Off The Record
After A Contentious Ruling, American Olympic Gymnast Jordan Chiles Has Her Bronze Medal Formally Revoked
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has formally deprived American Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal.
The decision was made in response to allegations that Chiles, not Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu, had been mistakenly given the medal.
On August 5, Chiles, 23, won her first-ever individual Olympic medal in the floor final. Prior to that, her score from the judges had placed her in fifth position.
Cecile Landi, the coach of USA Gymnastics, had promptly filed a request for an investigation of the ruling, stating that Chiles had been singled out for difficulty—more especially, a leap that required her to do a split in the air while rotating 540 degrees.
Chiles successfully appealed, and the judges increased her mark from 13.666 to 13.766, which allowed her to pass Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, another Romanian gymnast, who both had scores of 13.700, to third place.
A CAS court determined on Saturday that Landi had submitted her initial inquiry within 1 minute and 4 seconds, which was four seconds too late for it to count. The Romanian Olympic Committee had challenged the ruling the day before.
The decision read: “The inquiry submitted on behalf of Ms. Jordan Chiles in the final of the women’s floor exercise was raised after the conclusion of the one-minute deadline provided by Article 8.5 of the 2024 FIG Technical Regulations and is determined to be without effect.”
The IOC declared on Saturday that Barbosu will get Chiles’ medal in lieu of his own.
“We are in touch with the NOC of Romania to discuss the reallocation ceremony and with USOPC regarding the return of the bronze medal,” the statement read, as obtained by People.
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the IOC had received the CAS verdict and were to decide how to reassign the medals.
The Romanian Olympic committee had requested that the IOC/FIG should place “all three athletes [Chiles, Barbosu, and Maneca-Voinea] in 3rd position and the allocation of medals to all three athletes,” but it decided to reallocate the medal solely to Barbosu instead.
Prior to the CAS ruling being announced, Chiles appeared to address the issue on her Instagram story, where she shared a series of broken heart emojis, before adding: “I am taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health, thank you.”
Her teammate Simone Biles, who is also a close friend, addressed the situation on her own Instagram story by sharing a photo of them hugging as she added: “Sending you so much love Jordan. Keep your chin up Olympic champ! We love you!”
Following the contentious finding, USA Gymnastics also sent a statement to the publication, stating: “We are devastated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling regarding women’s floor exercise.”
“The inquiry into the Difficulty Value of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise routine was filed in good faith and, we believed, in accordance with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring.”
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