Jordan Chiles wearing pink and navy sequin gymnast costume with slicked back hair in a bun.

Teguan Harris

American gymnast Jordan Chiles placed 3rd in the Floor final in the Paris Olympics due to an inquiry. However, when Romania filed an inquiry against Chiles, she was ultimately stripped of her medal. This situation has highlighted how cruel and unjust the CAS ruling can be, as the athletes are punished for the judges’ mistakes.

 

A day that was meant to be the best day of Chiles’ life turned into a nightmare. The Paris Olympics concluded in early August. However, the case against Chiles and the bronze medal is still ongoing.

Chiles’s initial score of 13.666 during the Olympic floor finals saw her in 5th place. Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu originally won the bronze medal with a score of 13.700. However, Chiles’ coach put in an inquiry, which is a standard practice of the sport. The inquiry increased her score to 13.766, taking the bronze medal from Barbosu.

After the historic medal ceremony which saw three Black gymnasts on the podium, the Romanian Olympic Association put in an inquiry against Chiles. Their claims of Chiles’ coach sending in an inquiry four seconds later than the allowed time did not go ignored. Because of this, CAS changed her score back to 13.666, placing her back in 5th place. FIG and the IOC gave Barbosu the bronze medal, stripping Chiles from her medal.

CAS Ignored New Evidence

Following the decision to strip Chiles of her medal, the USA Gymnastics Association decided to submit another inquiry. This inquiry states that Romania’s claims were wrong. There is evidence that Chiles’ coach did not submit an inquiry relating to her score four seconds late as it was submitted in time. However, the ruling still stayed the same. CAS notified USA Gymnastics that their rules “do not allow for an arbitral award to be reconsidered”.

Many people disagreed with CAS’ recent ruling, as Romania was allowed to submit an inquiry after the competition ended. Disagreements with the rulings went beyond their rulings against Chiles. Many people believed that both athletes involved deserved a medal. This is because the athletes did not make scoring mistakes during the final – the judges did. They also believe another Romanian gymnast, Sabrina Voinea, deserved a medal. She paced fourth with a score of 13.700, the same as her fellow Romanian gymnast. However, the judges underscored her as they claimed that her foot was out of bounds, but footage of her performance suggested otherwise.

Athletes Received Blame For Judges’ Errors

Following Chiles’ bronze medal win, the athlete began to receive racist hate on social media. When the IOC and FIG decided to strip Chiles of her medal, the racist abuse did not die down. She took a short break from social media following the ruling, with her family members becoming the new targets of racial abuse.

A lot of gymnastics fans placed the blame on Chiles for Barbosu initially losing out on a medal. However, it was the judges that made errors when scoring, causing trauma for both athletes. As Chiles received racial abuse, Barbosu also received hate for being reinstated for the bronze medal.

“Both athletes have received more blame than the judges”

Both athletes have received more blame than the judges, who failed to take accountability. Stripping Chiles of her bronze medal punishes her for the mistakes that the judges made. Scoring he athlete wrong and correcting it at the very end of the competition also humiliated Barbosu, as she celebrated her bronze medal win before the scores changed. If Chiles does not deserve her medal, the judges do not deserve their position.

Few Medals Were Stripped For Reasons Other Than Doping

Reportedly, there are only a few examples of stripped Olympic medals that do not correlate to doping. In 1905, American boxer Jack Egan lost two medals for competing under an assumed name. Also, Swedish equestrian Gehnäll Persson competed under a fake military resume to meet entry requirements, resulting in a stripped medal in 1949. A Chinese gymnastics team lost a medal in 2000, as Dong Fangxiao was only 14 years old, not 16. However, the difference between Chiles and these athletes is that she did not cheat.

In 2004, American gymnast Paul Hamm won the gold medal. However, a scoring error reveals that South Korean athlete Yang Tae-Young was the rightful winner of the gold. FIG suspended three judges and refused to change the results, and the court allowed Hamm to keep the gold. If three judges were suspended in 2004 for scoring errors, the judges responsible for scoring errors in Paris 2024 arguably deserve the same punishment. If FIG did not change the scores in 2004, Chiles deserved to keep her 13.7666 score.

The Takeaway

The CAS ruling against Chiles is unjust and also provides little justice for Barbosu. The fact of the matter is, neither athletes deserve to publicly suffer from the mistakes they did not make. The athletes were subjected to abuse, which the IOC, CAS, and FIG did little to shut down. The controversy has surely been traumatising for Chiles and Barbosu.

If Chiles is punished for errors she did not make, the judges should also receive punishments.

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Featured image courtesy of Ocoudis on Wikimedia Commons. No changes were made to this image. Image licence found here.

Writer and journalist. University graduate in English Literature. Book reader, word lover and Notion enthusiast.

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