Eight days ago, American gymnast Jordan Chiles won a bronze medal in individual floor. The bronze medal came after the gymnastics judges screwed up Jordan’s score by underestimating the degree of difficulty. US Gymnastics immediately went to the judges and informed them of their mistake, and Jordan’s score was changed, thus ensuring Jordan’s bronze model. With Jordan’s bronze, Gymnastics had its first-ever all-Black medals podium, with Simone Biles picking up silver and Rebeca Andrade picking up gold. But remember how Jordan’s score had to be changed? Well, the original (wrong) score meant that Romanian gymnast Ana Bărbosu briefly thought she won bronze. Instead of acknowledging the judges’ screw-up on Jordan’s score, Romanian gymnastics filed an appeal on the grounds that US Gymnastics were four seconds “too late” to inform the judges of their scoring error.
The IOC heard Romania’s appeal and granted it, meaning Jordan was ordered to “give back” her bronze medal so the medal could go to Ana Bărbosu. The Romanians apparently even suggested sharing the medal, which the IOC refused. US Gymnastics then filed an appeal saying, actually, we weren’t even four seconds late in recognizing the judging error, we got there in time so Romania’s appeal was always bullsh-t in the first place. Well, the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) has rejected USG’s appeal, as in, CAS will not even consider the “new information.” Meaning, the IOC and CAS based their ruling (that Jordan has to give up the bronze) on a lie (the four seconds too late thing) but now they refuse to acknowledge the lie or their mistake. Well, US Gymnastics will now take this to the Swiss Federal Tribunal! That’s right, we will keep speaking to the manager until we get justice for Jordan. This is really outrageous.
Statement from USA Gymnastics on CAS Notice: pic.twitter.com/HoSiKjx9wl
— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) August 12, 2024
A ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport was issued to strip Team USA gymnast Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal, saying it’s because her coach's inquiry into the scores came four seconds too late. @Aly_Raisman shares her perspective on TODAY. pic.twitter.com/3yBurjyMYG
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 12, 2024
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Simone Biles USA führt Team USA zu Gold, Team-Wettbewerb Turnen Frauen, Mannschaftsfinale Geräteturnen Frauen, von links: Jordan Chiles, Hezly Rivera, Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Sunisa Lee, Paris 2024, Olympic Games, Olympische Spiele, Olympia, OS Paris 2024, Olympic Games 2024, 30.07.2024, – *** Simone Biles USA leads Team USA to gold, womens gymnastics team competition, womens apparatus gymnastics team final, from left Jordan Chiles, Hezly Rivera, Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Sunisa Lee, Paris 2024, Olympic Games Paris 2024, Olympic Games 2024, 30 07 2024,,Image: 894292480, 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/FRANK HEINEN/rscp-photo / Avalon
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- 30 July 2024, France, Versailles: Olympics, Paris 2024, gymnastics, team, women, final, Jordan Chiles from the USA performs on floor.,Image: 894319191, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Marijan Murat/dpa / DPA Picture Alliance / Avalon
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- 05 August 2024, France, Paris: Olympic Games, Paris 2024, gymnastics, floor, women, final, Rebeca Andrade from Brazil (M) celebrates gold at the award ceremony, Simone Biles (l) from the USA celebrates silver and Jordan Chiles (r) from the USA celebrates bronze.,Image: 896205862, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Marijan Murat/dpa / DPA Picture Alliance / Avalon
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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: Gold medalsit Rebeca Andrade of Brazil C, bronze medalist Jordan Chiles of United States R and silver medalist Simone Biles of United States L take a selfie 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 Gold medalsit Rebeca Andrade of Brazil C , bronze medalist Jordan Chiles of United States R and silver medalist Simone Biles of United States L take a selfie 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-_DP15393,Image: 896466184, 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
It was the judges’ fault. The judges should publicly acknowledge their errors, apologize to the other gymnast for giving her false hope, and let Jordan keep the bronze medal. I may have to stop watching gymnastics now.
Absolutely!
First the Romanian gymnast, in tears on the day. Then Jordan Chiles being made to return her medal. All of this because of mistakes done by the judges. They need to apologise!
The thing with Jordan, that makes me extra sad, is that she wasn’t able to compete for the all rounder, as they only allow two members per country. I’m so glad she has a gold medal for the team competition and isn’t left empty handed.
I look forward to seeing her win all the medals in LA.
And to the judges: Shame! Shame! Shame!
The IoC and CAS keep digging a deeper and deeper hole for themselves. Stomping their feet and refusing to look at additional information is pathetic and makes both organizations look unprofessional. They need to just award the two affected Romanian gymnasts additional medals, especially since both countries have said they are fine with that option. But if I was Jordan, they’d have to pry that medal out of my cold dead hands at this point. No way would I return it.
Exactly and at this point anyone who tries to say this wasn’t a plot cooked up by Nadia and Fig as a racist reaction to an all black podium is just full of it.
First no athlete in history has been asked to give back their medal for a judges mistake especially 5 days later.
Second per the bilaws Romania isn’t allowed to do an inquiry into another country, so what they looked at was illegal in the first place.
Third they made it all up and the US has proof it’s made up and they won’t look at it because they want to steal Black girl’s medal that she earned and give it to a white girl who didn’t deserve it.
Since this was all clearly a mistake on the judges’ part (not correctly crediting Chile’s’ difficulty level in the first place), as acknowledged by the initial ruling in Chile’s’ favor, it is ridiculous to me that they would re-award a medal to someone else they KNOW did not earn it.
That they are taking it from a Black woman to award it to a white woman further saddens me. I can’t believe after alll the other instances of French racism on display at these Olympics, the IOC would just lean further into racism and BS even after the Paris Olympics have ended.
Please do better in 2028, LA!
What happens with the IOC, FIG, CAS, etc. Has nothing to do with the French people, or the location of the Olympics. I’m starting to think there must be a lot of people who have never heard of the Olympics before. Because the Paris Olympics was actually pretty damn good in terms of competition and outside of the bruhaha over the opening ceremony, none of the “controversies” had anything to do with anything the organizers did.
Switzerland is one of the leading enablers of Putin and his oligarchs. You know, that Russian dictator whose minions tried to disrupt the Olympic Games in Paris, and succeeded in a few instances (the coordinated arson attacks on French trains etc.) So maybe the Swiss-based CAS isn’t actually so neutral.
Members come from all over the world. I disagree.
This is ridiculous, it was the judges error, and once her score was properly corrected she clearly won. She shouldn’t be penalized because they made a mistake, and now they’re claiming they didn’t correct them in time? BS. She won.
And the 2nd Romanian gymnast, Sabrina
was penalized for going out of bounds when she didn’t. If that had been scored correctly on the day, *she* could have been in 3rd place instead. The judges really screwed over 3 women and I hope in the end, all 3 can share the bronze.
This.
I really think that the judges should be penalized, because they are not capable of evaluating Olympic level competition correctly.
The US and Romania stated all 3 should get bronze, which is very in the spirit of the Olympics, but means that the judges need to admit wrongdoing.
I agree. Given that all of this is about errors that the judges made, the fairest thing to do is to give all three gymnasts bronze medals— and do something to ensure better, fairer judging going forward. They could start with providing each competitor with the same amount of time to raise questions about the judging results. I can’t believe the arguments and the rulings are about “4 seconds “ rather than about focusing on the inaccuracies in the judging,
While this would be a fair solution, none of this would in any way mitigate the unleashed racism that Jordan and her family have had to deal with in all of this.
Sorry they don’t need to share, even if they had not made that mistake Sabrina wouldn’t not have placed. Also all her stoking racist attacks to Jordan that girl should be banned.
My heart does break for Ana, it feels like since they knew Sabrina was a no go in their games they used her as a pawn and she is a victim.
But that medal belongs to Jordan she won it and she alone won it!
So why didn’t Sabrina’s Romanian coaches make a timely inquiry about the out-of-bounds penalty? If Romanian Gymnastics Federation or Romanian coaches are upset about untimely inquiries made by USA coaches in judging Chiles performance, why are they now asking for untimely revisions to Sabrina’s routine?
They tried and got denied. Why? Because you can’t. You can appeal your D score but not your E score.
While I acknowledge that the Romanian gymnast was also hurt in all this, I can’t help but feel a whole lot of animosity toward the Romanian team. It’s super shady. They can’t take an L. Your gymnast got the lower score, bro. She doesn’t deserve the medal. It’s making them look soooo bad.
The racist abuse that they’ve unleashed is unconscionable. If this were a sprinting race and the person who thought–for a couple of minutes–that they had won turned out to have actually come in a close second on review, would this be happening? Wouldn’t the team of the runner accept the outcome? Yeah it’s hard for the runner; sports are full of heartbreak. But it’s like they aren’t accepting this because they don’t think Jordan *deserves* it over their athlete. That’s what makes them look like poor sports.
I only feel for Ana the rest, who I want vengeance!! Because they’ve been nasty, they broke rules, they cheated, and been racist.
Ana has been a class act the rest not so much.
So many people have wronged Jordan. I’m thrilled the USAG isn’t backing down. CAS admits the US presented compelling evidence but they won’t accept it to correct the latest mistake. I don’t blame the USAG for suing them. They’ve bungled this. FIG has bungled this. IOC shriked their duty to the athletes. Keep your medal, Jo. Retire from international competition and continue your UCLA career. Let the last image they have of you be that all black podium.
This is how I think about Usain Bolt’s treble treble. He has the memory of achieving it, and all the news and video of the time. So what if a year later, one of the other team
sprinters was found to be doping? It doesn’t belittle his own personal achievement.
Judges mistakes aside for the moment, I don’t understand why it’s fair for ANYONE going last in a rotation to only have half as much time to file an appeal as the individuals going before. That’s an inequity right out of the gate. Even then, Jordan’s coaches reportedly only filed a few seconds late (looks like there may be some new evidence about whether that’s true). A reasonable way to start would be to change this permanently, so everyone regardless of order has an equal amount of time to file an appeal. And even a case could be made that you follow the rules in place at the time of competition, let that at least be a justification for Jordan to also keep her bronze medal.
So even though the US had evidence that the Romanians were wrong in their assertion that the US were timed out, the CAS has rejected what’s right in front of them and stood with the Romanians? Ha. Sounds like a court alright. They hate being proved wrong after a ruling.
It all stinks and I can’t believe Gymnastics is willingly being embroiled in another dumb controversy like this.
Chiles should refuse to return the medal. She won it in good faith and evidence shows her officials did nothing wrong. Whether the Romanians are acting in the same is debatable.
I feel bad for the Romanian girls who will be competing in LA. This won’t be forgotten.
This is not the fault of the Romanians. It’s the fault of bad judging and stupid rules that allow gymnasts to appeal their D score but not their E score; not to mention competitors 1-7 have four minutes to appeal while competitor 8 only has one — because the schedule must be maintained.
Romania has been advocating from the start to award both (or perhaps all three) bronze models on account of the screw ups, US agreed and it was rejected by the governing bodies.
People really need to stop blaming the athletes for the judging screw ups and the rigid rules.
Insane that they ask Chiles to give her medal back immediately when there are still appeals being made. Trying to rush the situation won’t magically make it go away.
And I can’t forget Jordan’s classy move when she and Simone bowed down to Andrade. This girl is everything we could hope for in an athlete to represent our country and I hope that USA Gymnastics continues to back her!
My heart hurts for her. I don’t really understand these timing rules on what happened, but to me as a layperson it sure looks like someone higher up wants the world to see a white person get a medal.
All the judges and Nadia c should be banned for a while, but that won’t happen
💯💯💯💯💯
Jordan was the embodiment of what the Olympics are suppose to stand for, she was a fierce competitor, gifted athlete, and so supportive and gracious of other countries!! For them to do this to HER!!
It spits in the spirit of the games, hope Romania is ready for LA!
So glad USGymnastics is fighting for her and yeah they about to see the petty vengeful side of the US. We got money and time. Buckle up that medal is staying with its rightful winner!
Wasn’t there a gymnast, Italian, I think, who complained that the US was dominating gymnastics now by focusing on power instead of grace and refinement (read: those Black gymnastics are stronger than I am)? Clearly, Romanian gymnastics feels the same way.
Flava Flav made her a bronze clock medal. That’s better and more exclusive than the medal that was stolen. This is the weirdest damned timeline.
I hope people remember this when talking about how Chiles is being a sore loser. The judges are straight up cheating at this point. We all see it. I hope she never gives it back and I really wonder if they are going to get some big names to never come back to the Olympics. I just saw the previous Chinese gymnastics coach arguing that Simone Biles shouldn’t be allowed to compete anymore.
Such a cluster@@. Ana and Jordan are acting like gracious competitors while the “professionals” are falling all over themselves to take a medal from a black woman. We should not still be debating this: admit they were wrong and let there be a tie for third, letting them all have a medal. Even if they are successful in making Jordan give the medal back, there will always be an asterisk and the image of her and Simone bowing down on the podium.
But it wasn’t a 3 way tie one girl one and it was Jordan. Admit they were wrong apologize to Ana for dragging her into this and giving her false hope.
Then apologize to Jordan for the entire mess and fire all the people involved with FIG and judging and ban Nadia from the sport.
Also it just game out the judge in the case argued for Romania in other cases so yeah this is a plot to steal a medal from its true winner and give it to people who don’t deserve it. No ties.
The only thing I want to know at the end of this mess is why the Romanian Gymnastic Federation told CAS the USA inquiry was made 4 seconds too late?
Did RGF truly believe the USA inquiry was made 4 seconds too late? Or did RGF knowingly intend to deceive CAS by telling them it was 4 seconds too late and hope there was no contrary evidence?
This just gets messier and messier:
https://sports.yahoo.com/head-sporting-panel-gave-jordan-210206363.html
That’s wild, that Romanian CAS member should have recused himself from the case due to conflict of interest. But of course that wasn’t going to happen. And if l were Jordan, l hope she has that bronze medal secured in a safe deposit box.