Team USA women’s gymnastics star Jordan Chiles won a bronze medal with a third-place finish in the women’s floor final earlier this week, but that medal is now being stripped from her.
Chiles initially finished fifth in the event with a score of 13.666, but her score was bumped up by 0.1 following an appeal from her coach due to a scoring error as one of her jumps had originally been given a lower difficulty grade by mistake. The new score gave her the bronze medal over Romania’s Ana Barbosu, who had already been celebrating her apparent bronze medal victory
However, following an appeal from Romania, the Court of Arbitration for Sport stripped Chiles of the medal and gave it back to Barbosu, ruling that the inquiry from the United States was “untimely,” coming four seconds after the limit of one minute that coaches have to submit an inquiry.
Team USA released a statement expressing disappointment in the ruling.
Joint Statement from USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee regarding the CAS decision on the women’s floor final:
CAS Decision: https://t.co/KR6DYsfxEk pic.twitter.com/r1e6QKmKA4
— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) August 10, 2024
“We are devastated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling regarding women’s floor exercise. The inquiry into the Difficulty Value of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise routine was filed in good faith and, we believed, in accordance with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring,” USA Gymnastics said in a statement.
“Throughout the appeal process, Jordan 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 continue to stand by and support her.”
So while Chiles’ routine should have been scored higher, she has been stripped of the medal because her appeal did not come in time.
[CAS]
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