One couldn’t have predicted the next Cold War could possibly start over something like women’s gymnastics.

The International Olympic Committee is looking into whether China has intentionally fabricated the ages of several women’s gymnasts, whose excellence on mats, bars and vaults have repeatedly spoiled American gold-medal hopes.

Rumors of age-tampering circulated prior to the Olympic Games, when several international newspapers reported allegations that Chinese gymnasts He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan were 14, well under the Olympic minimum age of 16.

These are merely allegations, however. Unlike other countries, the independence of law enforcement or other authorities to investigate such claims is non-existent in China. If the rumors are true, the Chinese government, media and athletes would have been complicit.

And the integrity of what has been a remarkable Olympics will have been shredded.

Criticism of China’s government and authoritarianism has been barely silenced during the Games. Permissions to protest – an idea anathema to American ideals – have been denied by Chinese officials, who have kept discord and disharmony out of the television picture.

The world is not getting a look at the real China. Factories have been shuttered and false walls erected to block unsightly storefronts – in putting on its best face for the world, China has only served to magnify its myriad flaws, and accentuate its divide from the West.

Yet, of all the tipping points, the gymnast scandal might be the tipsiest. On prime-time televisions across the United States, the American team has been heartbrokenly stymied by their youthful – some would say childlike – Chinese counterparts at almost every turn.

Bela Karolyi, with his retro-hairstyle and buzzsaw accent, became the voice of an outraged nation when he declared one Chinese victory as an r-rolling “rip-off.”

What could be tolerated – China altering its image for the games – could become intolerable if it is extended to blatant, state-sponsored cheating in events, especially one as popular in the United States and as signature to the Olympics as gymnastics.

The IOC is making inquiries into gymnast ages, but their powers are limited. It’s likely, given Chinese culture and the weakening glow of the media spotlight from Beijing after the Games, the questioning will eventually fade away.

But make no doubt about it – America knows much more about China today than it did only two weeks ago. Opinions are shifting and attitudes are changing. The relationship between the United States and China is evolving.

Depending on what happens from here, historians could return to the 2008 Olympic Games and identify women’s gymnastics as the great turning point of things to come.