Jordan Chiles’ bronze medal at the Paris Games gymnastics competition will be reassigned to Romania’s Ana Barbosu, the International Olympic Committee said in a statement on Sunday. platform.
“The IOC will reallocate the bronze medal to Ana Parbos (Romania),” the statement said. “We are in contact with Romania’s (National Olympic Committee) redeployment ceremony and the USOPC to discuss the return of the bronze medal.”
In Monday’s floor exercise final, Chiles was the last competitor, scoring a 13.666 to finish fifth. But his coach, Cecile Landi, submitted an inquiry to challenge Chiles’ awkward score. The judges agreed, changing her score to 13.766, ahead of Barbosu and Romanian teammate Sabrina Manega-Voinia.
But the Romanian team later petitioned the Court of Arbitration for Sport, saying the inquiry from Landi fell outside the one-minute window allowed for such a challenge. The court agreed, invalidating Chiles’ score, and the International Gymnastics Federation, known as FIG, announced that it had officially changed the competition’s rankings, placing Chiles back in fifth place.
The US Olympic & Paralympic Committee plans to appeal the CAS decision, it said in a statement on Sunday. The USOPC argued that there were “significant errors” in both FIG’s scoring and the CAS appeals process.
“The initial error occurred in FIG’s scoring, and the second error occurred during the CAS appeals process, where the USOPC was not given sufficient time or notice to effectively challenge the decision,” the USOPC said. “As a result, we were not properly represented or given an opportunity to present our case comprehensively.”
“Given these circumstances, we are committed to pursuing an appeal to help Jordan Chiles get the recognition he deserves.”
Following the ruling Saturday, Chiles posted two Instagram Stories: one with four broken heart emojis and a second that read, “I’m taking this time to remove myself from social media for my mental health, thank you.”
Beard He shared his reaction to the news with Golazo.ro, Her thoughts go to Chiles and Manega-Voinia. “I know it hurts because I’ve been in the same states. But I know you and I hope you have the strength to come back stronger. I truly hope we’ll be on the same podium at the next Olympics. It’s my dream.”
Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles won medals in Monday’s floor exercise final. A rules technicality now forces Chiles to surrender his bronze. (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
Chiles, 23, has already had a tough week at the Olympics. She finished fourth overall in the all-around qualifier, but two of the three ahead of her were American teammates Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee. The Olympics allow only two competitors from each country to advance to the all-around final, meaning Chiles was eliminated. However, he played a big role in helping the Americans win team gold and cheered on Biles and Lee in the individual event.
A few days later, she was in the floor exercise finals. When her score was corrected, Biles enveloped her in a bear hug and the two celebrated what appeared to be Chiles’ first individual medal. She has spent the week since enjoying the perks of winning an Olympic medal — celebrating, going to Disneyland Paris and doing morning shows.
Then came the CAS verdict. The issue was the timing of the trial, which was four seconds late – not the score correction. Chiles is now forced to give up the bronze even though her usual content deserves a higher score because the judges initially missed the accurate score and the US team didn’t challenge it quickly enough.
The episode highlights the messy and sometimes byzantine nature of faired games, and the whiplash of emotions attached to strings of minor decisions.
CAS rejected part of a Romanian appeal seeking to raise Manega-Voinia’s score because he was improperly pushed out of bounds during a moment of his routine. Video appeared to show she was inside the area, but that was denied.
The Romanians demanded that the CAS award all three competitors – each with arguments that they had overtaken the other – bronze medals. It was rejected.
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(Photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
