Yesterday, Olympic officials admitted that 7-year-old “Ode to the Motherland” singer Yang Peiyi was replaced on television by a lip-syncing stand-in, 9-year-old Lin Miaoke. Since the admission, much discussion, unfortunately, has centered on the girls’ relative “cuteness.” Today, according to the Associated Press, officials insisted that “the decision to have one girl lip-sync another’s voice during a song featured in the Beijing Games’ opening ceremony was not about who was cuter, but about achieving the best overall performance.” AP goes on to report that public outcry over the switch was “directed at the organizers for not going public with the decision rather than at Miaoke, whose performance was highly praised.” (For the record: “Miaoke’s father, Lin Hui, said both girls are cute.”)

If the decision was not, in fact, about the girls’ “cuteness” but rather about the integrity of the “performance,” it means that China is making history: China has lifted the oft-criticized art of lip-syncing to Olympic proportions. Could an official Olympic team be far behind? Here, my recommendations for the 2012 Olympic Lip-Syncing dream team. See you in London!

Competitor: Milli Vanilli (duh).
Home Country: Germany
Qualification: Cool under pressure. From Wikipedia: “In 1990, during a live performance recorded by MTV at the Lake Compounce theme park in Bristol, Connecticut, the recording of the song “Girl You Know It’s True” jammed and began to skip, repeating the partial line “Girl, you know it’s-” over and over. According to the premiere episode of VH1’s Behind the Music which profiled Milli Vanilli, fans attending the concert didn’t seem to notice or even care and the concert continued as if nothing unusual had happened.”
[youtube:v=GSqV3rWM4iQ]

Competitor: Mr. Ed
Home Country: U.S.A.
Qualifications: That horse is talking!!
[youtube:v=y_PZPpWTRTU]

Competitor: Gary Brolsma, aka “The Numa Numa Guy”
Home Country:New Jersey
Qualifications: Versatility. Since releasing the original “Numa Numa” video, Brolsma has made several “remixes” of the video, including inserted photographs of feta cheese and a LEGO Bob Ross, as well as a cameo by “the Star Wars kid.”
[youtube:v=pdt1DxGrQv4]

Competitor: Ashlee Simpson
Home Country: U.S.A.
Qualifications: None.

Competitor: The Back Dorm Boys
Home Country: China
Qualifications: Cuteness
[youtube:v=AFYDBtKeG2k]