US Gymnast Jordan Chiles Could Be Stripped Of Bronze Medal
It wouldn't be an Olympics without some controversy and there has been plenty of it — mostly in boxing — and there could be more to come involving the bronze medal won by US gymnast Jordan Chiles.
Chiles got the medal during the women's floor exercise competition placing behind silver medalist Simone Biles and gold medalist Rebeca Andrade.
However, Chiles got that medal in controversial fashion after her coach submitted an appeal after Chiles' performance because she thought the degree of difficulty was wrong. It had been marked as 5.800 but should've been 5.900.
The judges agreed and changed things up, and in doing so, that rocketed Chiles past Romania’s Ana Barbosa.
That caused serious controversy and Romanian president Marcel Ciolacu said that he'd boycott the Closing Ceremony on Sunday.
Romania argued that the appeal made by Chiles' coach happened outside of the one-minute window that allowed for something like that, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport agreed. That meant that Chiles' score was dropped by one-tenth down to 13.666, which means it's now lower than Barbosa's 13.700.
The Federation of International Gymnastics (FIG) confirmed this in a statement.
"The ranking of the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Floor Exercise Finals has been modified accordingly with Ana Barbosu (ROU) ranking third with a score of [13.700]," FIG said, per Yahoo Sports.
Chiles dropped to fifth place.
There are some questions about whether or not US gymnast Jordan Chiles will hang on to the bronze medal she earned in Paris during the floor exercise competition. (Photo by Cao Can/Xinhua via Getty Images)
So, if Barbosa is back to being scored in third, doesn't that mean she is supposed to get a bronze medal?
Well, you'd think so, but not necessarily.
Determining the proper order was left up to FIG, but when asked about whether that meant medals were going to change hands, they seemed to pass the buck.
A FIG spokesperson told the Associated Press, "reallocation of medals is the responsibility of the IOC."
I mean… no one wants to yoink a medal out of anyone's hands, but if it has to be done, it has to be done.
That's a real bummer for Chiles, so we'll see what happens with that medal.