Video from Jordan Chiles’ floor routine proves the American gymnast should keep her bronze medal, according to USA Gymnastics.
The agency appealed a decision Sunday that would strip Chiles of her bronze medal in the women’s floor exercise final at Paris 2024 and instead award it to Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu.
USA Gymnastics said it had “time-stamped video evidence” that coach Cecile Landi appealed Chiles’ score in time.
Chiles initially finished her floor routine with a score of 13.666, good for fifth place behind Barbosu’s third-place score of 13.700. However, Landi appealed Chiles’ difficulty value. Upon review,the judges upgraded it one tenth, making her cumulative score 13.766 and leapfrogging her past Barbosu and another gymnast into bronze medal position.
Then, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled the appeal came too late. International gymnastics rules require any appeals to be made within one minute after a score is posted. The court decided that Landi’s appeal came one minute and four seconds after Chiles’ score was revealed.
But USA Gymnastics claimed Sunday that Landi appealed after 47 seconds and again after 55 seconds, well within the one-minute requirement.
“The video footage provided was not available to USA Gymnastics prior to the tribunal’s decision and thus USAG did not have the opportunity to previously submit it,” the governing body said in Sunday’s appeal statement.
However, it’s unclear where the appeal will go, as the CAS is the highest worldwide court for sporting issues. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee could take the case to Switzerland’s highest court, the Swiss Tribunal, or the European Court of Human Rights.
“I only want for everybody to be fair. We don’t want to start picking on other athletes of any nationality,” Barbosu told reporters upon her return home to Romania. “We as athletes don’t deserve something like that, we only want to perform as best as we can and to be rewarded based on our performance. The problems lie with the judges, with their calculations and decisions.”
Brazilian Rebeca Andrade won gold in the floor exercise, while Simon Biles took silver.
With News Wire Services
Originally Published:
