Jordan Chiles is set to LOSE Olympic bronze medal after bombshell ruling against USA star

Jordan Chiles is set to lose the Olympic bronze medal she won in the women’s floor final after a bombshell ruling from the Court of Arbitration of Sport on Saturday.

CAS ruled the judging panel were wrong to allow an inquiry that increased Chiles’ score and moved her up into bronze medal position from fifth place at the expense of Ana Barbosu, who was left in tears.

USA gymnastics says it is ‘devastated’ by the decision. 

Chiles posted several broken-heart emojis on her Instagram story on Saturday afternoon. 

Chiles also followed that post with a statement: ‘I am taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health. Thank you.’

Jordan Chiles could lose the Olympic bronze medal she won in the women’s floor final

Jordan Chiles and Simone Biles both medaled in the individual floor event in Paris

Chiles’ score was improved after an appeal by her coach Cecile Landi over a jump that had originally been given a lower difficulty grade.

The Romanian Gymnastics Federation said on Aug. 7 it had submitted requests to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It said one of them was linked to the inquiry submitted by Chiles’ coaches.

‘Aware of the negative impact on Ana Maria Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea (who was also in the competition with Chiles), the Romanian Gymnastics Federation aims to correct the mistakes made by the judges and to restore the rights of our athletes,’ the federation said.

The results of the floor exercise have caused an uproar in Romania.

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said Tuesday he will boycott the closing ceremony because of the ‘scandalous situation.’ 

Ciolacu promised Romania would honor Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea as Olympic medalists, ‘including in terms of the prizes.’ 

The bronze medal represented Chiles’ only individual medal of her Olympic career. She won a gold medal as part of the team event in Paris, and a silver medal in the same event in Tokyo. 

One of Jordan’s older sisters, Jazmin Chiles, posted a statement to her social media about Jordan possibly losing her bronze medal. 

‘Please keep Jordan (and my family) in your prayers. Racism is real, it exists, it is alive and well,’ Jazmin said. ‘They have officially, 5 days later, stripped her of one of her medals.’

‘Not because she didn’t win, not because she was drugged, not because she stepped out of bounds. Not because she wasn’t good enough. But because the judges failed to give her difficulty and forced an inquiry to be made.’ 

‘FOUR SECONDS. Her bronze was stripped over 4 seconds of time that would have never needed to happen if the judges did their job. I love you baby sis. And I got you back no matter what.’  

In a following post, she added: ‘Just so y’all aware – in the HISTORY of the Olympics NO ONE has ever been stripped of their medal for this.

‘Also – there are only TWO ways you can be stripped of a medal. Cheating or doping. She did neither.’

Chiles also won a gold medal as part of Team USA during the team gymnastics competition

Romania’s Ana Barbosu was in third place before the United States’ Olympic inquiry

Chiles teammate, Suni Lee, also blasted the ruling. Lee and Chiles were also on Team USA together during the Tokyo Olympics. 

‘All this talk about the athlete, what about the judges??’ Lee said on social media. ‘Completely unacceptable. This is awful and I’m gutted for Jordan. I got your back forever Jo.’ 

USA gymnastics legend Simone Biles is close with Chiles as well, featuring the duo in a recent Instagram post entitled ‘red, white, Biles & Chiles.’ 

The removal of Chiles bronze also doubles as a nixing of the first all-black Olympic gymnastics podium in history. 

Biles won silver in the individual floor event and Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade won the gold.

Upon landing back in Romania after the event’s conclusion, Barbosu spoke out about temporarily falling to fourth place. 

‘I want everyone to be fair and not throw stones at athletes of any nationality. We as athletes only want to perform as well as we can and be rewarded for our results. The problem was on the judging side – how they calculated and decided the scores,’ she said.  

Gymnastics fans have been critical of one of the sport’s legends, Nadia Comaneci, for supporting the athletes pushed down in the standings after Chiles’ inquiry. 

Comaneci has attempted to argue for the mental health of all athletes, while Team USA fans believe her support has been disproportionate, with Chiles getting less support.