PARIS — The Court of Arbitration for Sport has overturned the investigation that led to American gymnast Jordan Chiles' Olympic bronze in the floor exercise, opening the door for Romania's Ana Barbosu to replace Chiles as the bronze medalist.
The CAS ruled on Saturday that U.S. coach Cecile Landi's appeal to have 0.1 added to Chile's score, which catapulted the country from fifth to third place, occurred outside the 1-minute window allowed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).
The CAS wrote in its decision that the initial order of finish should be restored, with Barbosu in third place, her teammate Sabrina Maneca-Voinea in fourth place and Chiles in fifth place. The organisation added that the FIG should determine the final ranking “in accordance with the previous decision”.
Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea missed out on medals in Monday's floor final after finishing with equal scores of 13.700. Barbosu thought she had won bronze against Maneca-Voinea via a tiebreaker (a higher execution score) and began celebrating with a Romanian flag.
Chiles was the last athlete to compete and was initially given a score of 13.666 that placed her in fifth place, just behind Maneca-Voinea. Landi called for an investigation into her score and, after a review, the judges increased Chiles' total by 0.1. That was enough to edge out Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea and claim the final spot on the podium.
USA Gymnastics said in a statement that it was “devastated” by the ruling.
“The investigation into the difficulty value of Jordan Chiles' floor exercise routine was submitted in good faith and, we believe, in accordance with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring,” the organization wrote.
