we thought The biggest drama in the women’s gymnastics floor exercise final was the showdown between Simone Biles and Rebecca Andrade, but no one could have predicted what would happen at the very end of the competition after Jordan Childs took the floor.
The last competitor, Chiles, needed to score better than 13.700 to get on the podium, a big score but achievable, and then she had a really good performance, but maybe not enough to get on the podium.
The judges agreed, initially awarding her 13.666 points, with her final rankings as follows:
- Rebeca Andrade (Brazil): 14.166
- Simone Biles (USA): 14.133
- Ana Barbos (ROU): 13.700
- Sabrina Voinea (ROU) 13.700
- Jordan Chiles (USA): 13.666
Barbos, who won the bronze medal in a difficulty tiebreaker against her teammate, was walking around the field clutching a Romanian flag when an announcement was made that Chile’s score had been corrected.
So what really happened? Immediately after Chiles’ 13.666 score, the U.S. team filed for a scoring investigation. They felt the judges had missed an element of the routine. Specifically, a full-turn split jump wasn’t judged as a full turn. It’s one of those little technique details that you barely notice when watching on TV, but the margin of error was so small that it all counted.
The judges accepted the review and admitted that they had mistakenly awarded the skill and technique a harder D start rating instead of a C, meaning an additional 0.1 points, so the Chiles’ score was changed to 13.766 and the Romanian pair dropped down a place to the bronze medal.
It’s hard not to feel sorry for Barbos, who thought he had a medal but ended up missing out in a surprising and unexpected outcome.
