The world of gymnastics has its twists and turns that are awe-inspiring to audiences across the world, but perhaps nothing has recently held the attention of the public more than the controversy following Jordan Chiles’ floor performance and the numerous turns of events in its aftermath.
Jordan Chiles is a well-known, respected and decorated elite gymnast. She turned heads by placing first in the all-around competition at the Emerald Team Challenge in 2008, accelerating her Olympic career in gymnastics. Fast forward a few years, and she went on to compete for the U.S. gymnastics team in the 2021 Olympics in Japan. Chiles most recently competedd at the Paris Olympics this past summer.
After her final performance in the floor event for this summer’s Olympics. Chiles was “stripped of her first individual Olympic medal after the Romanian gymnastics team challenged her final score,” according to CNN .
So, what happened? Last on the floor exercise, Chiles is up for her final performance. Romania’s Ana Bǎrbosu and her teammate Sabrina Maneca-Voinea were already tied with a score of 13.700. Chiles’ chance to earn her first individual Olympic medal would come down to a tenth of a point.
Chiles confidently performed her floor routine and all three athletes awaited the judges’ scoring. Initially, Chiles was awarded a score of 13.666, which would place her in fifth.
But as the stadium erupted in celebration over Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade’s gold medal, U.S. gymnastics coach Cecile Landi filed an inquiry over Chiles’ difficulty score.
Minutes later, the judges revised her score by 0.1 of a point.
This revision of difficulty gave her the score of 13.766 that led her to win the Olympic bronze medal. The win was historic, as it was the first time all three positions on the Olympic podium were held by Black women. The celebration did not last long, though, as the Romanian Gymnastics Federation quickly filed a challenge against Chiles’ revised final score.
According to CNN reporter, “The International Gymnastics Federation (IGF) allows a coach to challenge a difficulty score as long as it is verbally made immediately after the publication of the official score.” According to these guidelines, a coach has only one minute after the score is shown to make a verbal inquiry for the last gymnast in a rotation.
In this case, Chiles was the last to perform on the floor exercise, so her coaches had to race against the clock.
According to CNN, the IGF regulations state that the person assigned to the verbal inquiry has to record the time of its receipt which can be in writing or electronically. Once that is complete, the procedure may begin.
The Romanian Gymnastics Federation filed an official challenge with the Olympic Court of Arbitration for Sport to review the decision to revise Chiles’ score. Their argument centers on the fact that the U.S. Gymnastics inquiry was filed four seconds after the one-minute deadline and as a result, Chiles’ initial score of 13.666 should be upheld. All three gymnasts argued that they should each be placed in third position and thus, each awarded a bronze medal.
The Olympic Court of Arbitration carefully reviewed the inquiry for five days. Their final decision was in favor of Team Romania’s challenge against Chiles. The court determined the inquiry submitted by her coaches on behalf of Chiles was raised after the one-minute deadline and as such, was without effect.
Following this decision was the award of the bronze medal, won by Bǎrbosu of Romania. Chiles was immediately and effectively stripped of her individual Olympic bronze medal for the floor exercise.
Just this past Monday, U.S. Gymnastics said it could prove that their gymnastics coach’s appeal was by the book. However, this effort appears to be going nowhere because the court said the IGF rules do not allow for reconsideration.According to the Associated Press earlier this week, “Jordan Chiles posted four broken heart emojis to her Instagram story following this decision and announced she is taking a break from social media.”
