Court of Arbitration Renders Decision on Floor Finals Regarding Jordan Chiles’ Score

In a shocking turn of events on Saturday, August 10th, the results of the women’s gymnastics floor exercise finals at the Paris Olympics were overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The decision reverted American gymnast Jordan Chiles’ score back to 13.666 and reinstated Romanian gymnast Ana Maria Bărbosu back to third place.

On August 16th, Bărbosu received her bronze medal in a ceremony in Bucharest, Romania.

The Federation of Romanian Gymnastics filed two applications on behalf of their athletes Bărbosu, and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea after the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Technical Committee changed the scoring based on the inquiry submitted by Chiles’ coach, Cecile Landi, on August 5th. Landi believed Chiles’ difficulty score was too low, challenging the judges downgrade of her Gogean, a split leap with a 1.5-turn. That additional tenth of a point bumped her to the bronze medal position.

CAS decided that Landi handed the inquiry in late, at one minute and four seconds, instead of the one-minute allotted time. Now, the panel has ruled in favor of Bărbosu while dismissing Maneca-Voinea’s application. Because Maneca-Voinea did not submit an inquiry during the competition about the neutral deduction for going out of bounds (that based on video footage, seems to have been incorrectly taken), she is not able to appeal the deduction with CAS.

Instead of honoring the Federation of Romanian Gymnastics’ request to give all three women the bronze medal, CAS ruled that the original standings will be honored with Bărbosu in third place at 13.700, Maneca-Voinea in fourth place at 13.700, and Chiles in fifth place at 13.666.

“The arbitral Panel ruled as follows:

In CAS OG 24/15:

1. The application filed by Federation of Romanian Gymnastics and Ms. Ana Bărbosu on 6 August 2024, in its amended version of 8 August 2024, is partially upheld.

2. The inquiry submitted on behalf of Ms. Jordan Chiles in the Final of the women’s Floor exercise was raised after the conclusion of the one-minute deadline provided by article 8.5 of the 2024 FIG Technical Regulations and is determined to be without effect.

3. The initial score of 13.666 given to Ms. Jordan Chiles in the final of the women’s Floor exercise shall be reinstated.

4. The Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique shall determine the ranking of the Final of the women’s Floor exercise and assign the medal(s) in accordance with the above decision.

5. All other requests are dismissed.

In CAS OG 24/16:

1. The application filed by Federation Romanian Gymnastics and Ms. Sabrina Maneca-Voinea on 6 August 2024, in its amended version of 8 August 2024, is dismissed.”

While Chiles’ fans have been supporting her on social media, the UCLA gymnast has also been on the receiving end of horrific racist commentary. It was a brutal week for her while she waited for the outcome. A joint Statement from USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee criticized the CAS ruling while supporting their Team USA athlete:

“We are devastated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling regarding women’s floor exercise. The inquiry into the Difficulty Value of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise routine was filed in good faith and, we believed, in accordance with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring,” the statement reads.

“Throughout the appeal process, Jordan has been subject to consistent, utterly baseless, and extremely hurtful attacks on social media. No athlete should be subject to such treatment. 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.”

The Federation of Romanian Gymnastics also posted a response to the ruling on their Facebook account, writing, “We laugh with one eye, we cry with one. Following the memories made at TAS by FRG and COSR, the Court of Arbitration of Sport decided that the bronze medal should be returned to Ana Maria Bărbosu,” they wrote while closing their comments to the public.

USOPC and USAG have submitted an appeal to the CAS decision. This process will likely be very long and drawn out. It’s a dramatic ending to a great week of gymnastics and the repercussions will likely be felt as the sports community calls on reforms to the inquiry and arbitration rules.

On August 15th Chiles posted a statement on Instagram expressing the pain she’s experienced throughout the process.

“I will never waver from my values of competing with integrity, striving for excellence, upholding the values of sportsmanship and the rules that dictate fairness. I have taken pride in cheering on everyone regardless of team or country. Finding joy again has been a culture shift and I love seeing others embrace it. I feel like I have given everyone permission to be authentic to who they are.

I am now confronted with one of the most challenging moments of my career. Believe me when I say I have has many. I will approach this challenge as I have others – and will make every effort to ensure justice is done. I believe that at the end of this journey, the people in charge will do the right thing.”

At her medal ceremony, Bărbosu spoke about Maneca-Voinea and Chiles. “[I] can’t help but think about Sabrina and Jordan right now. It’s a difficult situation for us, with so many uncertainties and overwhelming emotions. I hope everyone understands that we have not done anything wrong at the Olympics.”

Barbosu, who has been accused of cheating and stealing, is correct. The athletes did nothing wrong in this situation, but attacks have been made on them because of largely nationalistic sentiments and a lack of understanding of the procedures by the general public.

On August 24th, FIG president Morinari Watanabe spoke up about the controversy. “This tragedy must never happen again. Since I became FIG President, I have been promoting the use of technology in judging. Unfortunately, this tragedy happened. The use of technology in sport is now taken for granted and the FIG used to be at the forefront of introducing technology in all International Federations. But now we are no longer a pioneer. This is because we are not able to break our own prejudices because of our traditions. We need challenges. And we need the courage to move forward. It was the lack of courage to take that step forward that led to the tragedy in Paris.”