If there was an Olympic category for fakery – an event for fraud – then China would have a couple of more gold medals to add to their list of questionable awards.

First they duped the world by showing a digitally created fireworks display at the opening ceremonies.

They said it was the real thing.

The fake and the real thing (insert)

Then, before the smoke of their first scam cleared, they compounded their hoax on an unsuspecting public by offering a fake singer to lip-synch the words to Ode to the Motherland during another opening ceremony fraud.

They said it was the real thing.

Then, during the games, they presented a group of obviously underage children, one apparently even missing a baby tooth, and called them qualified gymnasts.

They said they were the real thing.

When the media raised questions about the children being under the legal age of 16, a fact widespread among other competitors, China responded by presenting the children’s passports.

However, Skip to next paragraphofficials with the International Gymnastics Federation said that questions about competitors ages, especially that of He Kexin, had been raised by Chinese news media reports.

Plus, in addition to the official news agency reports, online records listing the gymnasts’ ages, seem to contradict the passport information, indicating that Little Ms. He and another gymnast may be as young as 14 — two years below the Olympic rules.

But Chinese officials, while denying reports that the gymnasts were late reporting to the stadium because they weren’t allowed to cross the street by themselves, keep pointing to their passports’ “date of birth” entry.

And, just because they faked the opening ceremony, it doesn’t necessarily mean they would have the audacity and arrogance to forge a passport . . . does it?

After all, they said it was the real thing.

Children of the gold

Meanwhile, at the time of this writing, the International Olympic Committee has finally ordered an investigation into these mounting allegations of additional Chinese fraud.

An IOC said that because of "discrepancies" that have come to light about the age of Little Ms. He, an official inquiry has been launched that could result in the baby gymnast being stripped of her two gold medals.  

And now, as the fraud scandal picks up momentum, an insider to the investigation said the ages of two other team members – Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin – have also aroused suspicion, since recent news reports claim that government records, that have since mysteriously disappeared, showed both girls to be 14, too.