U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee Appeal Ruling on Jordan Chiles’s Bronze Medal

One medal’s ultimate destination is still unknown as the 2024 Olympic Games officially come to an end on Sunday in Paris.

The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee announced in a statement that it intends to appeal the International Olympic Committee’s confirmation on Sunday that American gymnast Jordan Chiles must return the bronze medal she won in the women’s floor final.

“The recent Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling regarding Jordan Chiles will be appealed,” the USOPC announced in a statement on Sunday. “We are adamant that Jordan should have won the bronze medal, and we feel that the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) made serious mistakes in both the original scoring and the CAS appeal process that should be addressed.”

Chiles’ coach, Cecile Landi, successfully challenged Chiles’ difficulty score in the floor final, raising her to third place (13.766) after Chiles had originally placed fifth in the competition with a 13.666 score. A few days following the competition, though, there was controversy as the Romanian Federation of Gymnastics filed a protest, claiming that Landi had contested the score after the allotted one-minute time limit. Chiles’s score dropped back to fifth place after rulings in favor of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Saturday. The IOC then ordered Chiles to return the bronze medal on Sunday.

The USOPC released a statement stating, “The first error happened in the scoring by FIG, and the second error happened during the CAS appeal process, where the USOPC was not given adequate time or notice to effectively challenge the decision.” We were consequently not given adequate representation or the chance to make a thorough presentation of our case.

“In light of these facts, we are dedicated to bringing an appeal to guarantee that Jordan Chiles gets the credit she merits. We are committed to helping her succeed as an Olympian, and we’ll keep working hard to find a quick and equitable solution to this problem.” This is not the first time in Olympic history that a medal has been the subject of controversy due to a judging error. A French judge acknowledged putting a Russian skating pair first in the competition at the Salt Lake City 2002 Games in order to get a Russian judge to support a French team in a later event. Instead of taking the Russians’ gold medal away, the IOC gave two gold medals to Canada and Russia in an attempt to defuse the scandal.