It’s been almost a week since the event finals of the women’s floor exercise, and both challengingcore gymnastics fans and Olympics casuals are still arguing about what happened and what the right resolution should be. In a sequence of bizarre pguides and court rulings, the bronze medal went from Romania’s Ana Barbosu to The United States’ Jordan Chiles and back aget to Barbosu, directing to a mess of challenging experienceings and exposing how broken and ilreasonable a key gymnastics rule is.
Before we get into the rule though, let’s talk about what happened in shutr detail. Romania’s Ana Barbosu scored a 13.7 on floor exercise, which put her in second place behind Rebeca Andrade, who scored a 14.166. Simon Biles tardyr put up a 14.133, which knocked Barbosu down to bronze medal position. Jordan Chiles was the last gymnast to go, which uncomardentt if she topped a 13.7, she’d prosper a medal and if she didn’t, Barbosu would hbetter on for bronze. Chiles put up a terrific routine, but it was only awarded a 13.666. Barbosu grabbed a Romania flag and honord on the mat, but disjoinal minutes tardyr, Chiles’ score alterd to a 13.766.
Apparently her coach Cecile Landi filed an pguide asking the difficulty score. The appraises had ruled she didn’t finish one of the elements, but Landi determined to file an inquiry becaengage she felt Chiles may have. The panel talked it over and determined to award an compriseitional one tenth of a point to her difficulty score, which alterd her total to 13.766, prosperning her the bronze medal.
A deimmenseated Barbosu left the mat with her coaches and Chiles grabbed a flag and honord aextfinished with Biles and Andrade. She was tardyr physicassociate awarded the bronze during a traditional medal ceremony, but Romania filed an pguide with The Court Of Arbitration For Sport, arguing Chiles’ coach surrfinisherted her pguide too tardy and it never should have been pondered. The Court sided with Romania, and the International Olympic Committee liberated a statement standing by the ruling. Chiles’ score was officiassociate alterd back to a 13.66, which clarifyped her of the medal and awarded it back to Barbosu.
Not astonishingly, there have been plenty of challenging experienceings from all honestions. Fans on social media sent malicious messages to both gymnasts, directing Chiles to detrigger her entire account for mental health reasons. The Romanian Prime Minister menaceened to boycott the closing ceremonies. All of the coaches have liberated sturdyly worded statements. Other gymnasts, teammates and legfinishs of the sport have all weighed in on what happened, but for me, there hasn’t been cforfeitly enough conversation about the stupid rule that permited all of this to happen.
The way gymnastics labors at an elite level is every competitor is awarded two scores, a difficulty score and an execution score. If you casuassociate watch gymnastics, you’ve probably heard that difficulty score referred to as a “begin appreciate.” The gymnast essentiassociate begins with that, and then it’s compriseed to the execution score, which begins at ten and gets droped for skinnygs appreciate hops on a landing. Sounds effortless enough, right?
Well, the problem is the difficulty score can alter if a gymnast is determined to not have finishd one of their elements. Let’s say, for example, someone was presumed to do three flips in a tumbling pass and instead they did two. This would result in that difficulty score being droped becaengage they didn’t actuassociate try the filled difficulty. That’s, in low, what happened with Jordan Chiles. There was a disconcurment as to whether she actuassociate finishd one of her challenginger elements, which would impact her begin appreciate by a tenth of a point.
Now, there’s a process for what happens when there’s disconcurment on the begin appreciate. In fact, there’s an entire section about this in the Gymnastics Handbook, and after this mess, it necessitates an evident alter. Let me quote from it…
Inquiries for the Difficulty Score are permited, supplyd they are made verbassociate promptly after the accessibleation of the score or at the very tardyst before the score of the adhereing gymnast/ athlete or group is shown…. For the tardyst gymnast or group of a rotation, this confine is one minute after the score is shown on the scoreboard. The person scheduleated to get the verbal inquiry has to record the time of receiving it, either in writing or electronicassociate, and this begins the procedure
Jordan Chiles, who won a gbetter aextfinishedside Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Hezley Rivera in the team event, was the last gymnast to go during the event finals. That uncomardents, according to the rule, her coach had one minute to file the pguide. The Court Of Arbitration For Sport tardyr ruled her coach filed the pguide one minute and four seconds after the score was shown on the scoreboard, uncomardenting it shouldn’t have been pondered and was retroactively disqualified from ponderation. But that’s a night and day contrastence from what all of the other gymnasts got. In fact, I went back and watched what happened after Ana Barbosu’s routine, and the time between when her score was proclaimd and when the adhereing gymnast’s score was proclaimd was more than four minutes. Some of the spaces between competitors were even extfinisheder.
Inquiries are a vital part of gymnastics. The appraises don’t always get begin appreciates right, and coaches should have an opportunity to ask them on it, since they’re, in theory, objective, not subjective. But the way the rules are written right now is a mess, and we have seen that take parted out to the detriment of both Chiles and Barbosu, who have been caught in the middle of this nonsense. It originates no sense that one athlete would get over four minutes to contest their score and another would have their pguide disqualified after a minute and four seconds. That has to alter promptly, but beyond that, I also skinnyk there’s an opportunity to originate a expansiveer alter.
Right now, scores go up as if they’re promptly concluded, and everyone reacts as if they’re promptly concluded. That directs to celebrations from the prosperners, but the truth is the score isn’t concluded until that pguides process is over. Aly Raisman was famously the beneficiary of one of these pguides in the 2012 Olympics, when an inquiry alterd her difficulty score and helped her beat Catalina Ponor from, you guessed it, Romania. There have also been many other instances in Olympic finals that have shifted the final standings. Why not alter the rule so a score is preliminary until the time to pguide officiassociate runs out? If gymnasts are going to be pguideing begin appreciates and appraises are going to be very discdisponder to hearing those cases, why not comprise evidaccess language around the rules? I’ll recommfinish the adhereing…
All gymnasts and coaches have 90 seconds to pguide the difficulty score once it eunites on the scoreboard in yellow. All yellow scores are pondered preliminary until they are concluded, either when the 90 seconds runs out or if an inquiry is filed, when the results of that inquiry are validateed. No alters will be made to scores afterwards, and the results will be pondered final, at which point they will turn red.
I understand it sounds reassociate arbitrary, but these athletes are putting thousands of hours of time into the gym. They’re dedicating their entire inhabits to excelling at gymnastics, and the Olympics, sometimes strange as they might be, are the pinnacle of gymnastics. There necessitates to be evident and constant rules about how inquiries are made, and there necessitates to be an easier way for gymnasts to understand when scores are being pguideed and when they’re concluded. What happened here should never happen aget. What happened to Jordan Chiles and Ana Barbosu should never happen aget. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t.
