The International Olympic Committee has confirmed that Jordan Chiles must return the bronze medal he won in floor exercises at the Paris Olympics after the sport’s highest court rejected his coach’s appeal of a floor decision that elevated him to the American gymnast to third place.
The IOC announced Sunday morning that it would award the bronze medal from Monday’s women’s floor final to Romania’s Ana Barbosu after the International Gymnastics Federation said Saturday night that it would respect the court’s ruling and transfer Barbosu to third place.
The decision came less than 24 hours after the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected a scoring appeal filed by Team USA coach Cecil Landi during the competition in which Chiles stood on the podium.
The CAS ruled Saturday that Landi’s appeal to add 0.1 to Chile’s score fell outside the one-minute period allowed by the FIG. The ad hoc committee wrote that Landi’s check occurred 1 minute and 4 seconds after Chile’s initial scores were posted.
The IOC said in a statement that it would remain in contact with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee about the return of Chile’s bronze medal and would work with the Romanian Olympic Committee to discuss a redistribution ceremony in honor of Barbosu.
The CAS wrote on Saturday that the initial finishing order should be restored, with Barbosu third, Romanian Sabrina Maneca-Voinia fourth, and Chile fifth. The organization said the FIG should determine the final ranking “in accordance with the decision mentioned above” but left it up to the federation to decide who would receive a medal behind gold winner Rebecca Andrade of Brazil and silver medalist Simone Biles of the United States. .
The FIG said it was the IOC’s decision to redistribute the medal. The IOC confirmed on Sunday that it would respect the FIG’s decision and try to return the medal to Chile.
The rapid turn of events adds to the difficulties the three athletes have faced in recent days.
Romanian gymnastics legend and 1976 Olympic champion Nadia Comaneci was concerned about Barbosu’s mental health as she fell from bronze medalist to fourth place.
“I don’t think we play like this with the mental health and emotions of athletes… Let’s protect them,” Comaneci posted on X earlier in the week.
At the same time, Comaneci criticized the judges for the way they scored the Manca-Voinea routine. The gymnast was deducted 0.1 points for going out of bounds, but replays showed she stayed within bounds. Comaneci urged the Romanian Olympic Committee to protest, which she did, but the CAS rejected that appeal.
Chiles alluded to the decision in an Instagram Story on Saturday, stating that she was heartbroken and “taking advantage of this time and distancing myself from social media for my mental health, thank you.” Jordan’s sister, Jazmin Chiles, said on Instagram that Chiles was stripped of her medal “not because she wasn’t good enough, but because the judges couldn’t put a stop to it and were forced to investigate.” U.S. teammates offered support to Chiles, a two-time Olympian. “Sending you lots of love, Jordan,” Biles wrote in an Instagram Story. “Keep your spirits up, ‘Olympic Champion’, we love you.” “There is a lot of talk about the athlete; what about the judges?” wrote six-time Olympic medalist Sunisa Lee in an Instagram story. “Totally unacceptable; it’s horrible, and I’m heartbroken for Jordan.” USA Gymnastics said in a statement Saturday that it was “heartbroken” by the court’s decision. “The research into the difficulty rating of Jordan Chile’s floor exercise routine was presented in good faith, and we believe it was conducted in accordance with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring,” the organization wrote. Barbosu and Maneca-Voinia were out of the medal race in the floor final after finishing with equal scores of 13.700. Barbosu thought he had won the bronze medal over Maneca-Voinia via tie-break (a higher execution score) and began celebrating with the Romanian flag.
Chiles was the last athlete to compete and initially received a score of 13.666, placing fifth behind Maneca-Voinia. Landi asked for an investigation after knowing Chile’s goal.
“At this point, we had nothing to lose, so I thought, ‘Let’s just try it,'” Landi said after the awards ceremony. “Honestly, I didn’t think she was going to happen, but when I heard her scream, I turned around and thought, ‘What?'”
The judges accepted the appeal, allowing Chile to get ahead of Barbosu and Maneca-Voinia.