International sports officials will not reconsider a ruling to strip American gymnast Jordan Chiles of the Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medal she won in floor exercise.
USA Gymnastics on Monday said the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) would not change the decision to push Chiles out of the third-place spot and redistribute the bronze to Romanian gymnast Ana Bărbosu.
During the Olympic gymnastics meet on Aug. 5, Bărbosu was originally slated to take home bronze hardware for the floor event. Then, a score review requested by Chiles’ coach boosted the American athlete’s rating from a 13.666 to a 13.766, bumping Chiles into third place.
Bărbosu, who scored 13.700 with her routine, placed fourth behind Chiles. Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade earned gold while fan favourite Simone Biles took silver.
On Sunday, six days after U.S. coach Cecile Landi made the on-floor appeal, CAS said Bărbosu was the rightful winner of the bronze medal. The court argued Landi’s request came four seconds after the sport’s one-minute review window had elapsed. The claim was disputed by USA Gymnastics, which said it had new video evidence of Landi making the appeal within 47 seconds of Chiles’ score being posted.
In a statement shared Monday, USA Gymnastics said it was “deeply disappointed” by the decision to dismiss the appeal and not reconsider the third-place outcome.
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The organization revealed it was notified by CAS that its “rules do not allow for an arbitral award to be reconsidered even when conclusive new evidence is presented.”
USA Gymnastics promised to “continue to pursue every possible avenue and appeal process, including to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, to ensure the just scoring, placement, and medal award for Jordan.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has asked Chiles to return her bronze medal.
The International Gymnastics Federation said it would uphold the CAS decision to bump Bărbosu into third place.
Chiles has been moved back to fifth place, behind Romanian gymnast Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, who also earned a 13.700 score. (Bărbosu placed ahead of Maneca-Voinea because of a higher execution score.)
The Romanian Gymnastics Federation has asked the IOC to award three bronze medals, with one each for Chiles, Bărbosu and Maneca-Voinea.
It is not common for athletes to have to return their medals for reasons outside of cheating.
Most often, medals are reallocated after doping violations. In Paris this year, the American Beijing Winter Olympics figure skating team accepted belated gold medals after Russia’s Kamila Valieva failed a doping test for her 2022 performance.
The dispute over Chiles’ floor score is likely to lead to a legal battle that could take months, or years, to conclude.
But, even without the Olympic medal, Chiles could still take home some flashy bronze hardware.
After USA Gymnastics announced CAS denied its appeal to reinstate Chiles to third place, American rapper Flavor Flav said he has a medal of his own to give the gymnast.
“USA gonna Fight the Powers that be,” the musician wrote on X.
He shared a short video clip of a bedazzled bronze clock necklace, similar in style to the kind Flavor Flav has become synonymous with wearing.
Amid an onslaught of online harassment, Chiles announced over the weekend that she would be taking a break from social media “for my mental health.”