Jordan Chiles could lose the Olympic bronze medal she won in the women’s floor final after a shock ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Saturday.
CAS ruled that the judging panel erred in allowing an investigation that boosted Chiles’ score and bumped her up from fifth place to the bronze medal at the expense of Ana Barbosu, who was left in tears.
USA Gymnastics says it is “devastated” by the decision.
Chiles’ score improved after an appeal by her coach Cecile Landi over a jump that had originally been graded with a lower difficulty rating.
The Romanian Gymnastics Federation announced on August 7 that it had submitted requests to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, one of which was related to the investigation filed by the Chilean coaches.
Jordan Chiles could lose the Olympic bronze medal she won in the women’s floor final
“Aware of the negative impact on Ana Maria Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea (who also competed for Chile), the Romanian Gymnastics Federation aims to correct the mistakes made by the judges and restore the rights of our athletes,” the federation said.
The results of the floor exercise have caused a stir in Romania.
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said Tuesday he would boycott the closing ceremony due to the “scandalous situation.”
Ciolacu promised that Romania would honour Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea as Olympic medallists, “including in terms of prizes”.
Chiles posted several broken heart emojis on her Instagram Story on Saturday afternoon.
One of Jordan’s older sisters, Jazmin Chiles, posted a statement on social media about the potential loss of her bronze medal.
“Please keep Jordan (and my family) in your prayers. Racism is real, it exists, it’s alive and well,” Jazmin said. “Five days later, he was officially stripped of one of his medals.”
“Not because she didn’t win, not because she was drugged, not because she went off the track, not because she wasn’t good enough, but because the judges didn’t give her any difficulties and forced an investigation to be carried out.”
‘FOUR SECONDS. She was stripped of the bronze in four seconds, something that would never have happened if the judges had done their job properly. I love you, sis. And I’ll give you back whatever you ask of me, no matter what.’