He Kexin

He Kexin, born January 1, 1992, is a retired Chinese artistic gymnast who appeared at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. In Beijing in 2008, she earned gold on the uneven bars and as part of the Chinese team. Under the 2006–2008 Code of Points, she was among a small number of gymnasts to break 17.00, and her 7.7 difficulty rating on bars that year ranked among the highest globally. Questions about her age arose in the international press, but an official inquiry cleared her.

She started training at Beijing’s Shichahai Sports School in 1997, then competed in the 2006 National Games and the 2007 Intercity Games. *China Daily* reported that her Intercity bars win caught head coach Huang Yubin’s eye, leading to her 2007 recruitment to the national team. Her international debut came in 2008 on the World Cup circuit: she scored 16.550 in Doha and 16.800 in Cottbus. That 16.800 was then the highest uneven bars mark at an international meet under the Code, surpassing Nastia Liukin’s 16.65 from the 2008 Pacific Rim Championships. On May 15, 2008, she broke two world records at the Tianjin World Cup.

At the 2008 Olympics, she helped China win team gold. In the uneven bars final, she and Liukin both received 16.725, with identical A-panel (7.70) and B-panel (9.025) scores. Because He’s individual B-panel marks had less variance, she took gold per FIG tiebreaker rules. At the 2009 World Championships in London, she defended her bars title with a 16.000 and a 7.1 D-score. During the 2010 World team final, she contributed the night’s highest score—16.133 with a 7.4 difficulty—which was the highest difficulty across all four apparatus in the entire London Olympic period and, at the time, the highest bars score ever. A fall in the event final left her without a medal. At the 2011 World Championships, she fell in qualifications and missed the bars final; though she didn’t compete in the team final, she stayed on the bronze-medal Chinese team.

She was chosen for the 2012 Olympic team over 2008 teammate Jiang Yuyuan and 2011 team member Tan Sixin, as her specialty better complemented Deng Linlin. In London, she qualified second for the uneven bars final and finished second (15.933) behind Russia’s Aliya Mustafina, making her the only Chinese female gymnast to medal in the same event at two consecutive Olympics. She is one of just five Chinese female gymnasts to make two Olympic teams, alongside Liu Xuan, Kui Yuanyuan, Cheng Fei, and Deng Linlin.

Her age sparked controversy during and after the 2008 Games. Her passport and the Chinese Olympic Committee list her birth as January 1, 1992, making her 16 at the opening ceremony—old enough to compete. But before the Olympics, Chinese press, including Xinhua, reported her as 13 in 2007 and 14 in 2008; those articles were later removed. Several registration lists from the General Administration of Sport, the Chengdu Sports Bureau, and other sources gave her birth as January 1, 1994, which would have made her 14 and ineligible. Chinese officials maintained she was old enough, saying Xinhua hadn’t confirmed her age and blaming faulty paperwork from a transfer between Beijing and Hubei. He herself said, “My real age is 16. I don’t care what other people say,” and later, “I don’t get upset because I have answered this question many times. There’s no need to explain anymore.” On August 2, the IOC declined to investigate, citing FIG’s verification system. The FIG said it would not ask for more proof beyond the passport. The controversy persisted. *The Times* reported that a computer expert named “Stryde” recovered a deleted registration list showing the 1994 date from cached Baidu pages. On August 21, the IOC asked the FIG to investigate He and her teammates. The next day, the IOC said it had found no evidence of wrongdoing “so far” and expressed confidence in the Chinese Federation’s documentation.