Jordan Chiles May Be Stripped Of Bronze Medal After Controversial Ruling

Jordan Chiles walked away from the floor exercise with a bronze medal in one of the more controversial manners we have seen, and now may have to give up that very medal.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) revealed in their ruling on Saturday that Chiles was improperly given an inquiry that led to her score being bumped up by one-tenth of a point. This came after somewhat of a move of desperation by Chiles' coach, Laurent Landi who revealed to USA TODAY that they had nothing to lose, and that it was worth a shot to see if Chiles could receive a higher score.

"I was not confident, but what do you have to lose?" Laurent Landi said about the inquiry. "She was out of the podium already, so even if they dropped the score, it couldn't have been worse, you know? We tried."

The appeal at the time was successful, which resulted in Chiles leaping from fifth place onto the podium and into third place. The main issue, as revealed in their report, was that the appeal for Chiles came one minute after the official deadline for requests. Meaning, that the request should have never been granted by the officials.

Chiles had been facing a ton of backlash online for "stealing" the medal from Ana Barbosu of Romania who scored 13.7000, but was surpassed by Chiles after the appeal. It was a very bizarre and devastating situation for Barbosu who had gone up to celebrate with her Romanian flag, thinking that she had won bronze. Instead, she was left stunned by the inquiry being announced as successful, which led to her dropping her flag and leaving the podium altogether.

But what does this mean for Chiles' bronze medal?

CAS revealed that due to the late submission, not only should Chiles have kept her original score of 13.666, but the final rankings should be based on their findings. CAS released the following statement :

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

However, what was not made clear in their ruling was whether or not Chiles will have to give up her medal in favor of Barbosu, but if they do in fact go based on the ruling it is implied that Chiles never should have received it.

Both USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said they were "devastated" in a joint statement, and also called out fans for their bullying of Chiles.

"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," wrote the organization.

Chiles took to Instagram with three broken-heart emojis on her story following the news.

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