Every four years, tens of millions of people sit in front of their TVs and watch the Summer Olympics take place. This is a global highlight for many, but what people specifically look forward to is watching Women’s Gymnastics. If you are familiar with Women’s Gymnastics in the Olympics, you are most likely to know American gymnast, Jordan Chiles. She competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics as a member of the American team and in the 2024 Summer Olympics with the same team.
Chiles and her team performed greatly in this year’s Olympics and left as a gold medal team. Chiles was awarded the bronze medal in Women’s Gymnastics, the floor exercise event, scoring a 13.766 on August 5, 2024. Chiles was awarded a score of 13.766 after her coach, Cecile Landi, was able to raise her score by 0.1 after she led an inquiry with the judges, which moved Chiles from 5th to 3rd place. In doing so, she surpassed Romanian gymnasts, Sabrina Voinea and Ana Barbosu, on the Olympic podium.
Because of this, Romanian officials were upset, and so, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) stripped Chiles of her Olympic bronze medal. CAS argued that Landi only appealed Chiles’s score after the 60-second limit was up, which is not allowed. Therefore, this made Landi’s statement void. This CAS statement was deemed true; consequently, Chiles was stripped of her bronze medal. Her score reverted from 13.766 back to 13.666, and she fell from 3rd place to 5th place. As a result, the bronze medal was awarded to Romanian gymnast, Ana Barbosu.
The USA Gymnastics (USAG) appealed the CAS statement, showing text and video evidence to the CAS proving that Landi appealed Chiles’ score before the 60-second limit was up. However, CAS refused to look over Chiles’ evidence and said that their decision was final and unchangeable.
Because of this, on September 16, 2024, Chiles released a statement stating that she was appealing to the Supreme Court over the CAS statement stripping her of her bronze medal. She stated that CAS did not give her her fundamental “right to be heard” after they refused to look at her evidence. She also argued that she was unaware that the CAS had stripped her of her bronze medal until after the fact.
USA Gymnastics has publicly backed up Chiles’ decision to appeal to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has yet to make its decision, as this Supreme Court appeal may take months or years to close. YLHS student, Faith Alam (12), thinks that Chiles is perfectly entitled to appeal to the Supreme Court because “she earned that medal and deserves the recognition she deserves.”
While the Supreme Court has not yet made a decision in favor of anybody, it is very clear that the USA is backing up Chile’s decision.
