The United States did not like the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) to take away the bronze medal won by Jordan Chiles on the land of artistic Gymnasticsthe same device that Rebecca Andrade won the gold medal In olympics 2024. In a joint statement from the sport’s local federation and the country’s Olympic and Paralympic committees, they said they were “devastated” and protected the athlete from “attacks”.
Initially, Chiles was in third place with a score of 13.666, however, the team requested a review of the difficulty of their series, which was accepted. With this, it increased to 13,766 and the Romanians became Ana Maria Barbosu ExplainedWhich became 13,700. Romania then filed an appeal, which was also accepted and the score was reverted to 13.666, giving its opponent the bronze medal.
The person who took the stage and even took a historic photo with Rebecca Andrade was Jordan Chiles, with whom the Romanian women had so many complaints. According to the United States Olympic Committee, this fact led to the American being subjected to “painful attacks” on social media, which mourned the loss of bronze.
USA Gymnastics and the country’s Olympic and Paralympic committees said, “We are disappointed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision on the women’s floor exercise.” Regarding the grade change, they further said, “The difficulty value survey for Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise routine was submitted in good faith and, we believe, in accordance with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring.”
“Throughout the appeal process, Jordan was the target of completely unfounded and extremely hurtful attacks on social media”, he said of the ‘hate’ he faced from Chiles. “No athlete should be treated this way. We condemn the attacks and those who engage in them, support them or incite them. We applaud Jordan for behaving with integrity on and off the field of competition, and we will continue to support him.”
The gymnast herself announced shortly after the decision was reversed that she had decided to take a break from social media “to protect her mental health.”
Remember how the floor controversy went in the artistic gymnastics final at the Olympics
In total, Romania made three requests to the TAS. The first of them was to overturn the appeal made by the United States during the dispute, which would have reduced Chiles’ score from 13,766 to 13,666. The second was to remove the penalty from Romanian Sabrina Maneca-Voina, whose presentation was 0.1 off. The third and last suggestion was that the three athletes share the bronze medal.
The court granted only the first request. As a result, Chiles lost 13,766 and, with the discount, fell to fifth place, behind the two Romanians. And while Manca-Voina rose to fourth, Barbosu reached the podium and inherited the bronze medal.
According to the newspaper Euronews, TAS determined this attitude due to the fact that the United States team requested an appeal on the score after exceeding the regulation time in the singles final.
During the final, and after the Chiles series, Barbosu was already celebrating her place on the podium, when the American gymnast asked for a review of her score, and the referee raised it to 13.766.
