Jordan Chiles will have to return the bronze medal she was awarded in the floor event at the start of this week – a heartbreaking moment for the US gymnast.
It follows a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling that stated that the initial inquiry made by the US over Chiles’ score was filed after the one-minute deadline.
Instead, Romania’s Ana Bărbosu will be handed the bronze medal.
After initially being upgraded to bronze, Chiles said she was “on cloud nine,” adding: “This is my first-ever individual event final at my second Olympics. I have no words. Coming out with a medal … that was my goal.”
The 23-year-old initially posted a score of 13.666 but her coaches challenged the difficulty score, adding 0.1 to her score and moving her up to third behind gold medalist Rebeca Andrade and teammate Simone Biles.
She also explained how the medal “means everything to me” and that she was “so proud of myself.”
But after the CAS ruling, Chiles posted four breaking heart emojis on her Instagram story, writing: “I am taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health thank you.”
The relocation of the women’s floor exercise bronze medal from Jordan Chiles to Romania’s Ana Barbosu has been the big story this Sunday morning.
It seemingly brings to an end confusion about the ending of the event on Monday.
Immediately after the competition finished with Chiles’ routine, Bărbosu thought she had won the bronze medal after posting a score of 13.700. Chiles had initially posted a score of 13.666 but her coaches successfully challenged the difficulty score which added 0.1 to her score and moved her up to third, behind gold medalist Rebeca Andrade and American Simone Biles.
After the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) had ruled on Saturday that the initial inquiry made by the USA over Chiles’ score in Monday’s gymnastics floor exercise final was filed after the one-minute deadline, the Romanian Gymnastic Federation (RGF) said, “With one eye we laugh, with one we cry.”
“Congratulations to both of our gymnasts for the special result obtained at the Olympic Games in Paris!” RGF lawyer Sabin Gherdan said in a statement.
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu had earlier said he refused to attend the Olympics closing ceremony in protest over the women’s floor exercise final.
Ciolacu said in a statement on Wednesday that Bǎrbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea were treated “in an absolutely dishonorable way” by the judges in the floor final. Bǎrbosu had missed out on a medal in surprising fashion while Maneca-Voinea was given a .1 point penalty for leaving the floor exercise mat, though it did not appear she actually stepped out of bounds.
“It is unacceptable that, in a competition of this magnitude, which promotes values such as respect, understanding and excellence, a girl who had honestly won her medal should be brutally deprived of the result of her work of four years! I couldn’t look at her tears and accept with serenity that such a thing is perfectly normal!”
He added, “And the fact that hundreds of millions of viewers from all over the world were, like us Romanians, effectively shocked by this terrible scene, shows that somewhere, in the system of organizing this competition, something is wrong.”
