Jordan Childs’ dramatic bronze medal win may have been in vain.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Saturday that an investigation into Chiles’ score that elevated her from fifth to third in the women’s floor exercise final was improperly granted because it was submitted after the one-minute investigation deadline.
The court therefore said the 23-year-old Chiles should have received his original score of 13.666 and placed fifth.
In a statement, CAS said the ruling applied to Childs’ points but not to his final ranking.
“The International Gymnastics Federation will determine the rankings and award medals in the women’s floor exercise.[s] “In accordance with the above decisions,” the CAS said.
“We are devastated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision regarding the women’s floor exercise,” USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said in a joint statement. “We believe the investigation into the difficulty of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise was conducted in good faith and in accordance with International Gymnastics Federation rules designed to ensure accurate scoring.”
“Throughout the appeals process, Ms. Jordan has been subjected to consistent, completely unfounded and extremely hurtful attacks on social media. No athlete should be treated this way. We condemn the attacks and those who participate in, aid or abet them. We commend Ms. Jordan for conducting herself with integrity on and off the field, and we continue to support her.”
FIG and the International Olympic Committee did not respond to requests for comment from USA Today.
The Romanian Gymnastics Federation provoked the CAS ruling with multiple appeals after Chile’s increased scores caused its gymnasts Ana Barbos and Sabrina Boinea to drop in the rankings.
2024 Paris Olympics
Romanian gymnast legend Nadia Comaneci and the country’s prime minister, Marcel Ciolac, both slammed the decision to award the bronze medal to Chile, with Ciolac declining to attend the closing ceremony and claiming that Romanian athletes had been “treated with complete disgrace.”
“I can’t believe this is how they treat an athlete’s mental state and emotions… Protect them,” Comaneci, who earned a perfect 10 at the 1976 Olympics, tweeted after the floor exercise.
After the incident, Chiles said he was unaware that the coaches had offered to investigate on his behalf.
He asked the judges to reconsider the deduction of points from Chiles’ score, but it was a guesswork.
Following review, the deductions were reversed and Childs’ score was increased by one tenth of a point.
Barbos believed he had won the bronze medal and was on the floor holding the Romanian flag before the results were announced.
After Chiles’ penalty was rescinded, she dropped the flag and retired from the podium.
Chiles won gold in the team all-around final in Paris, but this is her first individual medal at this Olympics.
It’s unclear what the next steps will be from USA Gymnastics or the USOPC, but Chiles posted a broken heart emoji to her Instagram Story on Saturday, referencing either the CAS incident or the criticism she’s received, or both.
