Age and gender confusion at the Olympics

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:35 PM -0400 8/15/08, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>A Boston Globe story today on the "issue" of the age of some Chinese
>women gymnasts has the following in a mid-article paragraph:
>
>"If the age reported by Xinhua was correct, that would have meant He
>was too young to be on the Chinese team that beat the United States
>Wednesday and clinched China's first women's team Olympic gold in
>gymnastics.  He is also a favorite for gold in Monday's uneven bars final."
>
>The second sentence above fazed me for a few seconds -- I had to
>re-read and mentally re-pronounce it.
>
>Joel
>
Especially if you hear it out loud.  When you read it on the
page/screen, you realize it must be either about God (who can be any
age or gender) or some female Chinese gymnast named He.  But there is
a certain "Who's on First" flavor about it, I have to concede.

LH

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