Dong Fangxiao waves flowers after receiving the bronze medal in the Sydney Games. Photo: CFP

China has been stripped of its Sydney 2000 Olympics women's gymnastics team event bronze medal by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after one of its athletes Dong Fangxiao was found to have falsified her age.

The other members of that Chinese team include Liu Xuan, Yang Yun, Kui Yuanyuan, Ling Jie and Huang Mandan.

As a result of the decision, they will all give back their medals. The US women's team will be awarded the bronze for the team event, the IOC's Executive Board decided in Dubai.

"The medal and diplomas of Dong Fangxiao are withdrawn and reallocated accordingly," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told the press.

Dong claimed she was 17 at the time of the Sydney Games, but an International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) probe discovered she was in fact just 14, well below the strict minimum age requirement of 16.

Dong's case came to light at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games when she applied for accreditation as a team official and declared her birth date as January 23, 1986, which would have made her 14 during the Sydney Olympics. Dong's registered birth date at the FIG was January 20, 1983.

Yang Yun, a bronze medalist in the team event as well as the uneven bars and who was also under investigation, was cleared in February of breaking the rules but issued with a warning.

The Chinese Gymnastics Association (CGA) now accepts the decision, according to Luo Yi, director of the CGA.

But Luo said Thursday he's not sure if the CGA will make an appeal over the issue.

Suspicions of age faking and other cheating scandals have dogged Chinese sport for years.

During the Beijing Games, the FIG was ordered by the IOC to investigate the age of China's He Kexin, a women's team and uneven bars gold medalist and several teammates, who were all cleared of any wrongdoing. The FIG then introduced a system where all gymnasts taking part in any major event must apply for a licence.

In November 2008, the Asian Basketball Association disclosed that as many as 22 players in the CBA had falsified their ages, which resulted in an investigation by China's basketball officials.

Agencies - Global Times