Jordan Chiles might not lose the bronze medal she received at the 2024 Paris Olympics. USA Gymnastics submitted new evidence to challenge a court ruling that led to her being bumped from third place.
Team USA’s Jordan Chiles and Romania’s Ana Barbosu‘s battle for the bronze just took a major turn.
After the International Olympics Committee said that the medal Chiles received for her individual floor exercise routine at the 2024 Paris Olympics last week be reallocated to the latter competitor, USA Gymnastics announced they had submitted new evidence to challenge a court ruling that had led to the decision.
In response to an appeal from Barbosu and Romanian Gymnastics Federation, the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport had invalidated an inquiry that Chiles’ coach had made during the Aug. 5 gymnastics event, which boosted her score to elevate her to third place, above Barbosu. The Romanian side argued the coach made the inquiry four seconds past a one-minute time limit.
“USA Gymnastics formally submitted a letter and video evidence to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” the group said in a statement shared Aug. 11, “conclusively establishing that Head Coach Cecile Landi‘s request to file an inquiry was submitted 47 seconds after the publishing of the score, within the 1-minute deadline required by FIG [International Gymnastics Federation] rule.”
USA Gymnastics said that in their letter, submitted Aug. 10, they requested “that the CAS ruling be revised and Chiles’ bronze-medal score of 13.766 be reinstated.”
The group also said that their “time-stamped, video evidence” shows that Landi not only submitted her request to file an inquiry at the inquiry table 47 seconds after the score is posted, but that a second statement was made 55 seconds after Chiles’ score was originally posted.
“The video footage provided was not available to USA Gymnastics prior to the tribunal’s decision,” USA Gymnastics added, “and thus USAG did not have the opportunity to previously submit it.”
The statement followed the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s recent vow to appeal the court’s decision, in which they alleged there were “critical errors in both the initial scoring by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the subsequent CAS appeal process that need to be addressed.”
Neither Chiles, 23, nor Barbosu, 18, have commented on the groups’ responses. Chiles’ sister Jazmin Chiles reposted USA Gymnastics’ statement on her Instagram Stories, adding, “I smell receipts.”
The organization’s message and IOC’s announcement were both released the day of the Paris Olympics’ Closing Ceremony. Neither Chiles nor Barbosu were spotted at the event.
After the court released its ruling Aug. 10, Chiles expressed heartbreak over the potential loss of her bronze medal, her first individual Olympic honor, which followed two gold medals she earned for gymnastics team all-around finals in Paris and at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
The gymnast, who has been slammed with hateful comments on social media amid the controversy, also wrote on her Instagram Stories, “I am taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health.”
Barbosu, who has also been the target of internet trolls due to the dispute, had expressed empathy for Chiles and her Romanian teammate Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, who ranked behind her in the floor exercise final and had co-filed the appeal.
The latter athlete had asked the court to invalidate a 0.1-point penalty on her own score that would have put her in third place, but was denied. The court also denied the Romanian side’s request to have all three athlete’s tie for third and award them all medals.
“Sabrina, Jordan, my thoughts are with you,” Barbosu, whose shocked and tearful reaction to losing out on the bronze at the floor exercise final went viral, wrote in English on her Instagram Stories. “I know what you are feeling, because I’ve been through the same. But I know you’ll come back stronger.”
She added, “I hope from deep [in] my heart that at the next Olympics, all three of us will share [the] same podium. This is my true dream!”
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