The story behind Jordan Chiles' controversial bronze medal on floor

On Monday, August 5, Team USA's Jordan Chiles won her first individual Olympic medal when she finished in third place on the floor exercise event finals. It was an emotional moment for Chiles, who has been the unofficial 'hype woman' of Team USA for two Olympic cycles.

But Chiles's win was not without controversy. Here's the story of how Chiles ended up with a bronze medal...and how the world is reacting to it.

What's the story? At the end of the floor exercise final Romania's Ana Barbosu was in the bronze medal position behind Brazil's Rebeca Andrade in first and Team USA's Simone Biles in second. She was tied on points (13.700) with her teammate Sabrina Voinea but ahead due to a tiebreaker. Chiles was in fifth, clearly behind both Romanians, with a 13.666.

But then: the bombshell. Upon receiving Chiles's score, Team USA submitted an inquiry to the judges. It asked them to reevaluate Chiles's leap move, a skill known as a Gogean or a tour jete . The judges did just that and found that they'd underscored Chiles in their initial review. They revised her score to 13.766--enough to push her into third place and knock a devastated Barbosu off the podium.

An inquiry? What's that? An inquiry occurs when a team believes that one of its gymnasts hasn't been given full credit for one or more of their skills. Any team can make an inquiry, and many of them do. Romania made an unsuccessful one for Voinea right before Chiles performed.

So the teams make the inquiry, not the gymnasts? Exactly. Chiles herself wasn't the catalyst for the score change. Her team and coaches were.

What is a Gogean / tour jete, and why does it have two names? The tour jete is a leap move that hails from ballet. It's an angled split jump with a 1.5 rotation. Romanian gymnast Gina Gogean was one of the best to ever do it, so the move is often called a Gogean in her honor.

How is it scored? Gymnasts must complete the full 1.5 revolutions in the air in order to get full credit for a Gogean / tour jete. Chiles wasn't given full credit upon first review because the judges saw that her feet were skewed upon takeoff and landing, thus shrinking the degrees of her revolution. But Team USA rightfully pointed out that revolutions are supposed to be judged on torso placement, not foot placement--and Chiles's torso made the full 1.5 revolutions that the skill required.

Torsos, not feet? This sounds like the men's 100m photo finish all over again. Yup. It's exactly the same principle.

How are people taking Chiles's score change? Not well. Romanian gymnastics is appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). That appeal isn't likely to be successful, however, as the CAS rarely gets involved in scoring disputes and will probably dismiss the appeal altogether.

But that hasn't stopped Romania from speaking out. Its prime minister Marcel Ciolacu is expected to skip the Olympic closing ceremony in protest . Voinea--the gymnast who wound up in fifth on a tiebreaker--has announced her spiteful retirement from gymnastics in Romanian newspapers .

Chiles, unfortunately, is taking quite a bit of heat for the decision, even though she had no part in the inquiry herself.

It doesn't matter. Chiles was the rightful medalist in this instance--but no one would blame her for never competing a Gogean / tour jete again.