Beijing ? Being a young gymnast wasn’t always a bad thing. Nadia Comaneci, after all, was just 14 when she scored a perfect 10 to win gold in Montreal.

The philosophy of the time was old enough to vault, old enough to compete.

The way a budding age scandal has clouded the gymnastic competition in these games, maybe it’s time to return to the days when no one had to produce an ID to compete.

The age issue resurfaced Friday with the International Olympic Committee urging the people who run gymnastics to make sure five Chinese gymnasts are really 16 as the Chinese claim. The IOC did so after being prodded by U.S. officials to take one last look at the true ages of medal winners He Kexin, Yang Yelin and others.

There’s some motivation behind the U.S. request, which came days after the IOC and gymnastics officials declared themselves satisfied. Should the Chinese be found to be underage, there’s a couple of gold medals that could be inherited.

It’s a longshot because ages are verified by passports and the two gymnasts have passports showing they are 16. And the International Gymnastics Federation isn’t going to find any official evidence showing otherwise.

But there are questions that haven’t been answered.

Earlier this month, the AP found registration lists posted on official Chinese sports Web sites that showed He listed as being born Jan. 1, 1994, and Yang on Aug. 26, 1993. That would make both of them 14, not the 16 the Chinese now say they are.

And the reason the Chinese might have to tell a fib? Simple, young girls make perfect gymnasts, with their bodies and minds uncluttered with the fear of falling and failure.

Worked for Comaneci. And some think it worked for the Chinese here.

It wouldn’t be the first time a country tried to pull a fast one in gymnastics. North Korea was barred from the 1993 world championships after FIG officials discovered one of the country’s gold medalists was listed as 15 for three years in a row.

But the idea that either the IOC or FIG will step in and do something about Chinese medalists who look suspiciously like 12-year-olds who raided their mother’s makeup drawer is almost laughable.

That’s despite a controversy that already seems older than some of the girls.

Take one look at them and it’s clear to an untrained eye they’re awfully young. They have little teeth, unformed bodies and carry themselves with the gait of girls who have yet to begin planning their Sweet 16 parties.

The real question might be why there is an age limit in the first place. The reasoning behind making 16 the minimum age in 1997 was to protect young girls from injury, but if ages can’t be enforced there’s not much point to keeping an artificial limit.

There are a lot of other young athletes in these games, including a 12-year-old swimmer from Cameroon and a 13-year-old swimmer from Seychelles. The U.S. even has a 15-year-old diver on its team.

Young athletes aren’t the real problem. It’s the parents, coaches and countries who drive them to compete at too young an age that make it an issue.

Maybe it’s time to open the Olympics to all ages.