U.S. Gymnast Jordan Chiles May Lose Olympic Bronze Medal After Court Ruling

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 favor of an appeal filed by the Romanian gymnastics team.

During the women’s floor exercise final on Monday, Aug. 5, Chiles initially earned 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 matching scores of 13.700; Barbosu thought she had secured the bronze via a tiebreaker — a higher execution score.

However, U.S. coach Cecile Landi filed an on-floor appeal, arguing that the score was incorrect due to the routine’s level of difficulty. The judges agreed and adjusted Chiles’ score by 0.1, which was enough to surpass Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea.

After the medal ceremony, the Romanian team filed its own appeal, noting that Team USA’s appeal occurred outside the one-minute time limit to question the judges’ scores.

CAS agreed with the Romanians’ point about the time limit, finding that Team USA’s appeal came one minute and four seconds after Chiles’ score was posted.

Therefore, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) restored Barbosu’s original score following the court’s ruling, placing her back in third, Maneca-Voinea fourth and Chiles fifth.

FIG spokesperson Meike Behrensen told The Associated Press that “reallocation of medals is the responsibility of the IOC [International Olympic Committee].”

“We are devastated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling regarding 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 good faith and, we believed, in accordance with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring.”

The statement continued: “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.”

More to come…