Gymnastics Legend Aly Raisman Sends Strong Message to IOC Over Jordan Chiles Controversy

If anyone can relate to what Jordan Chiles is going through right now, it’s former USA gymnast Aly Raisman.

Like Chiles, Raisman controversially won a bronze medal via score inquiry at the London Games in 2012, and plenty of backlash resulted. Having experienced firsthand what Chiles is going through right now, Raisman made her thoughts on the changes that need to be made to Olympic scoring, particularly in gymnastics, very clear during a recent appearance on “The Today Show.”

“I just think there needs to be a lot more transparency,” Raisman said . “And going forward, we need to understand how this is happening and how to ensure this doesn’t happen again — it’s appalling. I think the organizations that are in charge of this really need to look at the athlete’s mental health and how much this is affecting them and how cruel it is to take a medal away from somebody.”

Chiles was stripped of the bronze medal she won in the floor exercise last Monday after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled over the weekend that the score inquiry filed by her coach, Cecile Landi, wasn’t done in the one-minute window allowed by the International Gymnastics Federation, thus voiding her amended score.

However, USA Gymnastics has filed an appeal of the IOC’s decision to take Chiles’ medal away, stating it has video evidence that Landi made a score inquiry 44 seconds after Chiles’ score was posted and again 55 seconds after.

Because the judges acknowledged they initially scored Chiles’ routine incorrectly and allowed the inquiry to go through, Raisman believes the IOC should give Chiles her medal back.

“The judges are human and we all make mistakes, but what’s so devastating is this is the biggest moment of their lives,” Raisman said. “…The judges did make a mistake. [Chiles’ coach] put the inquiry in, the judges accepted it — which means that they felt that it was under that minute — so this is just, it’s so unfair. I can’t even believe we’re in this position.”

The IOC has awarded multiple medals before, and there seems to be a pretty strong case to do so again in this situation.

Related: Controversial Score Change Gives Jordan Chiles First Individual Olympic Medal

Related: Romanian Gymnast Ana Barbosu Breaks Silence on IOC Stripping Jordan Chiles of Medal