Team USA is bringing the receipts.
Last week, Team USA gymnastics star Jordan Chiles was awarded the third-place finish in the women’s floor exercise final at the Olympics, and thus, she picked up the bronze medal in that competition. But this past weekend, she was stripped of her medal by the sport’s judges and the International Olympic Committee. Only now, Team USA says not only that the decision to strip the medal was incorrect, but that they’ve got VIDEO EVIDENCE to prove it! Whoa!!
ICYMI, after the woman’s floor exercise final a week ago, Romania’s Ana Barbosu was initially announced as the bronze medal winner. But moments later, Team USA’s coach Cecile Landi filed an inquiry into the difficulty of one of Chiles’ moves. After review, the judges agreed with that inquiry. So, they bumped Chiles’ score from 13.666 to 13.766 — which was enough to land her the bronze medal. Great, right?!
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Well, the ver next day, Team Romania filed their own inquiry into Team USA’s inquiry, claiming that Coach Landi’s initial request had been filed AFTER the 60-second deadline imposed on all floor exercise competitors via the so-called “FIG rule.” The Court Of Arbitration For Sport (CAS) reviewed Romania’s claim, agreed with them, and stripped Chiles of her medal, handing it instead back to Barbosu!
But now, the tables have turned AGAIN! This time around, Team USA says they have irrefutable, time-stamped video evidence that Coach Landi submitted the initial inquiry request within the 60-second window after the competition — TWICE!! In a post on X (Twitter) on Sunday, Team USA Gymnastics wrote:
“USA Gymnastics on Sunday formally submitted a letter and video evidence to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, conclusively establishing that Head Coach Cecile Landi’s request to file an inquiry was submitted 47 seconds after the publishing of the score, within the 1-minute deadline required by FIG rule.”
The statement about the inquiry timing issue then continued:
“The basis for the CAS ruling on Friday striking down the inquiry was that ‘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 provided by article 8.5 of the 2024 FIG Technical Regulations and is determined to be without effect.’ The time-stamped, video evidence submitted by USA Gymnastics Sunday evening shows Landi first stated her request to file an inquiry at the inquiry table 47 seconds after the score is posted, followed by a second statement 55 seconds after the score was originally posted.”
USA Gymnastics has submitted additional evidence to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. pic.twitter.com/GOKymbAtcq
— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) August 11, 2024
Damn! If that video really is out there, and the inquiry requests were made at 47 seconds and 55 seconds, then Chiles TOTALLY deserves to have her medal reinstated! It sounds like Team USA seriously isn’t playing around with this one! Reactions, y’all?? Share ’em (below)!
[Image via MEGA/WENN]
