American gymnast Jordan Chiles was forced to forfeit her bronze medal earned last week in the floor exercise by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Sunday after a controversial ruling deemed that Team USA submitted a scoring review that should have not been allowed.
The 23-year-old Chiles, who was the final gymnast to go in the event, initially was given a score of 13.666, which placed her fifth in the competition before USA coach Cecile Landi submitted a review to the judges lobbying that they did not properly score the difficulty of her routine.
After a short reassessment, the judges awarded Chiles with an extra one-tenth (0.1) of a point to raise her score to 13.766 and move her past a pair of Romanians Sabrina Voinea (initially fourth) and Ana Barbosu (third) for the bronze medal behind fellow American Simone Biles, who took silver, and Brazilian gold medalist Rebeca Andrade.
The issue arose when the American appeal came four seconds after the one-minute time limit that IOC rules allow for reviews to be submitted, which the Court of Arbitration for Sport found egregious enough to strip the UCLA alum of her medal.
“Following the CAS decision with regard to the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Floor Exercise Final and the amendment of the ranking by the International Gymnastics Federation, the IOC will reallocate the bronze medal to Ana Barbosu (Romania),” a statement from the IOC read. “We are in touch with the NOC of Romania to discuss the reallocation ceremony and with USOPC regarding the return of the bronze medal.”
Pressure had been mounting in recent days from Romania, including its prime minister Marcel Ciolacu threatening not to attend the 2024 Summer Olympic closing ceremony as a form of protest.
Chiles had already returned to the United States so it remains unclear how she will return her bronze medal, especially because the USA Olympic Committee appears ready to fight this ruling.
“We firmly believe that Jordan rightfully earned the bronze medal and there were critical errors in both the initial scoring by the International Gymnastics Federation and the subsequent CAS appeal process that need to be addressed,” its statement read. “Given these circumstances, we are committed to pursuing an appeal to help Jordan Chiles receive the recognition she deserves. We remain dedicated to supporting her as an Olympic champion and will continue to work diligently to resolve this matter swiftly and fairly.”
USA Gymnastics said that Chiles has been “subject to consistent, utterly baseless, and extremely hurtful attacks on social media.
“No athlete should be subject to such treatment. We condemn the attacks and those who engage, support or instigate them. We commend Jordan for conducting herself with integrity both on and off the competition floor, and we continued to stand by and support her.”
