In light of an international scandal and in response to applications filed by the Romanian Gymnastics Federation and gymnasts Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, CAS has ruled that the appeal of Chiles’s degree of difficulty was submitted past the one-minute deadline for such inquiries and should not have been granted.
More precisely, CAS ruled Saturday that the on-floor appeal Monday by Cecile Landi to have 0.1 added to Chiles’ score came outside the one-minute window allowed by the FIG. The ad hoc committee wrote that Landi’s appeal came 1 minute, and a whopping 4 seconds after the score was posted.
This means that Ana Barbosu obtained the bronze medal in the floor, while Sabrina Maneca-Voinea finished the competition in fourth place.
But after the original review, the score of Jordan Chiles was upgraded to 13.766, putting her after her fellow American Simone Biles.
A highly awkward moment was televized, in which Ana Barbosu proudly took a Romanian flag out of her backpack, but was crestfallen and reduced to tears after noticing the scoreboard change behind her.
Both she and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, who was also pushed into fifth, departed the competition in tears.
Now, Sabrina Maneca-Voinea is in the fourth place, and Jordan Chiles in fifth.
Such scoring inquiries are regularly lodged during gymnastics competition, some are rejected and others are upheld, resulting in a change of score.
CAS didn’t rule on the final floor exercise ranking, saying FIG would have to sort out the medals.
USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee issued a joint statement saying they were “devastated” by the ruling.
“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 governing bodies said.
Critics have agreed that pinning the athletes against each other, as occurred on social media, was the wrong path, and that the mistake lay in the judges’ lack of organization.
Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu could get Olympic bronze after court ruling
