China has proven all members of the team to be of legal competing age, but it has some questions to answer about teams it has sent in the past. The Federation of International Gymnastics’ review of the 2008 Chinese Olympic gymnastic team has concluded and found no wrongdoing on the part of the Chinese. Investigators are digging deeper in regards to the Chinese team sent in 2000 and other Olympic squads from various nations since the early 90s.

The truth needs to be revealed and the correct athletes rewarded. However, most of the people who have been following this investigation are continuing to do so with a passion fueled by competitive spirit, and this makes no sense.

Why do we care? What right do we have to point a finger? Is this something we really want to take pride in? In case all the “USA”-chanting, Olympic fan boys have forgotten, if you roll the clock back prior to these 2008 games, our own Olympic program bears a few unsightly marks that I’m sure we all wish we could forget.

Due to the use of performance-enhancing drugs, the United States, along with many other nations, have endured the unfortunate embarrassment of having medals stripped from its athletes. Although proof has not yet been established, there are mounds of circumstantial evidence that suggest that many more than those convicted participated while benefiting from illegal drugs.

So what if China or random nation X built a team of junior-high-school-aged athletes and sent them out to compete with our allegedly enhanced, bio-freak professional athletes? If a little girl can take enough time away from Hello Kitty to make herself a better competitor than our home-bred, chemically-enhanced, multi-million dollar idols then so be it. I’m not so sure I want the world to know that is all it takes to beat us.

In the U.S., attention to steroids has been centered within the national pastime of baseball. As stories have developed and all the circumstantial evidence has been revealed, it has only brought more and more shame to the players involved and the fans that rooted for them so faithfully. Increasingly, more people are losing interest in the truth that lies beneath this huge mess now involving everything from towel boys to Congress. With this, more fans are adopting the frame of mind that suggests that because so many athletes were cheating that the playing field was actually level. The same applies to our Olympic fiasco.

Unlike previous games, our attention and regulation of the 2008 games was heightened and more closely monitored. But in games past, I don’t care who cheated and if we did lose to a 12-year-old, I don’t want to know! Unfortunately, we will have to learn the truth. And if that causes medals to switch hands and to move new names into the record books, then those athletes should take pride in what they have accomplished, and I applaud them. But now that this investigation is looking into the past, there is no, “In your face, China!” moment at the end of this, and that is nobody’s fault but our own.

Andrew McFadden can be reached at [email protected]