PARIS — U.S. gymnast Jordan Childs must return the bronze medal she won in the floor exercise, the International Olympic Committee said Sunday, upholding a finding that her coach’s appeal that helped her reach the podium should not have been allowed.
The 23-year-old Chiles initially finished fifth in Monday’s competition, but U.S. coach Cecil Lundy successfully appealed, arguing that Chiles’ difficulty score had been underestimated.
Officials on site agreed, increasing Chilis’ score by 0.1 point to 13.766, putting him ahead of two Romanian skaters and angering the Romanian delegation.
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Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolak said he would refuse to attend the Olympics closing ceremony in protest.
The IOC said on Sunday it would comply with a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling that Randi’s protest occurred 64 seconds after the scores were announced – the deadline for such actions is one minute.
Ana Barbos, 18, of Romania, won the bronze medal in the floor exercise.
“Following the CAS decision regarding the women’s floor exercise final and the International Gymnastics Federation’s revised rankings, the IOC will reallocate the bronze medal to Ana Barbos (Romania),” the IOC said in a statement on Sunday. “We are in contact with the Romanian NOC to discuss the reallocation formula and are in discussions with the USOPC regarding the return of the bronze medal.”
The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee fired back hours later, announcing it would appeal the ruling of its own.
“We firmly believe that Jordan rightfully won the bronze medal. There were significant errors in both the initial scoring by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the subsequent appeals process at CAS which must be addressed,” the statement said.
“Given the circumstances, we are committed to pursuing an appeal to ensure that Jordan Childs receives the recognition she deserves,” the U.S. committee said. “We are committed to supporting her as an Olympic champion and will continue to work diligently to resolve this matter quickly and fairly.”
It is not immediately clear if and how Chilis will physically return his medal.
She has already left France and appeared on NBC’s “TODAY” show in New York City on Thursday.
Childs is the current gold medalist in the women’s team all-around, which she also won silver in Tokyo.
“We are shocked by the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision regarding the women’s floor exercise,” USA Gymnastics said in a statement Saturday night. “We believe the investigation into the difficulty of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise was conducted in good faith and followed International Gymnastics Federation rules to ensure accurate scoring.”
The sport’s US governing body also said that since the allegations came to light he had been “subjected to consistent, totally unfounded and extremely hurtful attacks on social media”.
“No athlete should be treated this way,” the statement said. “We condemn the attack and those who participated in, aided or abetted it. We commend Ms. Jordan for acting with integrity on and off the field and we continue to stand by her and support her.”
Chiles posted four broken heart emojis on Instagram on Saturday and said she was taking a break from social media to process the shocking incident.
“I am taking time off social media for my mental health. Thank you,” she wrote.
David K. Lee reported from Paris, Shawn Nevin from London and Katie Disler from New York.
