Jordan Chiles set to lose the Olympic bronze medal she won in the women’s floor final after a bombshell ruling from the Court of Arbitration of Sport on Saturday.
CAS ruled the judging panel were wrong to allow an inquiry that increased Chiles’ score and moved her up into bronze medal position from fifth place at the expense of Ana Barbosu, who was left in tears.
USA gymnastics says it is ‘devastated’ by the decision.
Chiles’ score was improved after an appeal by her coach Cecile Landi over a jump that had originally been given a lower difficulty grade.
The Romanian Gymnastics Federation said on Aug. 7 it had submitted requests to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It said one of them was linked to the inquiry submitted by Chiles’ coaches.
Jordan Chiles could lose the Olympic bronze medal she won in the women’s floor final
Jordan Chiles and Simone Biles both medaled in the individual floor event in Paris
‘Aware of the negative impact on Ana Maria Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea (who was also in the competition with Chiles), the Romanian Gymnastics Federation aims to correct the mistakes made by the judges and to restore the rights of our athletes,’ the federation said.
The results of the floor exercise have caused an uproar in Romania.
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said Tuesday he will boycott the closing ceremony because of the ‘scandalous situation.’
Ciolacu promised Romania would honor Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea as Olympic medalists, ‘including in terms of the prizes.’
Chiles posted several broken-heart emojis on her Instagram story on Saturday afternoon.
Chiles also followed that post with a statement: ‘I am taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health. Thank you.’
Chiles also won a gold medal as part of Team USA during the team gymnastics competition
One of Jordan’s older sisters, Jazmin Chiles, posted a statement to her social media about Jordan possibly losing her bronze medal.
‘Please keep Jordan (and my family) in your prayers. Racism is real, it exists, it is alive and well,’ Jazmin said. ‘They have officially, 5 days later, stripped her of one of her medals.’
‘Not because she didn’t win, not because she was drugged, not because she stepped out of bounds. Not because she wasn’t good enough. But because the judges failed to give her difficulty and forced an inquiry to be made.’
‘FOUR SECONDS. Her bronze was stripped over 4 seconds of time that would have never needed to happen if the judges did their job. I love you baby sis. And I got you back no matter what.’
In a following post, she added: ‘Just so y’all aware – in the HISTORY of the Olympics NO ONE has ever been stripped of their medal for this.
‘Also – there are only TWO ways you can be stripped of a medal. Cheating or doping. She did neither.’
Chiles teammate, Suni Lee, also blasted the ruling. Lee and Chiles were also on Team USA together during the Tokyo Olympics.
‘All this talk about the athlete, what about the judges??’ Lee said on social media. ‘Completely unacceptable. This is awful and I’m gutted for Jordan. I got your back forever Jo.’
USA gymnastics legend Simone Biles is close with Chiles as well, featuring the duo in a recent Instagram post entitled ‘red, white, Biles & Chiles.’