After nearly six weeks of investigation, the international gymnastics federation, FIG, has concluded that China's Olympic gold medal team at the Beijing Games were old enough to compete.

However, question marks remain over the team that won bronze in Sydney eight years ago, and some will continue to be sceptical that there has been a cover-up on this year's Olympic result.

A FIG statement yesterday said: "Originals of official documents received from the Chinese Gymnastics Association, specifically passports, identity cards and family booklets or household registers, confirm the ages of the athletes."

Gymnasts must be 16 in Olympic year. But two members of the 2000 squad: Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun, remain under scrutiny: "The FIG does not consider the explanations and evidence provided to date in regards to these athletes as satisfactory."

Dong's credentials for Beijing this year suggest she was only 14 in 2000, said FIG secretary general Andre Gueisbuhler. Yang, who won a bronze medal on asymmetric bars in 2000, said in an interview on state TV that she was 14 in Sydney. Faced with the possibility of being stripped of her medal, Yang now claims it was a slip of the tongue.

Yet there has been no adequate explanation for records at China's General Administration of Sport which were penetrated by hacker Mike Walker. These records, which should have been based on the same documents submitted to FIG, showed two of this year's gold medal team were under age. Indeed, one of them was reported last year as being 13 by the official Chinese news agency, Xinghua.