Jordan Chiles Officially Loses Olympic Medal After Major Announcement

Early Sunday morning, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made the official decision that USA gymnast Jordan Chiles will have to return the bronze medal she won at the women's floor final. The medal will be given to Romania's Ana Barbosu.

An official statement was made regarding the controversial decision on Chiles' win:

"Following the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) decision with regard to the Women's Artistic Gymnastics Floor Exercise Final and the amendment of the ranking by the International Gymnastics Federation, the IOC will reallocate the bronze medal to Ana Barbosu (Romania). We are in touch with the NOC (National Olympic Committee) of Romania to discuss the reallocation ceremony and with USOPC (U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee) regarding the return of the bronze medal."

This decision came less than 24 hours after the CAS declared the judges of the floor final made a mistake when the USA challenged Chiles' original final score. Her score was changed as a result of the inquiry, moving Chiles past Barbosu into third and medal position.

However, this was reversed after the Romania Gymnastics Federation said the USA challenged the score four seconds too late, officially causing Chiles to give up the medal.

Chiles earned a score of 13.666 before her coaches challenged the difficulty score. The inquiry was originally granted, bumping Chiles up to 14.766, moving her past Barbosu (13.700). But Chiles will now be bumped back down by 0.100 points.

Once news broke about the possibility of losing her medal, Chiles announced that she would be taking a break from social media for her mental health. The 23-year-old from Los Angeles also made one last post on her Instagram story, saying she was heartbroken by using the broken heart emoji.

Her USA teammates, including Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, were quick to voice their support for Chiles after they found out by making posts on social media. Even the coaches had strong messages in regard to the decision.

The bronze would have been Chiles' first individual Olympic medal. She has earned two medals from the team final, including a gold in Paris 2024 and a silver in Tokyo 2020.

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