Hong Su-Jong

North Korean Hong Su-Jong made the national gymnastics team in 2003 and attended that year’s Summer Universiade for her first international competition. Her next major stop was the 2004 Summer Olympics, where her best individual event was the uneven bars (joint 48th) and she finished 12th in the team competition. After a slow year in 2005, during which her most significant competition was the 2005 East Asian Games, she made up for an unimpressive performance at the 2006 World Championships by winning a gold medal in the women’s uneven bars, silver medals in the women’s vault and artistic team competitions, and bronze in the all-around tournament at the 2006 Asian Games. She continued her success with a silver medal in the women’s vault event at the 2007 World Championships, but injured herself prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics and did not compete.

Problems regarding age falsification began to surface in 2010 when Hong was registered for that year’s World Championships with a birth date of 9 March 1989, which would have made her too young to compete in 2003 or 2004. Prior to this time she had claimed her year of birth as 1985 and 1986 at various international tournaments. North Korea claimed that a secretary had confused her with her sister Hong Un-Jong, 2008 Olympic champion in the horse vault, who had always been listed as being born in 1989. Nevertheless in November 2010 the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique stripped her of her results from 2003 and 2004, banned all North Korean gymnasts from participating internationally until October 2012, and levied a fine against the Gymnastics Association of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.