Evanson: When it comes to Jordan Chiles, why are the Olympics making it so hard?

This is why the Olympics can’t have nice things.

Just a day removed from what was — at least from a viewer’s perspective — an unequivocal return to glory for the world’s foremost sports competition, the people who run them have already begun tarnishing the 2024 Games’ reputation by what can only be described as Olympic-level buffoonery.

U.S. Olympian, Tualatin-born and Vancouver, Washington, raised Jordan Chiles placed fifth individually in the floor exercise event at the Paris Games, then she finished third, then she again finished fifth, now her place is pending.

Get it?

I do. Kind of. But while I follow how they got from point-A to point-B, C, D or Z depending on how you’d describe it, I certainly don’t understand how they’ve dealt with what could’ve been resolved so easily.

If you’re unfamiliar with Chiles’ predicament, let me do my best to explain it.

Upon the completion of her routine on floor, her score placed her fifth due in part to a point deduction she’d received pertaining to the “difficulty” of her routine. Shortly following her routine, American coaches filed an inquiry over her score, the inquiry resulted in a 0.1 score increase, which in turn vaulted her into third place and awarded her the bronze medal.

Since, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation filed a claim of their own, asserting that U.S. coach Cecile Landi’s inquiry was filed four seconds beyond the one-minute deadline to do so, and in turn her score should return to the original mark that placed her fifth, and Romanian gymnasts Ana Barbosu and her teammate Sabrina Maneca-Voinea who were tied for third should receive bronze medals.

Sigh.

This past Saturday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld Team Romania’s challenge and announced the bronze medal would be awarded to Barbosu.

USA Gymnastics appealed that decision, and on Monday their appeal was denied, and Chiles was directed to return her medal.

Before anyone gets too distraught over Chiles’ plight, it should be noted that the 23-year-old has both a gold and silver medal from the U.S. team’s team finish at both the Tokyo (2020) and Paris games. So, she’s not being left emptyhanded.

Having said that, a medal is a medal, and I’m guessing anyone — including Chiles — would prefer having one they’d rightfully earned opposed to the alternative.

With that in mind, I offer the following solution: just give them both bronze medals.

I know the Olympics are a far cry from tee-ball and/or CYO soccer, and that no one’s buying sno-cones or handing out orange wedges after the competition(s). But at their foundation, the modern Olympics were built on a premise of promoting international peace and friendship through sport, so in that vein, how about instead of bickering over who gets what based on which technicality, you simply award the tie rather than break it in the interest of sportsmanship?

Seem reasonable? I’d say so, but it might make too much sense for the International Olympic Committee that’s been better at staining it’s recent reputation opposed to cleaning it up.

The 21st century hasn’t been good to the Olympics, so much so that in recent years pundits have referred to it as a “poison pill” as the result of scandal and growing level of financial peril the commitment inflicts on host cities.

Athens, Sarajevo and more recently in Rio, host cities are often left with facilities with no need for further use, and debt still to pay for them.

Additionally, there have been scandals revolving around bribery pertaining to securing host cities, including one reported on in 1998 which alleged — and later confirmed — widespread corruption by IOC members who were said to have accepted bribes in the form of cash, gifts, entertainment, business favors, medical expenses, travel expenses and even college tuition for members’ children from members of the committee who had successfully advanced the bid of Salt Lake City, Utah, as the site in 2002.

There have also been numerous drug scandals, including one tied to the same laboratory, BALCO, linked with disgraced MLB legend Barry Bonds, that brought down American sprinter Marion Jones at the 2004 games in Sydney, Australia; have been countless instances of corruption surrounding judge and officiating decisions; and mind-boggling verdicts made by IOC committees in the wake of conundrums similar to that of the one now embroiling Chiles.

So, while it’s easy to view the Olympics’ latest example of administrative ineptitude as just that, I prefer to see it as an opportunity for the besmirched organization to turn over a new leaf, by choosing common sense over what appears to be — to put it bluntly — idiocy.

The latest reports on the incident, as of Aug. 13, is that USA Gymnastics has time-stamped video that proves their initial and secondary inquiries both occurred prior to the one-minute standard. If true, it’s game, set, match for Chiles’ argument for bronze. But while 2+2=4 for you an I, Olympic administrators are masters of making even science subjective.

It’s been eight days since the now infamous floor exercise that kickstarted this all, and since then, seemingly every organization this side of the WWE has weighed-in on who should be wearing the events bronze medal.

Some say Chiles.

Others say Barbosu.

I say both.

Call it a copout, a truce, the “easy way out” or whatever else you’d like, but I just call it smart — something that those who run the Olympics continue to prove not to be.