These photos are from August 5, the conclusion of the women’s gymnastics at the Paris Olympics. The final event for the ladies was individual floor. Rebeca Andrade had been pushing Simone Biles throughout the games, and this was the moment where Andrade finally beat Simone’s score. Andrade won gold, with Simone picking up a silver medal and Simone’s teammate Jordan Chiles picking up bronze. It was the first time in Olympic gymnastics that the medal podium was all Black. A historic moment, a beautiful moment for all three women and they celebrated each other. Jordan was so proud – she was going home with a bronze in individual floor and a gold for the team in all-around. Except it all went to hell on a really awful technicality.
U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles must return her bronze medal in the floor exercise, the International Olympic Committee said Sunday, upholding findings that a coach’s appeal that got her on the podium shouldn’t have been allowed. Chiles, 23, had initially finished fifth in the competition on Monday before U.S. coach Cecile Landi successfully lobbied that her athlete’s difficulty score had been under-credited.
Officials on the scene agreed and adjusted Chiles’ score .1 of a point to 13.766, which boosted her above two Romanian athletes, triggering an angry reaction from that delegation. Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said he’d refuse to attend the Olympics closing ceremony in protest. The IOC on Sunday said it would abide by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled that Landi’s protest was made 64 seconds after scores were posted. The deadline for such action is one minute. Romanian Ana Bărbosu, 18, will now be the floor exercise bronze medalist.
“Following the CAS decision with regard to the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Floor Exercise Final and the amendment of the ranking by the International Gymnastics Federation, the IOC will reallocate the bronze medal to Ana Bărbosu (Romania),” the IOC said in a statement on Sunday. “We are in touch with the NOC of Romania to discuss the reallocation ceremony and with USOPC regarding the return of the bronze medal.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if or how Chiles would physically return the medal. She’s already left France and appeared on NBC’s “TODAY” show on Thursday in New York City. Chiles still has a gold from the women’s team all-around. She won silver in Tokyo, also in the team all-around.
“We are devastated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling regarding women’s floor exercise,” according to a statement issued by USA Gymnastics on Saturday night. “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 sport’s U.S. governing body also said the athlete has been “subject to consistent, utterly baseless and extremely hurtful attacks on social media” since the matter came to light.
“No athlete should be subject to such treatment,” they said in the statement. “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.”
Chiles posted emojis of four broken hearts on her Instagram on Saturday and said she’d be off from social media to processes this stunning turn of events.
This is absolute bullsh-t. WTF is a 60-second rule for challenging the score? Why does that rule exist? That’s barely enough time to process the judges’ screw-up (weird how they underestimated the difficulty of the Black gymnast’s score) and walk over to appeal. The fact that the screw-up and appeal happened in 64 seconds should let everyone know that it was the judges’ f–kup. As for returning the medal… nope. Jordan should keep it. She earned it. They can say it’s a technicality but she earned the score which got her to third place. The IOC should issue another bronze medal to the salty, sore-loser Romanian. That’s another thing – is Ana Bărbosu not embarrassed to “win” a medal this way? On this kind of ridiculous technicality in which a Black woman is being punished for the judges’ mistake? Update: I understand the complaints about referring to Barbosu as a sore loser and maybe that is unfair, but the Romanian team’s appeal actually does seem to be complete bullsh-t and it absolutely smacks of sore-loserism and racism to me.
Also: If Americans are going to do one thing, it’s be a litigious Karen. US Gymnastics has filed an appeal and they have receipts! Apparently, they did get to the judges in under a minute. This whole thing is so strange.
USA Gymnastics has submitted additional evidence to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. pic.twitter.com/GOKymbAtcq
— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) August 11, 2024
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- FRA, Paris, Olympischen Spiele Paris 2024, 05.08.2024, Geräteturnen Damen Boden Finale, Bercy Arena Jordan Chiles USA während ihrer Boden Routine *** FRA, Paris, Olympic Games Paris 2024, 05 08 2024, Apparatus Gymnastics Womens Floor Final, Bercy Arena Jordan Chiles USA during her floor routine Copyright:,Image: 896212081, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Steffie Wunderl / Avalon
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- PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 5: Silver medalist Simone Biles of United States, gold medalist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil and bronze medalist Jordan Chiles of the United States during the medal ceremony after the Women s Floor Exercise Final on day ten of the Olympic Games, Olympische Spiele, Olympia, OS Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 5, 2024 in Paris, France. Paris Bercy Arena France *** PARIS, FRANCE AUGUST 5 Silver medalist Simone Biles of United States, gold medalist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil and bronze medalist Jordan Chiles of the United States during the medal ceremony after the Women s Floor Exercise Final on day ten of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 5, 2024 in Paris, France Paris Bercy Arena France Copyright: xJustPictures.ch/DanielaxPorcellix jp-en-EuSpIm-20240805-_DP15383,Image: 896214159, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Daniela Porcelli / Avalon
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- PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 5: Jordan Chiles of United States during the Women s Floor Exercise Final on day ten of the Olympic Games, Olympische Spiele, Olympia, OS Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 5, 2024 in Paris, France. Paris Bercy Arena France *** PARIS, FRANCE AUGUST 5 Jordan Chiles of United States during the Women s Floor Exercise Final on day ten of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 5, 2024 in Paris, France Paris Bercy Arena France Copyright: xJustPictures.ch/DanielaxPorcellix jp-en-EuSpIm-20240805-_DP15182,Image: 896235988, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Daniela Porcelli / Avalon
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- PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 5: Bronze medalist Jordan Chiles of United States looks happy to gold medalist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil L during the ceremony after the Women s Floor Exercise Final on day ten of the Olympic Games, Olympische Spiele, Olympia, OS Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 5, 2024 in Paris, France. Paris Bercy Arena France *** PARIS, FRANCE AUGUST 5 Bronze medalist Jordan Chiles of United States looks happy to gold medalist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil L during the ceremony after the Women s Floor Exercise Final on day ten of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 5, 2024 in Paris, France Paris Bercy Arena France Copyright: xJustPictures.ch/DanielaxPorcellix jp-en-EuSpIm-20240805-_DP15356,Image: 896466171, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Daniela Porcelli / Avalon
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- PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 5: Jordan Chiles of United States holds up her bronze medal during the ceremony after the Women s Floor Exercise Final on day ten of the Olympic Games, Olympische Spiele, Olympia, OS Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 5, 2024 in Paris, France. Paris Bercy Arena France *** PARIS, FRANCE AUGUST 5 Jordan Chiles of United States holds up her bronze medal during the ceremony after the Women s Floor Exercise Final on day ten of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 5, 2024 in Paris, France Paris Bercy Arena France Copyright: xJustPictures.ch/DanielaxPorcellix jp-en-EuSpIm-20240805-_DP15239,Image: 896470844, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Daniela Porcelli / Avalon
The judges are completely to blame for this – if they had scored Jordan properly at the time this would not have happened.
It’s so ridiculous. What can you even do in one minute and just 4 seconds over when it was a judging error. They should be allowed to share bronze as requested. If not then it just discredits the IOC as Jordan scored higher anyway if the judges had done their jobs properly without needing an inquiry.
Yeah, acknowledging that “yes, we scored her incorrectly but you didn’t catch our error in time so too bad, give back the medal” is a VERY bad look for the IOC.
And frankly, also for the Romanian gymnast who will have an asterisk on her win forever: “Did not actually earn the bronze but got it because the judges made an error on the real winner’s score that was caught 4 seconds too late” is also not a win to feel good about.
From what others say below one of the other Romanian gymnasts unfairly got points deducted for stepping outside the boundary when she didn’t so the judges completely fkd up the scoring for the floor final – none of the gymnasts did anything wrong. This was also part of their complaint about the scoring – the judges unfairly deducted points from one of their gymnasts.
It was a close race for the bronze medal so I don’t know if Jordan would have won it even if the judges were scoring properly.
I agree its a bad bad look for the IOC, esp when both teams agreed that all 2 gymnasts should share the bronze medal – something that the IOC refuses to consider. The teams have shown more sportsmanship that the IOC has.
And if they had scored the other Romanian correctly, the one who finished fifth, she would have won Bronze and none of this would have happened.
There shouldn’t be a time limit on how to remind THEM how to do THEIR job.
I hope she holds on to that medal until the entire process is settled. Even then, the IOC can just make another one if their new decision is upheld. If anyone here is interested, look up Rosie Ruiz and the 1980 Boston Marathon. She cheated by taking public transit and refused to return her medal, so the officials did make another one to give to the actual winner. Obviously this is different in the fact that Chiles did not cheat and it’s all a bunch of poor choices by the judges, which in my opinion justifies her keeping it even more. Don’t give it back!!
This is a completely embarrassing fuck up but the Romanian girl isn’t to blame. Both the USA and Romanian teams agreed that the girls should share the bronze and the IOC ignored them.
I feel for the Romanian girl too – she was already celebrating when the inquiry came back and she had to stop. Now Jordan has to give it back. Then after they review the video can she keep it?
They messed up. Just issue a second medal and be done with it. And then revisit the stupid inquiry rule for the last score. Maybe show the difficulty score first and see if there’s and an inquiry. If not, then publish the full score and let the winner celebrate.
I really feel awful for both Jordan and Ana.
Didn’t the judges also mess up and give to high a deduction on Ana’s routine?
@Lauren. Not on Ana’s routine. IIRC, there’s a 3rd gymnast involved named Sabrina. She says she was improperly deducted for stepping out of bounds. She’s the one who has been pretty nasty on SM while Ana has posted sympathizing with Jordan and saying that she and Jordan should share the bronze.
I watched the floor exercise finals on CBC in Canada. When they announced that the Romanian gymnast had won the bronze medal she was over the moon thrilled. Then a few minutes later they announced that Jordan won the bronze. The Romanian was *devastated* I really think it is unfair for you to portray her as a salty sore loser.
Agreed. If you watched the whole thing unfold on TV, the Romanian gymnast did nothing wrong. This should be pinned on the judges’ enormous mistake.
100%… the Romanian girl is a victim too…
Thank you – I know this is a US blog pa c’mon, let’s remember the devastation was first felt by the Romanian gymnast and we could argue that the USA won the first appeal because they are a bigger country with much more influence in the world, but we don’t because we don’t think this way, we don’t blame the nations. The judges are to blame, it’s their mess.
@Laalaa, thank you so much for your comment. I understand that for americans, europe seems like a monolyth at times, but it very much is not, and one of the most discriminated against nation is Romania (I’m not Romanian btw, I’m Polish, still I’m able to see how they are being perceived and treated). Eastern europe is seen as “lesser” and “not european enough” inside the europe, at the same time “too european” to be celebrated or even counted when we talk about “inclusive” or “diversification”. So that medal counted for not only for that gymnast, but also for the whole country, and it meant a lot.
I don’t think there is any question that Jordan Chiles’ score was an actual error. I’m sure the US has tons of influence in general but here it seems like it was literally a math error or an error in inputting the score. So influence had nothing to do with it.
Agree. This is not the fault of something she did. She was there competing and representing her country in the same spirit as Chiles.
This is all so cruel.
Looks like Jordan may get to keep her medal. USA Gymnastics proved they responded in time.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/usa-gymnastics-may-have-saved-jordan-chiles-bronze-medal/ar-AA1oCzpu?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=76e3b2754c2b493bb238ad2a2e5b97fe&ei=11
Agree. This is the judges fault and the fault of the IOC. Romania and US gymnastics both advocated that all 3 receive the Bronze. Romania advocated for Jordan Chiles to keep the Bronze. They are all friends and healthy competitors. I don’t doubt racism is a factor on behalf of the IOC and the judges, so please direct outrage where it’s deserved. The unhinged contempt from the US towards a Romanian woman right now is not okay. If the shoe was on the other foot the US wpuld would have appealed it the same way. I get being angry that they want to take Jordan’s medal away, but she didn’t ask you to go after Ana and the Romanian team to the point all athletes have left socials and there are rumors of suicidal ideation from the Romanian team as well as death threats. Come on!!! How is this okay?? Be mad at the IOC and the judges. Ana was unfairly penalized and Jordan is being unfairly penalized. They all deserve the medals or some kind of compensation and absolutely none of them deserve death threats or media pushing them to suicidal ideation.
From what I read, the Romanians didn’t even ask for Chiles medal to be returned, just have one granted to their athlete as well. And there’s some kind of controversy over their now-5th placed gymnasts not actually deserving the out of bounds deduction she got so it is MESSY. Chiles deserves that medal, and it’s good to see that the USG is going to fight for her to keep it.
The Romanians have asked that all three athletes be granted bronze medals due to the judges’ multiple errors. I think the American reps have signed on to that request as well.
Liz that’s the right move to everyone but the IOC. If things had been scored correctly on the day, Sabrina should have ended up third, Jordan fourth and Ana fifth. The way they’ve flip flopped and played with the emotions of all three ladies, they need to just issue two extra medals to the Romanian gymnasts.
I’m glad the USAG is fighting for her! She shouldn’t lose her medal because the judges didn’t do their jobs properly! We got your back Jordan!! I’m glad she’s taken some time away from the social media, the racist comments have been disgusting. She won and should keep her medal and official standing.
This whole situation sucks. I don’t believe we should blame ANY of the gymnasts. It’s the judges who f*cked this up and admins who continue the mess. Also, the Romanians had 3 parts to their appeal. One of them was that all three gymnasts (3rd, 4th, and 5th), should be awarded the bronze. Approving that would have sent the message that none of the gymnasts were at fault!
This is what I heard in the news as well. I understand supporting our gymnast, but I don’t understand why we should attack the other gymnast who has done nothing to deserve this.
Blame the IOC. They’re also the ones who did nothing about Steven van de Velde, the child rapist beach volleyballer.
This does also smack of racism. Someone really hated that all black podium and the iconic photos that came from it. And it’s not the Romanians as they have clearly asked for the bronze medal to be shared.
I guess sharing the medal is a good option but if the other girl didn’t really win why should she get a medal? Just to spare her feelings? Wtf? She didn’t win, Jordan did. Notice they are not saying Jordan should keep her medal to spare her feelings.
I’m also confused by this as there was another Romanian gymnast who was deducted points she shouldn’t have been. She and Jordan should have tied for third. Ana sorry she thought she had third for 90 seconds, but this is life in such a subjective sport.
It feels especially mean to do to Chiles when she was penalized for coming 3rd to Biles and Lee because each country can only advance 2. Because of that rule, her 4th place in qualifying kept her from advancing in individual all-around and she didn’t advance in vault.
There is a situation with the second Romanian (?) athlete in floor also — she was dinged for being out and wasn’t so they wanted all 3 to get bronze.
I hope the US’ time stamped video is correct and she wins the appeal but evidently the coaches had texted beforehand and planned to appeal if necessary because they believed a leap wasn’t calculated into the difficulty. So if they knew and just didn’t race there within the time limit (a rule because they have to be able to close the competition and award medals), that would be extra upsetting.
If you watched the routine, Chiles wasn’t given points for a move in the freestyle, but the Romanians were also deducted points that shouldn’t have been deducted (they never went out of bounds and NBC commentators pointed that out).
I like that US won bronze, but the Romanians deserved that bronze for their routine.
Also, if her appeal is not accepted because it was too late, then she would be 5th, after both the Romanians. This is why they are not letting her keep the medal.
There’s a reason why there is a time limit for appeals, but the judges need to own up to this absolute f*ck up. I watched it at the time and the Romanian gymnast who thought we had won the bronze was absolutely devastated to hear that wasn’t the case. I feel for them both.
Where is the proof of the time? CAS still hasn’t produced their video evidence of the timeline. The USAG video probably was provided by someone who was there live and it shows Jordan’s coach at 47s & 55s making her appeal. So…she got it in on time. This whole thing could have been solved before the meet ended, but FIG and their judges dropped the ball.
All that being said…the sheer amount of racist, anti-American crap that has been spewed in the name of the Romanian gymnasts has been godawful. The racist memes. The emojis. Commenting with their full chest their hatred of Black people. I’m rarely shocked by racism, but the DMs Jordan’s mother and sister posted were horrible. The actions of others has put the Romanians in a bad light. Sorry for those on here who aren’t like the bigots online, but it has been awful. And it’s uncalled for. Jo did nothing wrong. Neither did Ana, but bad actors (yes, Nadia C, I’m talking about you) contributed to the abuse.
The “litigious Karen” comment made me spit out my coffee lol It will be an injustice if this ridiculous decision is allowed to stand. It seems very inequitable to allow an athlete to lose a medal because the team was four seconds late in calling out the judges’ mistake. I’m not sure if equity is considered in these sports arbitrations, as I’ve never practiced in the area, but I hope it is. I am disappointed in the CAS. I know that there are a lot of North American lawyers that sit on the CAS, including one of my former law professors. I hope this wrong is righted.
The FIG which is the gymnastics federation is part of the problem why the IOC says they can’t share another medal.
The sad part is that it’s the actual gymnast being dragged into this mess because of mistakes made by the judges.
I should note that someone in attendance for the event recorded the screen as the scores were being given along with the inquiries. That’s where the info of the timing is coming from in terms of the U.S. position as to when things were filed.
She should not have to give back that medal. Ridiculous.
What gets me is that now they are claiming the review request came late? Why was a review done if it was late? How can a review take place 3 or 4 days after the competition? The judges and committees screwed up all over the place.
This really shouldn’t be framed as it’s because Jordan is Black. This was a judging issue that has screwed over at least three gymnasts, two of whom are Romanian and I don’t like how some people are blaming the Romanians; especially considering if the roles were reversed the U.S. would have fought tooth in nail for Jordan to keep the Bronze medal that was overturned on appeal – just as the Romanians are doing.
This js the fault of strict adherence to rules and policy and incorrect judging/scoring. From the start the Romanian girl should have kept the Bronze and a second one should have been awarded to Jordan.
Better yet, they need to either withhold scores and rankings to allow time for appeals or they need to do away with appeals and just admit that mistakes happen and sports, like life, isn’t perfect or 100% fair.
I feel for Ana because I do think she is innocent in this, but that is Jordan’s medal, they have proven she got her inquiry in on time and that she was under scored so it is her medal.
Also Nadia who had no right to get involved at all, illegally challenged another team’s inquiry when they looked at Jordan’s. And was able to do so because she is friends with judges, she has also been posting and liking racist tweets and comments about Jordan.
This entire thing is a mess and was all started because of the all Black podium. The US got the inquiry in on time, Jordan one the medal. It is her’s but she is willing to share with Ana because she is a lovely person and a true sportsman (which we have seen Ana be as well, unlike that other girl who has been awful).
All the members of the Judges, FIG and IOC and frankly Nadia should be fired and banned for how this has been handled and what they have done to Jordan and Ana. No one in history has been forced to give up a medal when they did nothing wrong.
So glad US Gymnastics and our US lawyers are on this.