What You Need to Know About Jordan Chiles’ Bronze Medal Controversy

While the Paris 2024 Olympics may have just ended, the drama of the gymnastics floor finals continues. In case you missed it, Jordan Chiles won an individual bronze medal for her floor routine on August 5 after a study inflated her score.

Now Chiles faces the risk of having her only individual medal from the Olympics stripped (her other medal from the Paris Games was a gold medal in the team all-around). It would be the first time this has happened to an Olympic athlete who has not broken any rules.

Below is a breakdown of what’s happened so far, plus reactions from the gymnastics community.

A timeline of events

August 5th

• Chiles competed in the artistic gymnastics floor final. She initially received a score of 13.666 for her routine, placing fourth behind Romania’s Ana Bărbosu, according to USA Today.
• Chiles’ coach, Cecile Canqueteau-Landi, launched an investigation into her score because she felt the judges had failed to give Chiles credit for a particular skill.
• The judges approved Canqueteau-Landi’s examination and increased Chiles’ difficulty level by 0.1, bringing her total score to 13.766. This new score moved Chiles into third place, ahead of Bărbosu (now in fourth place). Chiles received a bronze medal at the medal ceremony following the floor finals.

August 10th

• The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has issued a ruling recommending that Chiles’ original floor score be reinstated, USA Today reports.
• This came after the Romanian Gymnastics Federation requested the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) to re-evaluate Canqueteau-Landi’s research. The Romanian Gymnastics Federation argued that Team USA’s research was submitted too late after the 1-minute deadline, thus invalidating the research.

August 11

• Following the CAS ruling, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said the organization will “redistribute” Chiles’ bronze medal to Bărbosu, according to USA Today.
• The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) said in a statement that USA Gymnastics (USAG) provided time-stamped video footage showing that Canqueteau-Landi first submitted her request for an investigation 47 seconds after Chiles’ score was posted and again 55 seconds after the score was originally posted. “The video footage provided was not available to USA Gymnastics prior to the court’s decision and thus USAG did not have the opportunity to submit it earlier,” the statement said.
• The USOPC filed this video to appeal the initial CAS ruling.

Reactions from Chiles and her coaches, teammates and family

According to Yahoo! Sports, following the decision announcement, Chiles posted a now-deleted Instagram story saying, “I’m taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health, thank you.”

In the comments of her August 6 Instagram post, Canqueteau-Landi wrote, “I shouldn’t have to explain this but I will ONE TIME. Jordan’s highest possible SV on floor is a 5.9 – In qualifying and team finals she got a 5.8 and we didn’t question it because we saw that not all elements were completed. In floor finals we thought it was better and since we were in 5th place and had nothing to lose, I sent the application in so I wouldn’t regret not asking. I didn’t think it would be accepted and to my surprise it was accepted.”

She continued: “Do I feel sorry for the Romanian athlete? Of course I do! It was so sad and heartbreaking to watch, but it’s the sport! You don’t have to like it, but you have to respect the outcome and more importantly respect Jordan and not put her down because you don’t agree with it. She DESERVED that bronze medal, her first individual Olympic medal and I couldn’t be more proud and excited!”

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Chiles’ sister, Jazmin, posted a now-deleted Instagram story that read: “Racism is real, it exists, it’s alive and well. They officially, five days later, stripped her of one of her medals. Not because she didn’t win, not because she was drugged, not because she colored outside the lines. Not because she wasn’t good enough. But because the judges didn’t give her a fight and forced an investigation.”

Chiles’ teammates Suni Lee, Jade, Carey and Simone Biles also all posted Instagram stories in support of Chiles. And two-time Olympic gymnast Alexandra Raisman posted on X (formerly Twitter), “I have no words right now but this is so unacceptable and heartbreaking. No athlete should ever have to go through this. This is unfair and cruel. Athletes need to be honest and the mental health of athletes matters. Athletes shouldn’t have to suffer for mistakes that are out of their control. And the bullying needs to stop!”

Has anything like this ever happened before?

In short: no. While there have been cases where Olympians have had their medals stripped, it was due to illegal activities such as doping or intentionally falsifying information, NBC News reports. A few examples include:

• Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt was stripped of his 4×100-meter relay gold medal after his teammate Nesta Carter was disqualified for a doping violation nine years after the 2008 race.
• The 2000 Chinese gymnastics team was stripped of its bronze medal in the team competition 10 years later after team member Dong Fangxiao falsified her age to meet Olympic requirements (she was 14 years old, when the minimum age is 16).

But there has never been a case where an athlete had to surrender his medal when the situation was not his own fault.

What happens now?

While there’s no official word on when we can expect a CAS ruling on the USOPC’s appeal, the athletes (and us!) are certainly eager for this to be resolved after a week of ups and downs. But based on CAS’s original response timeline, it could be another five days before we know more.