Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) said on Thursday that it respects the International Olympic Committee's decision of stripping China of the bronze medal that they won in the gymnastics women's team event at the 2000 Sydney Games after one of its athletes Dong Fangxiao was found to be under age.

"The Chinese Olympic Committee has always been committed to safeguarding the fair-play principle in sports and has always ordered its athletes and officials to comply with all rules and regulations of the relevant international federations," said a COC statement.

"The COC has learnt a lesson and will endeavor to prevent a repeat of such incidents in future," added the statement.

A spokesman for the Chinese Gymnastics Association (CGA), who asked not to be named, also said the CGA accepts the penalty.

"The CGA is consistent with the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) in the fight against unsportsmanship behaviors such as age falsification," said the spokesman.

"The CGA would follow the IOC decision," he added.

In February of this year the gymnastics governing body FIG conducted an inquiry which showed that Dong was only 14 years old during the Sydney Games whereas the FIG qualification rules for these Games required that an athlete be at least under 16 years old in the year of the Olympic Games.

Dong was also stripped of her sixth-place result in the individual floor exercises and seventh place in the vault.