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Imagine winning your first individual medal at any competition and then having it stripped away from you. Hurts, doesn’t it? Now, imagine this medal is at the Olympics, the biggest sporting event on the planet.
The Paris 2024 Olympics, while showcasing inspiring athletic feats, was a disaster for many reasons. From terrible Olympic Village conditions that led athletes to leave the Village and sleep outside in parks, to swimming in an E. coli polluted Seine River that caused triathletes to repeatedly vomit, to the Hijab ban on female French athletes… the Olympics left much to be desired. But probably one of the biggest blunders was how the Olympic judges and the IOC (International Olympic Committee) handled their point value assigning mistake in the Gymnastics Floor Finals.
On Monday, August 5th, Jordan Chiles competed in the Olympic Floor Finals, days after she and her team had crushed the competition in Team Finals by nearly six points. Chiles was the final person to compete, and her original score, 13.666, put her in 5th place behind two other Romanian gymnasts, who both had scores of 13.700. However, Jordan’s coach Cecile Landi thought that a component of her routine (switch leap) may have been erroneously scored too low and submitted an appeal to raise the difficulty, boosting her final score enough to beat out both other Romanian gymnasts. However, the timing was incredibly awkward as Jordan was the final gymnast to compete, and Barbosu (Romanian gymnast) had already started to celebrate and wave her flag but burst into tears as Jordan’s new score flashed on the screen. Jordan had rightfully clinched the bronze.
The Romanian Prime Minister, outraged his athletes had been properly beat, angrily said that he would be boycotting the Olympic Closing Ceremonies in protest and that Romania would be filing an appeal. Romanian officials followed through with this, contesting that Jordan’s coach had made the appeal four seconds too late. The CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) then ruled to take Jordan’s medal and “reallocate…[it] to Ana Barbosu.” (IOC Statement)
Following this ruling, USA gymnastics released a time-stamped video showing that Chiles’ coach lodged her appeal within the required 60 seconds (47 seconds) and asked for the ruling to be reconsidered. However, the CAS rejected this request. In their social media response, USA Gymnastics stated that they were “notified by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Monday that their rules do not allow for an arbitral award to be reconsidered even when conclusive new evidence is presented.”
Questions have arisen about the legitimacy of the CAS panel, as the head of the panel, Hamid G. Gharavi, has had a lengthy history of representing Romania in other arbitration cases. He also is currently serving as Romania’s representative at the World Bank’s Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes. Members of both parties were required to disclose potential conflicts of interest, which he had done in writing before the dispute.
Chiles responded to the controversy on her Instagram account on August 15th, with a part of her response including the following:
“I have no words. This decision feels unjust and comes as a significant blow, not just to me, but to everyone who has championed my journey. To add to the heartbreak, the unprompted racially driven attacks on social media are wrong and extremely hurtful. I’ve poured my heart and soul into this sport and I am so proud to represent my culture and my country.”
In my opinion, this situation is out of control. The conclusive video evidence of the time of appeal proved that a reallocation of the medal was necessary; however, Romania kept the medal. The real people at fault are the judges who missed an element in the routine. In addition, the appeal process was highly flawed since the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee did not have time to prepare evidence for the appeal and were not represented fairly. To top it all off, one of the judges had prior Romanian connections that, although disclosed, should have been seen as a conflict of interest and taken him off the panel.
The mission statement of the IOC is “to promote Olympism in the world and to lead the Olympic Movement,” but in this ruling the Committee is promoting behind-the-scenes manipulation by the officials. Although it would be emotionally painful for Barbosu to have to give Jordan’s medal back, all parties involved have repeatedly stated that they are pursuing justice. The only real solution to this mess is to return Jordan’s medal to her with apologies from the Olympic judges, CAS, and the IOC to both gymnasts. Medal or not, Jordan will always be “That Girl.”
