?

NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images

The Telegraph's indefatigable Richard Spencer reports on yet another bit of fakery at the opening ceremonies in Beijing:

[T]he children supposedly representing the country's 56 ethnic groups were in fact all from the same one, the majority Han Chinese race. [...]

They were dressed in costumes associated with the country's ethnic minorities, including those from troubled areas such as Tibet and the muslim province of Xinjiang. Such displays of "national unity" are a compulsory part of any major state occasion.

But the children were all from the Han Chinese majority, which makes up more than 90 per cent of the population and is culturally and politically dominant, according to an official with the cultural troupe from which they were selected.

Asked about this, a Beijing Olympics spokesman was nonplussed, telling reporters, "I think you are being very meticulous... I would argue it is normal for dancers, performers, to be dressed in other races' clothes."

Picking up on Katie's post: What happens when you give in to a massive lobbying effort, somehow believe bogus promises of improvement, wallow in corruption, and ultimately give the Olympics to a country that never deserved them? Just ask the International Olympic Committee:

IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said journalists should not be prevented from doing their jobs, a day after John Ray of London-based ITV News said he was wrestled to the ground and briefly held by police who apparently mistook him for a protester.

Asked repeatedly if IOC officials are embarrassed that China was not living up to its promises, Davies would only say they are happy with the way China is running the sporting events."

And, of course, the opening ceremony was lovely.

FILE; Feng Li/Getty Images

Protesters just can't win in China these days. Now, even those who have requested official permission to protest in Beijing are being arrested, including a handful of citizens upset about having their homes destroyed in preparation for the big games. One would-be demonstrator, Zhang Wei, was even given a sentence of 30 days after repeatedly applying to protest about her forced home eviction.

Given the nature of the protest application process, it's not surprising that the three city parks "designated" as protest zones (and patrolled daily by police) have remained pretty quiet. Two, in fact -- Shije "World" Park (shown above in June) and Ritan Park -- have reportedly remained 100 percent protest-free since the opening ceremonies.

It all makes the words of Wang Wei, the Beijing Olympic Committee's executive vice president, sound pretty empty. Here are his comments from today's press conference in Beijing on press freedom:

[T]he Olympic Games coming to China will help China to open up further and to reform."

Tell it to Zhang Wei.