Jordan Chiles' bronze medal may be withdrawn after appeal by Romania; leaves social media heartbroken
American gymnast Jordan Chiles may lose her Olympic bronze medal, which she won in the women's floor exercise final.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the judging panel at the event had improperly granted an inquiry that increased Chiles' score, which moved her into bronze medal position over Romania's Ana Barbosu. The Switzerland-based court ruled that the appeal had been submitted past the one-minute deadline for inquiries and therefore should not have been granted.
Barbosu had initially clinched the bronze medal for floor on Monday and began celebrating on the mat. But then U.S. coaches appealed to judges over Chiles’ score, and a review resulted in a 0.1-point increase, which moved Chiles ahead of Barbosu for the bronze medal.
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But the Court of Arbitration has now said that Chiles should have received a score of 13.666 in the event, which would've placed her fifth, just shy of the Olympic podium.
USA Gymnastics and USOPCE said in a statement that they were "devastated" by the ruling.
"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."
The CAS said it was up to the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) to decide who will get the medal.
Chiles posted a series of emotional stories on Instagram Saturday in response to the ruling, including one that showed a series of broken heart emojis, and another that included her announcement that she would be leaving social media.
"I am taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health," Chiles wrote.
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Chiles teammate Suni Lee criticized the judges who had made the erroneous decision, in her own Instagram Stories on Saturday.
"All this talk about the athlete, what about the judges?? Completely unacceptable, this is awful and I'm gutted for Jordan," Lee wrote. "I got your back forever Joe, you have all my flowers and you will always be an Olympic champion.
Chiles' bronze resulted in the floor final's podium being the first Olympic gymnastics podium in history to have three Black medalists.
Chiles joined U.S. teammate Simone Biles, who won silver, and Brazil's Rebecca Andrade, who won gold. The moment came with a signifying image at the podium, when Biles, 27, and Chiles, 23, bowed on both sides of their Brazilian opponent Andrade, 25, who had raised her fists in celebration.
Meanwhile, Barbosu was holding a Romanian flag when she looked up and saw the scoring change on the board. Just then, she dropped the flag, covered her face with her hands and walked away in tears.
The initial ruling resulted in a wave of backlash. Gymnastics legend Nadia Comaneci condemned the score change on social media, and Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Tuesday that he will boycott the Paris Olympics’ closing ceremony over the scoring decision.
The Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee announced on Wednesday that it would be appealing the decision.
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