U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles must return medal : NPR

PARIS — The U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles must return the bronze medal she was awarded in the Olympic floor exercise final, Olympic officials announced Sunday.

The International Olympic Committee “will reallocate” the bronze to Ana Barbosu of Romania, who finished in fourth place in last Monday’s final after a last-minute inquiry by U.S. coaches during the competition had boosted Chiles’ score above her.

“We are in touch with the NOC [National Olympic Committee] of Romania to discuss the reallocation ceremony and with USOPC [U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee] regarding the return of the bronze medal,” the IOC said in a statement.

Chiles had performed last in Monday’s final, and her score initially appeared as a 13.666. Barbosu, who scored 13.700, briefly thought she had won bronze and began to celebrate.

But Chiles’ coaches filed an inquiry over her score, saying that judges had incorrectly valued the difficulty of her routine. Judges at the event upheld the inquiry and granted Chiles an additional tenth of a point, moving her score from to 13.766. That higher score leapfrogged her over Barbosu and a second Romanian gymnast, Sabrina Maneca-Voinea.

The next day, Romanian Olympic officials protested the judges’ decision, alleging that Chiles’ coaches had filed their inquiry too late. On Saturday, an independent court agreed and vacated Chiles’ inquiry, officially revising her score back down to 13.666.

Gymnasts competing in the final slot of an event have only one minute to make a score inquiry. Chiles’ inquiry came four seconds too late, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said. After the CAS decision Saturday, the international governing body for gymnastics said it would revise the final rankings of the event, moving Chiles to fifth place and Barbosu to third.

The IOC’s Sunday announcement to “reallocate” the medals was the last step in the proceedings. The authority to award medals lies with Olympic officials alone.

The floor exercise medal ceremony had been one of the most loved moments of this summer’s Olympics. For one, it was the first time that all three medalists in an Olympic gymnastics event were Black. And during the ceremony, Chiles and her U.S. teammate Simone Biles, who won silver, turned to bow to the gold medal winner, Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, in a moment that went viral over its display of sportsmanship.

USA Gymnastics and USOPC said Saturday that they were “devastated” by the decision. “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,” the groups 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,” the statement continued. “We commend Jordan for conducting herself with integrity both on and off the competition floor, and we continue to stand by and support her.

The situation has prompted criticism of gymnastics officials and the judging at Monday’s event.

In addition to the incorrect difficulty score originally awarded to Chiles (which was fixed with her inquiry, then reversed Saturday) and the acceptance of an inquiry that had been filed too late, viewers online had pointed out a third potential error. Maneca-Voinea finished in fifth after judges deducted 0.1 from her score as a penalty for stepping out of bounds during her routine. But video replay appeared to show that she had stayed in bounds. Without the penalty, she would have scored 13.800 — which would have earned her the bronze over both Chiles and Barbosu.

In addition to the protest over Chiles’ inquiry, Romanian officials had asked the arbitration court to rescore Maneca-Voinea’s routine. And finally, Romania asked that the three gymnasts — Barbosu, Maneca-Voinea and Chiles — be ranked together in third place in order to each receive a bronze medal.

The court declined both requests.

“All this talk about the athlete, what about the judges?? Completely unacceptable,” the U.S. gymnast Suni Lee wrote on Instagram. “This is awful and I’m gutted for Jordan.”

The Olympics have a long history of returned medals. But the vast majority involve doping or violations of Olympic eligibility rules. 

In two other cases involving questions about scores, the IOC allowed competitors to share the disputed medal.

In 2002, a dispute erupted over the judging of the pairs’ figure skating competition, in which Russia was originally awarded the gold medal over a Canadian team that had appeared to perform with fewer mistakes. The competition’s judges came under heavy scrutiny. After a week of controversy, the IOC awarded the gold medal to both teams. 

At the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Swiss skier Fanny Smith appeared to have finished in third place during the women’s ski cross final. But she was penalized for making contact with Daniela Maier of Germany just before the finish line. Maier, who appeared to finish in fourth place, was moved into third and awarded bronze. 

Nine days later, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, known as FIS, ruled that Smith had been inappropriately penalized and revised the rankings, moving her back into third place, raising similar questions about Maier’s bronze. 

Ultimately, after months of legal proceedings, FIS ranked both skiers in third place, and the IOC agreed to allow them to share the bronze medal.