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The introduction of a new identity card system in gymnastics this year will not deter certain athletes from faking their ages to enter major competitions, Germany's head women's coach said.

At last year's Beijing Olympics the eligibility of three gymnasts from the Chinese gold-medal winning team came under suspicion after media reports suggested they were under-aged.

As a result, the governing body the FIG, whose rules state competitors must be at least 16 during an Olympic year to compete at the Games, introduced a system where all gymnasts taking part in any major event will have to apply for a licence.

But German coach Ulla Koch told Reuters the whole process is a waste of time.

"They are not really doing any additional checks on the passports or any other documents from before," Koch (pictured) said.

"In our country it's not possible to change details because when you are born you get a birth certificate. Some countries don't have this, so I don't think it will be any better in the future.

"If you begin competing at 14, you can change the passport when they are 10 or 11-years-old."

The FIG were told by the IOC to examine the ages of the Chinese team - which included He Kexin and Yang Yilin who are competing at the world championships in London - in Beijing and after a two-month investigation ruled the gymnasts had not broken any rules.

But Russian-born American coach Valery Liukin, whose daughter Nastia won the all-around Olympic gold last year, said the FIG did not do itself any favours when it increased the age eligibility from 14 to 16.

"The Olympic champion should be the strongest gymnast on the earth today. Not 16 and over. That's how I've always felt. In the US, we are not allowed to enter gymnasts (into competitions) earlier than 12. This is a better rule," Liukin, a double gold medallist from the 1988 Seoul Games, told Reuters.

"If you look back, there are some great young gymnasts who have become world champions and why eliminate that.

"Look at Nastia Liukin. (In 2004) she was ready for the team, she was top three in the country. But they eliminated the greatest gymnast. She was ready for it but whole team went to Olympics and Nastia went home.

"We had to wait four more years and it's not easy staying at the elite level for four extra years."

Until the 1970s, most Olympic champions were well into their 20s when they hit the big time.

But after an elfin 14-year-old Nadia Comaneci stole the show with her gravity defying acrobatic skills at the 1976 Games, many experts felt it was physically and mentally too demanding for such pre-pubescent girls to compete at the top level.

In an effort to protect the health of athletes whose bones and muscles were still developing, the FIG raised the age restriction to 15 in 1981.

The current limit came into place in 1997. But Liukin said this can cause more harm than good to elite gymnasts.

"I understand that with this rule they try to protect the gymnasts while they are young but at the same time who's going to protect those like Nastia when she had to stay for four more years because she was too young by a month?" asked Liukin.

"She had to beat herself for four more years because the biggest dream in her life was to get the Olympic medal."

Reuters