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Olympic chiefs order USA star Jordan Chiles to return bronze medal after Romanian gymnast's successful appeal following bombshell ruling
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed it will re-award Jordan Chiles' bronze medal to Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu after sport's highest court voided an on-floor appeal from Chiles' coach.
The IOC announced early Sunday it was reallocating the bronze from last Monday's women's floor final to Barbosu after the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) said Saturday night it would respect the court's decision and elevate Barbosu to third.
The decision came less than 24 hours after the Court of Arbitration for Sport voided a scoring appeal made by Team USA coach Cecile Landi during the competition that placed Chiles on the podium.
CAS ruled Saturday that Landi's appeal to have 0.1 added to Chiles´ score came outside the 1-minute window allowed by the FIG. The ad hoc committee wrote that Landi´s inquiry came 1 minute, 4 seconds after Chiles' initial score was posted.
The IOC said in a statement it will be in touch with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee regarding the return of Chiles' bronze and will work with the Romanian Olympic Committee to discuss a reallocation ceremony honoring Barbosu.
Jordan Chiles has been forced to return her bronze medal which she won in the floor final
Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu has been retrospectively awarded the bronze medal
Chiles' bronze medal would have been her first podium in an individual Olympics event
CAS wrote on Saturday that the initial finishing order should be restored, with Barbosu third, Romanian Sabrina Maneca-Voinea fourth and Chiles fifth. The organization added the FIG should determine the final ranking 'in accordance with the above decision,' but left it up to the federation to decide who would get the medal behind gold winner Rebeca Andrade of Brazil and silver medalist Simone Biles of the U.S.
The FIG said it was the IOC´s call on whether to reallocate the medal. The IOC confirmed Sunday it would respect FIG's decision and seek to have Chiles' medal returned.
Chiles hinted at the decision in an Instagram story on Saturday, indicating she is heartbroken and is 'taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health, thank you.'
Jazmin Chiles, Jordan's sister, said on Instagram that Chiles was stripped of a medal 'not because she wasn't good enough. But because the judges failed to give her difficulty and forced an inquiry to be made.'
USA Gymnastics said in a statement on Saturday it is 'devastated' by the ruling.
'The inquiry into the Difficulty Value of Jordan Chiles´ floor exercise routine was filed in good faith and, we believed, in accordance with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring,' the organization wrote.
Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea were left outside the medals in the floor final after finishing with matching scores of 13.700. Barbosu thought she had won bronze over Maneca-Voinea via a tiebreaker - a higher execution score - and began celebrating with a Romanian flag.
American superstar Simone Biles offered her support to Chiles in a social media post
Barbosu has no issue with Chiles despite the controversy and directed criticism to the judges
Chiles was the last athlete to compete and initially given a score of 13.666 that placed her fifth, right behind Maneca-Voinea. Landi called for an inquiry on Chiles´ score was announced.
'At this point, we had nothing to lose, so I was like `We´re just going to try,`' Landi said after the awards ceremony. 'I honestly didn´t think it was going to happen, but when I heard her scream, I turned around and was like `What?´'
Judges awarded the appeal, leapfrogging Chiles past Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea.
Barbosu made it a point after returning home to Romania that she had no problem with Chiles.