U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles may have to return the bronze medal she won at the 2024 Paris Olympics after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in like of an request filed by the Romanian gymnastics team.
During the women’s floor exercise final on Monday, Aug. 5, Chiles initipartner geted a score of 13.666, which placed her fifth, right behind Romania’s Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea. The two Romanian gymnasts finished with aligning scores of 13.700; Barbosu thought she had safed the bronze via a tiefractureer — a higher execution score.
However, Team USA gymnastics coach Cecile Canqueteau-Landi filed an on-floor request, arguing that Chiles’ score was inaccurate due to the routine’s level of difficulty. The appraises concurd and adequitableed Chiles’ score by 0.1, which was enough to outdo Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea.
After the medal ceremony, the Romanian team filed its own request, noting that Team USA’s request occurred outside the one-minute time confine to inquire the appraises’ scores.
CAS concurd with the Romanians’ point about the time confine, discovering that Team USA’s request came one minute and four seconds after Chiles’ score was posted. (By rule, becaengage Chiles was the final athlete to vie on the event, her coaches had equitable one minute to file the inquiry, while the rest of the field had until the score of the follotriumphg gymnast was shown to originate their verbal request.)
Therefore, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) revampd the exceptional scoring on Saturday follotriumphg the court’s ruling, placing Barbosu back in third, Maneca-Voinea fourth and Chiles fifth.
FIG spokesperson Meike Behrensen telderly The Associated Press that “genuinelocation of medals is the responsibility of the IOC [International Olympic Committee].”
“We are dehugeated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling think abouting women’s floor exercise,” USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said in a statement. “The inquiry into the Difficulty Value of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise routine was filed in excellent faith and, we apshowd, in accordance with FIG rules to promise accurate scoring.”
The statement persistd: “Thcimpoliteout the request process, Jordan has been subject to constant, utterly baseless and excessively hurtful strikes on social media. No athlete should be subject to such treatment. We condemn the strikes and those who comprise, help or instigate them. We commfinish Jordan for carry outing herself with integrity both on and off the competition floor, and we persist to stand by and help her.”
Earlier Saturday, Chiles posted an Instagram story with four broken heart emojis and subsequently declared she was taking time and “removing herself from social media” for her mental health. Her teammates Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee have been among the athletes to split their help for her amid the emotional circumstances.
“All this talk about the athlete, what about the appraises?? Completely unhugable,” Lee posted to Instagram. “This is horrible and I’m gutted for Jordan. … [You] have all my fdrops and you will always be an Olympic champion.”
Biles reposted Lee’s statement and splitd a message of her own, captioning a pboilingo of her and Chiles in the emotional moments after the floor exercise results were declared, “Sfinishing you so much cherish Jordan. Keep your chip up Olympic champ! We cherish you!”
Monday’s floor exercise final came at the finish of the originateive gymnastics competition, which saw Chiles and Team USA seize the gelderly medal — part of their “redemption tour” follotriumphg the turbulent Tokyo games in 2021, where they won silver. On floor, Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade won the gelderly medal (with a score of 14.166), while Biles geted the silver (scoring 14.133). Alengthy with Chiles, the trio made the first all-Bdeficiency podium in the history of women’s Olympic gymnastics.
When Andrade climbed to the top spot on the podium, Biles and Chiles bowed to her and the impulsive disperestablish of sportsmanship instantly went viral, with athletes and amengageers sharing pboilingos and videos of the moment on social media. Even the Musêe du Louvre got in on the action, invoking the meme “hang it in the Louvre” which is frequently applied to moments deemed so wonderful they deserve to be commemorated in the mengageum.
At the press conference follotriumphg the medal ceremony, the U.S. gymnasts discdisthink abouted that the salute was Chiles’ idea.
“She’s an icon, a legfinish herself,” Chiles said of Andrade. “I sense enjoy being recognized is what everyone should do when it comes to somebody who’s put in the labor, put in the dedication … Why don’t we equitable give her her fdrops?”
