American gymnast Jordan Chiles may have to return the bronze medal she won at the 2024 Paris Olympics after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favour of the Romanian gymnastics team's appeal.
During the women's floor exercise final on Monday, August 5, Chiles initially earned 13.666 points, placing her in fifth place, behind Romanian duo Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Manica-Voinia. The Romanian duo finished the competition with a total of 13.700 points; Barbosu believed she had secured the bronze medal through a tiebreaker—a higher execution score.
But U.S. coach Cecile Landy appealed on the court, arguing that the score was incorrect due to the difficulty of the exercise. The referees agreed with the decision and adjusted Chiles' score by 0.1, which was enough to overtake Barboso and Manica Voinha.
After the medal ceremony, the Romanian team filed its own appeal, noting that the U.S. team's appeal occurred one minute outside the allotted time to question the judges' scores.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport agreed with the Romanians' view on the time limit, finding that the US team's appeal came one minute and four seconds after Chile's goal was scored.
Accordingly, the FIG reinstated Barboso's original score following the court ruling, placing her back in third place, Manica Voinja in fourth place, and Chiles in fifth place.
“The redistribution of medals is the responsibility of the IOC,” International Gymnastics Federation spokeswoman Mike Behrens told The Associated Press. [International Olympic Committee]”.”
“We are devastated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s ruling on the women’s floor exercise,” USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said in a statement. “The investigation into the difficulty rating of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise routine was conducted in good faith, and we believe it is consistent with the FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring.”
“Throughout the appeal process, Jordan has been subjected to ongoing, unfounded and extremely hurtful attacks on social media. No athlete should be subjected to such treatment. We condemn the attacks and those who participate in, support or incite them. We commend Jordan for acting with integrity both on and off the court, and we continue to stand by her and support her,” the statement continued.
More to come…
