Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles is devastated after she was stripped of her bronze medal in the floor exercises due to a technicality.
The International Olympic Committee delivered its ruling on Aug. 11. The committee stated Chiles‘ gymnastics coach appealed Chiles’ score too late.
Initially, the judges accepted U.S. coach Cecile Landi’s plea that her athlete’s difficulty score had been under-credited. At that time, the officials agreed. According to the Associated Press, officials boosted Chiles‘ score on the floor exercises on Aug. 5 up .1 of a point to 13.766, which elevated her above two Romanian athletes. Subsequently, Chiles was awarded the bronze medal. Teammate Simone Biles earned the silver.
However, the IOC said on Aug. 11 it stands by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which stated that Landi’s protest was made 64 seconds too late. The deadline is one minute and is non-negotiable.
USA Gymnastics said it is crushed by the decision.
“We are devastated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling regarding women’s floor exercise,” according to a statement issued by the organization on Aug. 10. “The inquiry into the difficulty value of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise routine was filed in good faith and, we believed, under FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring.”
The sport’s U.S. governing body also said the athlete has been “subject to consistent, utterly baseless and extremely hurtful attacks on social media” since the matter came to light.
“No athlete should be subject to such treatment,” it said in the statement obtained by the AP. “We condemn the attacks and those who engage, support or instigate them. We commend Jordan for conducting herself with integrity both on and off the competition floor, and we continue to stand by and support her.”
Chiles conveyed her abject loss on Aug. 11. She posted four broken heart emojis on Aug. 10.
Chiles also told her 1.5 million Instagram followers that she would take a break from social media for her mental health.
