The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has started an inquiry to find the exact age of Chinese gymnast He Kexin, who won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics on August 13 as part of the Chinese women's gymnastics team, The Times said on August 22 2008.

Kexin also won the gold in the all-around individual event, beating US gymnast Nastia Liukin.

The IOC wanted to check whether reports that Kexin is two years younger than the birth date listed on her Chinese passport.

A gymnast should be at least 16-years-old to take part in the games and if the IOC's check finds such a discrepancy in regards of Kexin's age, the athlete might be stripped of her medals, The Times said. 

According to the publication, Mike Walker, a New York computer security expert, found Chinese documents that listed the gymnast's age as 14 years and 220 days.

Official data say that Kexin was born on January 1 1992. Walker claimed he has found documents online that said that Kexin was born in 1994.

“I am 16 years old and I don't care what other people think,” Kexin was quoted as saying by Bulgarian news agency BTA in relation to the issue. The ages of two other team members, Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin, have also aroused suspicion, The Times said.