Jordan Chiles, U.S. gymnast, won the Bronze Medal in women’s floor exercise at the 2024 Paris Olympics (video below).
That’s based on accurate scoring. The judges initially underscored her, by not giving her credit for a move she performed.
After reviewing her routine, the judges agreed she performed her, and added 1/10th point to her total score, enough to move her from 5th place to 3rd place.
But the International Olympics Committee (IOC) wants her to surrender the medal she legitimately earned, claiming the U.S. coach didn’t appeal the scoring error quickly enough.
She had one minute to do so, and Romania, whose gymnast will get the medal if Chiles is dropped back to 5th place, claimed she was 4 seconds late.
Two sports bodies, the International Federation of Gymnasts (FIG) and Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), sided with Romania. That’s why the IOC ordered Chiles to surrender her medal.
But Team USA appealed and provided “time-stamped, video evidence” showing the U.S. coach challenged Chiles’ initial score twice, 47 and 54 seconds after it was posted, which is within the time limit.
CAS responded by saying their rules don’t allow reconsideration “even when conclusive new evidence is presented” (see tweet here). In other words, once they cut someone off at the knees, they can’t put their legs back on.
Vox says (here), “the fundamental flaw in Chiles’s score is a judge’s error, an error that judges admitted to. Chiles’s correct score is Chiles’s correct score.” Here’s a question: Why would the Romanian gymnast, or any competitive athlete, even want a medal she knows she didn’t win?
There’s another issue, too. Olympic athletes have spent a lifetime of training and preparation to prove they’re the best in their sport. If legitimately won medals can be taken away in such an arbitrary manner, why would anyone bother to train and compete? CAS’s obstinacy can only damage the sport.
The Vox article also delves into the ugly racism the medal controversy spawned, but I won’t delve into that here. Read the article.
https://youtu.be/BAvrnZdw1sE?si=ChTX0DsFFQuZ9X9i