American gymnast Jordan Chiles has to return her bronze medal from the women’s floor final at the Paris Olympics after a successful appeal by the Romanian Olympic Committee, the IOC confirms, according to the Associated Press.
Romania’s Ana Barbosu will become the new bronze medalist from the women’s floor final in Paris.
“The IOC will reallocate the bronze medal to Ana Barbosu (Romania). We are in touch with the NOC of Romania to discuss the reallocation ceremony and with USOPC regarding the return of the bronze medal,” the IOC said in a statement reported by olympics.com.
In the competition, Chiles was initially awarded a score of 13.666, which would have had her fifth in the final standing for the floor exercise final, but a successful inquiry from the USA coaches to the judges bumped up her score to 13.766.
The new score was enough for her to leapfrog over two gymnasts from Romania and put her in third place, good enough for a bronze medal.
What happened to Jordan Chiles?
The Olympic committee of Romania appealed the inquiry to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, in part saying the USA inquiry did not come within the allotted one-minute deadline. The arbitration court found in favor of Romania, that the USA inquiry came after one minute and four seconds, four seconds too late, and therefore was “without effect.” The court ordered Chiles’ original score of 13.666 to be reinstated.
The court said in its ruling it would be up to the international gymnastics governing body, FIG, to determine final ranking from the floor exercise and “assign the medal(s) in accordance with the above decision.”
FIG said it confirmed the 13.666 will be reinstated and Romania’s Ana Barbosu will rank third with a score of 13.700.
When the decision came down, Chiles posted an Instagram Story with four broken hearts and said she was taking time away from social media for her mental health.
After the court ruling, Chiles’ teammate, Simone Biles, who won gold in the floor event, posted a message of support to Chiles.
“sending you so much love Jordan 🤍 keep your chin up olympic champ! we love you!”, Biles posted on Instagram.
Biles accompanied her post, which included a photo of the two gymnasts embracing, with 12 white heart emojis.
“🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍”
USA Gymnastics and the USOPC released a statement saying they are “devastated” and that the inquiry into Chiles’ score was “filed in good faith.”
What happens to Jordan Chiles’ bronze medal?
Chiles must return the bronze medal, which will be allocated to Romania’s Ana Barbosu, the IOC said.
The IOC said in a statement it will be in touch with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee regarding the return of Chiles’ bronze and will work with the Romanian Olympic Committee to discuss a reallocation ceremony honoring Barbosu.
The FIG said it was the IOC’s call on whether to reallocate the medal. The IOC confirmed Sunday it would respect FIG’s decision and seek to have Chiles’ medal returned.
Jordan Chiles found out that she won the first individual Olympic medal of her career, a bronze on floor, after a last-second inquiry with the judges bumped up her final score.
