Last week, U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles was awarded bronze on an Olympic podium alongside her teammate Simone Biles and Brazilian Rebeca Andrade.
The lineup marked the first all-Black Olympic gymnastics podium.
Now, Chiles has been ordered to return her medal, following a court ruling in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Here’s why.
What happened
Chiles made it to the women’s gymnastics floor exercise final in Paris on Monday. These were the standings and scores at the end of the event:
After the final standings were released, Chiles’ coach, Cecile Landi, filed an appeal to add 0.1 to her score. Landi argued this would better reflect the difficulty of the U.S. gymnasts’ floor routine.
The appeal was successful, moving Chiles from fifth to third — the bronze medal position.
The revised standings moved Romania’s Ana Bǎrbosu out of a podium position.
Together with her teammate, Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, the Romanian gymnast launched an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
CAS dispute
The CAS is an independent global body designed to settle sporting disputes. During an Olympics, a temporary CAS facility is set up in the host city to manage disputes as they arise.
In an application to the CAS on 6 August, Bǎrbosu and Maneca-Voinea claimed the appeal by Chiles’ coach was invalid.
They argued it was filed four seconds past the one-minute limit allowed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).
The Romanian gymnasts suggested they could share the bronze with Chiles.
In a short statement this morning, the CAS ruled the extra 0.1 awarded to Chiles was invalid.
It sided with the Romanians, finding Chiles’ coach did appeal her score outside the required timeframe. The CAS ordered the FIG to decide how to assign the medals.
The FIG determined that Chiles finished fifth, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) should reassign the bronze medal to Bǎrbosu.
The IOC issued a statement shortly after, confirming it was facilitating a reallocation ceremony to award Bǎrbosu bronze.
U.S. response
USA Gymnastics has issued two statements since the CAS, FIG, and IOC decisions.
In its first statement, the body said it was “devastated” by the decision.
It argued that Landi did file the appeal within FIG guidelines, and that Chiles “has been subject to consistent, utterly baseless and extremely hurtful attacks on social media”.
In its second statement a few hours later, USA Gymnastics said it had formally submitted a letter and video evidence to the CAS. It claims this submission proves Landi’s appeal was filed 47 seconds after the publishing of the score, not 64 seconds after.
It said “time-stamped video evidence” had not been made available to USA Gymnastics “prior to the tribunal’s decision,” but had since emerged.
The CAS is yet to respond to the presentation of that evidence.
