American Jordan Chiles will compete in the women’s artistic gymnastics individual floor exercise final at the 2024 Summer Olympics at Bercy Arena on Monday. Chiles was awarded the bronze medal after a last-minute investigation revealed that the judges gave her a tenth of a point. On Saturday, the Court of Appeal quashed the inquiry, saying it had been carried out four seconds too late.
Charlie Riddell/AP
hide title
Switch title
Charlie Riddell/AP
NPR will be in Paris watching the 2024 Summer Olympics. For more of our Olympic coverage, head to Our latest news.
PARIS – An independent arbitration tribunal has dropped a last-minute investigation into the Olympic gymnastics floor exercise final that improved American gymnast Jordan Chiles’ performance, a decision that now calls her bronze medal into question.
In last Monday’s final in Paris, judges initially gave Chiles a score of 13.666, which placed her in fifth place behind two Romanian gymnasts, Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca. – Warnea, both scored 13.7.
With Chiles being the last to perform the floor exercise, Babosu and Maneka-Wonea started celebrating when the initial score came in, thinking they had won the bronze medal.
But Chiles’ coach thought the judges took her performance seriously and raised questions shortly after the preliminary scores came out. The judges agreed and raised her score by a tenth to 13.766, moving her ahead of Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea into third place. Chiles won the bronze medal.
The next day, Romania’s gymnastics organization lodged a protest with the International Gymnastics Federation, the sport’s international governing body, seeking to overturn the investigation.
In a ruling on Saturday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said Chiles’ investigation was indeed brought too late. Gymnastics rules require the inquiry to be made within one minute; Chiles asked after one minute and four seconds. With the inquiry cleared, her score returned to 13.666.
Now, Chiles’ bronze medal is in doubt.
Jordan Chiles of the United States holds up her medal after the gymnastics final on Monday. Her bronze medal (left) in the floor exercise may be taken away.
Charlie Riddell/AP
hide title
Switch title
Charlie Riddell/AP
The final ranking is determined by the International Gymnastics Federation. Romanian protesters also asked the International Sports Federation to rank all three athletes together in third place so they could share the bronze medal. It is unclear how the FIFA will proceed.
USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said in a joint statement that they were “shocked” by the ruling.
“The investigation into the difficulty level of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise was initiated in good faith and we believe it is consistent with International Gymnastics Federation rules to ensure accurate scoring,” the statement read.
Chiles posted on her Instagram that she was heartbroken. “For my mental health, I am using this time to stay away from social media,” she wrote.
“Throughout the appeals process, Jordan has been subject to baseless and extremely harmful attacks on social media,” a statement from USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee said. “No athlete should be subjected to this kind of treatment.” We condemn these attacks and those who participated in, supported or incited them.
