CAS overturned the trial that led Jordan Chiles to bronze and Romania's Ana Barbosu could replace her on the podium.
PARIS – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rejected Romania's Ana Barbosu, who replaced Olympic bronze medalist Jordan Chiles of the USA, on the podium after Chiles' coach rejected an appeal.
US coach Cecily Landy's request to add .1 to Chiles' score, which dropped Chiles from fifth to third, fell outside the one-minute window allowed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), CAS ruled this Saturday.
In its conclusion, CAS wrote that Barbosu was third, his partner Sabrina Maneka-Voinia fourth and Chiles fifth to restore the initial finish line. The organization added that the FIG should decide the final classification “according to previous decision”, but it was left to the FIG to decide who would medal behind gold medalist Rebecca Andrade of Brazil and silver medalist Simone Biles of the United States. .
FIG spokeswoman Meike Behrensen said in an email to The Associated Press that the organization would issue a statement “in due course,” but did not provide a timeline.
The Romanian Olympic Committee requested three bronze medals.
Chiles hinted at the decision in an Instagram Story on Saturday, saying she was heartbroken and “thank you for taking this time to remove myself from social media for my mental health.”
Barbosu and Maneka-Voinia missed out on medals in Monday's floor final after finishing with equal scores of 13.700. Barbosu thought he had won the bronze against Maneca-Voinia by tiebreaker (higher running score) and started celebrating with the Romanian flag.
Chiles was the last athlete to compete and scored a preliminary score of 13.666, which placed her in fifth place, behind Manega-Vonia. Landy called for an investigation into Chiles' scores and said he had nothing to lose after the awards ceremony.
The judges accepted the appeal, beating Chiles to take the final spot on the podium, beating Barbosu and Maneka-Woinia.
Romania also appealed to CAS to add 0.1 to Manega-Voinia's score because he was wrongly penalized for going out of bounds in his normal time. CAS rejected that appeal on Saturday.
USA Gymnastics said in a statement that it was “devastated” by the ruling.
“The research on the difficulty rating of Jordan Chiles' floor exercise routine was provided in good faith, and we believe in accordance with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring,” the organization wrote.
Chiles, 23, became a target on social media after the late conversion, with critics calling for the medal to be returned or making racist remarks. “It's funny how people still can't be happy for someone,” Chiles told X earlier this week.
Chiles' mother, Gina Chiles, slammed critics in a post saying she was “tired” of the derogatory comments directed at Jordan.
“My daughter is a highly decorated Olympic athlete with a huge heart and an unmatched level of athleticism,” Gina Chiles posted. “They call her disgusting things.”
