By: Rachel Chen

Recently, Team USA’s Jordan Chiles won bronze in the women’s gymnastics floor event at the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, the Olympic Committee is now saying that they will give the medal to Ana Bărbosu, competing for Romania.

It all started when nine gymnasts including Bărbosu and Chiles competed in the women’s floor final event. Bărbosu was fifth to perform and scored a 13.700 placing her in third place. Chiles was last to perform and received a 13.666, therefore placing her in fifth place.

However, Chiles’ coach, Cecile Landi, felt it was unfair how the judges graded Chiles saying she should’ve gotten a higher difficulty score of a 5.9 instead of a 5.8. The judges agreed with Landi and therefore Chiles’ score was raised to a 13.766 which put her in third place above Bărbosu.

Clearly, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation was unhappy about this, as they filed an appeal opposing Chiles’ inquiry. They claimed that the inquiry was submitted four seconds late, as the gymnast who competes last in an event only has one minute to submit an inquiry. Romania had still requested a bronze medal for the three gymnasts, Chiles, Bărbosu, and Maneca-Voinea, another Romanian gymnast who also scored a 13.700 but didn’t place because Bărbosu had a higher execution score.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) agreed with the Romanian gymnastics Federation and said Chiles’ 13.666 score should have been kept. The CAS placed Bărbosu in third but left the decision of who should get the medal to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The IOC said the medal belongs to Bărbosu and requested for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee to return Chiles’ bronze medal.