I can only assume International Olympic Committee officials have never read the organization’s mission statement. Otherwise, they would not be preparing to strip U.S.
gymnast Jordan Chiles of the bronze medal she won in the floor exercise at the Paris Games. Calling the current situation disturbing is inadequate. Shameful is more appropriate.
It’s a case of adults failing to act like adults and hiding behind the letter of a rule rather than doing the right thing and acknowledging the spirit behind the rule, which is to produce a fair and just outcome. Some background: The floor exercise was the final event of the gymnastics competition, and Chiles was the final participant. She initially received a score of 13.
666, which left her in fifth place, but one of her coaches believed the judges failed to include the correct degree of difficulty for Chiles’ split leap — she received a 5.800 instead of the proper 5.900 — and filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Advertisement CAS acknowledged the error and gave Chiles the additional tenth of a point, elevating her score to 13.766 and lifting her into third place, ahead of Romania’s Ana Bărbosu, who received a score of 13.700.
But instead of the controversy dying there, it gained new life when the Romanian Federation filed its own appeal, arguing the initial inquiry from Chiles’ coach, Cecile Landi, came after the window for review had closed. CAS supported the claim, ruling Landi missed the deadline by four seconds — verbal inquiries must be filed within one minute of the conclusion of a routine — and reinstated Chiles’ initial score. The International Federation of Gymnastics, otherwise known as FIG, accepted the ruling and dropped Chiles back to fifth place , though the IOC has the ultimate authority in this case to determine who gets medals.
USA Gymnastics said it would appeal the latest decision and on Sunday submitted time-stamped video that it says “conclusively” establishes that Landi’s initial inquiry was filed 13 seconds before the deadline. USA Gymnastics says the footage was unavailable before the tribunal’s ruling. USA Gymnastics has submitted additional evidence to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
pic.twitter.com/GOKymbAtcq — USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) August 11, 2024 Sadly, this lingering controversy could have been shut down had the IOC followed the suggestion of the Romanian Federation and awarded multiple bronze medals.
Which brings me back to the organization’s mission statement. The first of its 18 tenets says, in part, that the IOC’s role is “to encourage and support the promotion of ethics and good governance in sport ..
. and to dedicate its efforts to ensuring that, in sport, the spirit of fair play prevails.” To this point, IOC officials have failed miserably to do that.
They have yet to acknowledge the situation is not the doing of the gymnasts, but rather those entrusted with protecting the integrity of the Games. If the judges had done what they were supposed to do, they would not have missed the degree of difficulty in Chiles’ split leap. If Olympic officials had done what they were supposed to do, they would have immediately recognized whether or not Chiles’ appeal was outside the permissible window.
And if the IOC wanted to be the adult in the room instead of cowering in the corner behind an arcane rule, it would have acceded to the wishes of the Romanian Federation and awarded multiple bronze medals in a nod to fairness and integrity. Advertisement On a side note, it makes no sense that inquiries must be filed within a minute of a routine being completed, but a protest of that inquiry and the ruling has no deadline. That type of ridiculousness is another reason the IOC should award multiple bronzes.
There is nothing that prohibits it from doing so. We saw athletes share the gold in the Tokyo Olympics, where Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Mutaz Barshim of Qatar chose to share first place rather than compete in a jump-off. And in the 2014 Winter Games, Switzerland’s Dominique Gisin and Slovenia’s Tina Maze shared skiing gold after tying in women’s downhill.
Skiers have also shared medals beneath gold, though it’s unclear if it has ever been done in any sport because of a scoring error or an appeal. Free, daily sports updates direct to your inbox. document.
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forEach((el) => { el.setAttribute("style", "pointer-events: none;");}) Free, daily sports updates direct to your inbox. The controversy won’t overshadow a memorable Games, with fans returning in full for the first time since the pandemic and so many amazing athletes winning the first medal of any kind in their countries’ histories.
Still, it’s awful the IOC would choose the letter of a rule over the spirit of a rule, and in doing so make athletes a target for online harassment . Some of the attacks against Chiles have been so brutal as to not warrant repeating. She posted multiple broken-heart emojis on X, adding: “I am taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health thank you.
” Added USA Gymnastics: “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.” Really, that’s what should be paramount: accuracy, fairness, integrity.
The IOC claims the latter two are core principles of its organization, but its actions do not reflect its words. No one is asking it to make like Oprah — You get a medal! You get a medal! You get a medal! — but it would be beautiful if it at least lived up to its mission. Chiles and Bărbosu deserve at least that much.
Related reading (Photo: Loic Venance / AFP via Getty Images).
