PARIS (Reuters) -American gymnast Jordan Chiles is set to lose her bronze medal in the women’s artistic gymnastics floor exercise competition after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favour of an appeal by Romania’s Ana Barbosu, who will move up to third place, it said on Saturday.
Barbosu and her team had appealed to CAS that an inquiry filed over the results in that event was done so past the one-minute deadline and that Chiles should not be awarded the score of 13.766 that lifted her to third place behind winner Rebeca Andrade of Brazil and silver medallist Simone Biles of the United States.
Chiles had initially been awarded a score of 13.666, while Barbosu scored 13.700.
“The inquiry submitted on behalf of Ms Jordan Chiles in the final of the women’s floor exercise was raised after the conclusion of the one-minute deadline,” CAS said.
“The initial score of 13.666 given to Ms Jordan Chiles in the final of the women’s floor exercise shall be reinstated.”
CAS also ordered the international gymnastics federation FIG to determine the ranking of the final and “assign the medal(s) in accordance with the above decision.”
The decision does not affect either Andrade or Biles, who scored 14.166 and 14.133 respectively.
In a joint statement U.S. Gymnastics and the U.S Olympic and Paralympic Committee said they were devastated by the decision.
“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,” they said.
It also said Chiles had received online abuse during her appeal and condemned those who engaged in it.
“Throughout the appeal process, Jordan has been subject to consistent, utterly baseless and extremely hurtful attacks on social media. No athlete should be subject to such treatment.”
“We condemn the attacks and those who engage, support or instigate them. We commend Jordan for conducting herself with integrity both on and off the competition floor, and we continue to stand by and support her.”
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Additional reporting by Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber Editing by Hugh Lawson)
