Why Was American Gymnast Jordan Chiles Stripped Of Her Paris Olympics Bronze Medal?

Paris Olympics 2024: The Paris Olympics has come to a close but yet another controversy has rocked the Summer Games after American Gymnast was stripped of her Bronze medal in floor exercise. 

As Jordan Chiles was forced to give up her Bronze medal back by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a major furore was created with the USA Olympics team now deciding to challenge the decision. Here's an explanation of why Jordan Chiles had to return her Bronze and what will happen next. 

How did Jordan Chiles win the Bronze medal? 

Jordan Chiles raked up her third Olympic medal for the USA when she came third and won Bronze in the gymnastics floor exercise. However, that Bronze medal win was clouded by a last-minute controversy.

Chiles had only scored 13.666 in the finals and was in 5th spot behind Romania's Ana Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea. But upon her coach's appeal to the judges, one of Chiles' score was included to take her score up by .1 and she won the Bronze medal.  

So why was Jordan Chiles stripped of her Bronze? 

As it happened, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation appealed to the Court of Arbitration of Sports to review the decision taken by the judges in relation to the appeal. 

As the rules state, a Gymnast's coach can appeal a review of the score under one minute of the score being announced. But CAS found that Chiles' coach Cecile Landi appealed the decision 1 minute and 4 seconds after the score was announced. 

Due to this, the CAS decided to pass the verdict in Romania's favour and Jordan Chiles was stripped of her Bronze medal which was later awarded to Ana Barbosu. 

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USA appeals to restore Jordan Chiles' Bronze

USA Olympic officials have found evidence that coach Landi had first appealed the decision within 47 seconds of the given time limit and the second appeal was made in 55 seconds. 

“We firmly believe that Jordan rightfully earned the bronze medal, and 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,” the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee statement said.

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Team USA's appeal will now be reviewed however a decision isn't expected any time soon.