The rollercoaster ride of Jordan Chiles and the women’s floor exercise final at the Paris Olympics continues: After Chiles was stripped of her bronze medal in that event after Romania successfully argued that the U.S. gymnast’s coach had appealed to the judges because Chiles had scored four seconds late, the United States is now appealing. The Decision. USA Gymnastics says there is video evidence that Chiles’ coach submitted her request for Chiles’ score — which had to do with the gymnast’s difficulty rating and resulted in her score being adjusted upward, putting her in third place — within the one-minute window available to coaches for such requests. USA Today reports.
“The time-stamped video evidence provided by USA Gymnastics on Sunday evening shows that (coach Cecile) Landi first expressed her request to file an investigation 47 seconds after the result was announced at the investigation table, followed by a second statement 55 seconds after the original result was announced,” a USA Gymnastics statement said. “The video footage provided was not available to USA Gymnastics prior to the tribunal’s decision and therefore USAG did not have the opportunity to file it beforehand.” It is not clear where the video came from, nor is it clear how it was originally determined that the investigation was filed four seconds late.
Meanwhile, Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu, who is currently in line to win the bronze medal if the decision about Chile is not reversed, has also spoken out. People reported. “I know what you feel because I went through the same thing. But I know you will come back stronger,” she wrote on social media, addressing not only Chiles but also another Romanian gymnast who moved up to fifth and fourth place in the medal decision. “I hope from the bottom of my heart that at the next Olympic Games, all three of us will be on the same podium. That is my true dream!” (More stories about the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.)
