Why Jordan Chiles Lost Her Bronze Medal

This is a developing story and will be updated as news occurs.

Jordan Chiles’ bronze medal in the women’s gymnastics floor exercise final was one of the more dramatic moments at the Paris Olympics. And the drama continued nearly a week after the competition, as she and USA Gymnastics (USAG) battled attempts to take the medal away. On Aug. 12, the Court of Arbitration for Sport informed USAG that it does not reconsider decisions even when new evidence is presented. This comes just a day after USAG submitted a letter and video supporting Chiles' legitimate claim to the bronze, all as the Paris Olympics celebrated the closing ceremony.

On Aug. 5, Chiles made the podium after her coach, Cecile Landi, submitted an inquiry about the calculation of her difficulty score, and the judges agreed that her initial score, which put her in fifth place, was incorrect. The new score was 0.1 higher, which was enough to bring her into third.

The Romanian Gymnastics federation and its gymnasts Ana Maria Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, who initially finished in third and fourth, challenged the inquiry submitted by Chiles and her coach. The parties, including USA Gymnastics and the International Olympic Committee, turned to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to arbitrate. The Romanians maintained that Chiles’ inquiry was submitted beyond the one minute deadline following the conclusion of her routine—it was submitted one minute and four seconds later. The Romanians also sought to remove the penalty applied to Maneca-Voinea. They requested that all three gymnasts be awarded the bronze.

On Aug. 10, CAS ruled that Chiles’ inquiry came in beyond the one minute deadline, and was therefore invalid, and that her initial score be reinstated. The other requests were denied.
Based on CAS's ruling, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) reverted Chiles' score back to the original—13.666—since the inquiry was submitted too late, and reordered the rankings once again. Chiles finished fifth and Barbosa, who earned a score of 13.700, moved into third place for the bronze medal. Her teammate, Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, earned the same score but Barbosa had the higher execution score, which serves as the tie breaker. While FIG made the ruling about the placements, the organization said that the allocation of medals—and whether Chiles would lose hers—was up to the IOC.

On Aug. 11, the IOC decided that Chiles would have to return her bronze medal. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) said in a statement that it would appeal the decision. “We firmly believe that Jordan rightfully earned the bronze medal, and there were critical errors in both the initial scoring by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the subsequent CAS appeal process that need to be addressed,” the statement read.

“The initial error occurred in the scoring by FIG, and the second error was during the CAS appeal process, where the USOPC was not given adequate time or notice to effectively challenge the decision.”

Later that day, USAG submitted its letter and video evidence to CAS. "The time-stamped, video evidence submitted by USA Gymnastics Sunday evening shows Landi first stated her request to file an inquiry at the inquiry table 47 seconds after the score is posted, followed by a second statement 55 seconds after the score was originally posted.

The video footage provided was not available to USA Gymnastics prior to the tribunal’s decision and thus USAG did not have the opportunity to previously submit it."

USAG requested in the letter that Chiles' revised score of 13.766, which earned her bronze, be reinstated.

In response to CAS’ decision not to alter its original ruling even with new evidence, USAG say in a statement that “We are deeply disappointed by the notification and will continue to pursue every possible avenue and appeal process, including to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, to ensure the just scoring, placement, and medal award for Jordan.”

In an earlier statement USA Gymnastics said: “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.”

Her teammates have all rallied to around her, sending messages of support on social media.

Simone Biles posted "sending you so much love Jordan. keep your chin up olympic champ! we love you!"

Sunisa Lee questioned the judges: "all this talk about the athlete, what about the judges?? completely unacceptable. this is awful and i'm gutted for jordan. I got your back forever jo. u have all my flowers and you will ALWAYS be an olympic champion "

Jade Carey wrote, "Don't punish the athlete for someone else's mistake. With you all the way Jo. You are forever an Olympic champion that has so much to be proud of."

Hezly Rivera also reached out saying, "love you @jordanchiles and will always support you!!!"

On her Instagram account, Chiles posted four broken hearts with the message: "I am taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health thank you."