In the summer of 1993, a minor act of deception briefly exposed a much larger truth about international gymnastics. At the European Championships in rhythmic gymnastics, a thirteen-year-old Dutch athlete was entered into competition using a teammate’s passport—an expedient decision made to avoid a poor result, and one that unraveled almost immediately. What followed was not a dramatic scandal, but something quieter and more revealing: admissions of responsibility, careful hedging of language, and a collective effort to keep consequences manageable.
The Dutch press covered the episode in a restrained, procedural tone. Reports in De Telegraaf and NRC Handelsblad detail how officials within the Dutch Gymnastics Federation (KNGB) knowingly circumvented age-eligibility rules, how the European Gymnastics Federation (UEG) investigated the breach, and how blame was diffused among coaches, administrators, and judges. The prose is sober; the facts are clear. Yet beneath this matter-of-fact surface lies a familiar pattern—one that challenges easy assumptions about where and how age manipulation occurs in the sport.
Age falsification in gymnastics is often narrated as an Eastern Bloc pathology: the product of centralized authority, pliable civil registries, and authoritarian sports systems willing to rewrite identity in service of medals. The Dutch case unsettles that narrative. Here was a Western European federation operating within a democratic state, an independent press, and formal oversight mechanisms—yet subject to the same pressures and incentives. Fear of finishing low in the rankings, institutional expectations of success, and the belief that everyone else was bending the rules proved sufficient to justify deliberate deception.
The mechanics of the fraud are themselves instructive. Lacking the ability—or political cover—to alter official documents, Dutch officials resorted to substitution rather than fabrication: entering an underage gymnast under another athlete’s passport and trusting that inspections would be cursory. This was not naïveté but pragmatism shaped by structural constraint. It reveals how rule-bending adapts to local conditions, even as its underlying logic remains constant.
Equally telling is the response from governing bodies. Despite explicit admissions that fraud had occurred, there was little appetite within the European Union of Gymnastics (UEG) for severe punishment. Officials emphasized their own inspection failures, spoke of shared responsibility, and repeatedly downplayed the likelihood of a suspension. The prevailing tone was conciliatory rather than corrective—a preference for containment over confrontation. Read together, these articles illuminate a sport in which age manipulation was widely understood, unevenly enforced, and, so long as it avoided public embarrassment, often met with indulgence rather than meaningful consequence.
Breaking the Story
Fraud at the Gymnastics Federation
From our gymnastics correspondent
BRUSSELS, Monday — The gymnastics federation (KNGB) committed fraud with the passport of gymnast Ylja Kouwenhoven at the most recent European Championships in rhythmic gymnastics. This was announced by the European Gymnastics Federation (UEG). The UEG’s secretary, Karol Špaček (Czechoslovakia), stated that federation director Rob van de Brink of the KNGB has given a full account of the fraud that took place in May of this year.
Špaček: “The Dutch team deliberately and after careful consideration allowed the thirteen-year-old Kouwenhoven to compete under the name of the one-year-older Sheila van Nierop. That is fraud. But I also realize that the inspection was not sharp enough when checking the photographs in the gymnasts’ passports. Our control procedures therefore clearly fell short. For that reason, I believe that the Dutch gymnastics federation will get off lightly in this case. In September, any possible sanctions against the KNGB will be announced.”
Federation chairman Henk Mannen: “We are investigating the matter internally. By reporting this unpleasant incident to the European federation, we have taken our administrative responsibility. I therefore do not yet want to use the word fraud. That something has occurred that cannot be tolerated is clear.”
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) suspended North Korea for one year last year after it emerged that gymnast Kim Gwang Suk had, over the years, been found to possess three different passports.
De Telegraaf, July 5, 1993
Suspending One Judge
Gymnastics Federation Suspends Judge Sap
By one of our editors
ROTTERDAM, 7 JULY. Jolanda Sap, delegation leader of the Dutch team during the European Championships for rhythmic gymnastics held in Romania in May, has been placed on inactive status by the gymnastics federation (KNGB) as of July 1, for an indefinite period. Sap has been an international judge for sixteen years. The KNGB board made the decision two weeks ago after it became apparent that under her responsibility during the European Championships, there had been fraud with the ages of participants in the group competitions. Mannen [the chairman of the Dutch federation] denies that the suspension has already been finalized. “Well, board members are on vacation. When everyone returns, we will take measures…”
Due to the fraud, the KNGB faces being banned for one year from international competitions. A similar situation happened to North Korea last year. The gymnastics federation, which was informed of the fraud after the European Championships (EC), reported itself voluntarily to the European gymnastics federation (UEG), which will deliberate on measures during a meeting in Israel in September. Mannen: “We absolutely want fair play.”
“In order to have a greater chance at a high ranking, thirteen-year-old Ylja Kowenhoven, who was too young to be allowed to compete, was added to the group competition. According to coach Knip, the gymnastics team was only confronted with the fact that Kowenhoven was normally not allowed to compete on May 19, the day before the competition. “The Dutch jury members Sap and Sneller heard that in a technical meeting. We then decided with all those involved, including national coach Mihaylova, to take the risk and set aside the rules. That was best for the Netherlands. Otherwise, we would have finished much lower than twelfth place. The federation so badly wants to perform well.”
According to a visibly shaken Sap, however, everyone before the departure to Bucharest knew that Kouwenhoven was not allowed to compete in the team competition. “Knip knew that, too.” Both Knip and Sap point the accusing finger for the course of events at the KNGB. Sap: “When the team qualified for the EC during the Dutch qualification competitions, the federation could have seen that those girls were not allowed to compete. The KNGB handles the registrations. Then the ages are also passed along. That’s where the mistake began.”
Knip doesn’t understand why the KNGB reported the matter itself to the UEG. “That’s stupid, that way you wake up those who are sleeping. The UEG would never have found out otherwise.” According to the trainer, a Ukrainian team also fielded a gymnast who was too young during the EC. “They told one of our gymnasts herself that she was still thirteen.” Mayor, secretary-general of the UEG, does not wish to preempt any possible sanctions against the Netherlands. “First video footage from the EC must be reviewed. Only then will we decide. One year suspension? I don’t think so.”
NRC Handelsblad, July 7, 1993
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