Topics: Olympics, Sport, News, World News
There's yet another update in the Jordan Chiles score change controversy which could mean she actually gets to keep her medal after all.
The 23-year-old American gymnast was initially awarded with the third place accolade for the floor final, following a difficulty score inquiry submitted by her Olympics coach, Cécile Canqueteau-Landi.
And, due to the score change, Team Romania's Ana Bărbosu lost her place on the podium.
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However, in a shocking turn of events, Chiles was stripped of her bronze medal after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld an appeal from the Romanian Olympic Committee.
It claimed that the inquiry into Chiles' score was made four seconds outside of the one-minute window for appeals and therefore would need to be disregarded.
"Following the CAS decision with regard to the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Floor Exercise Final and the amendment of the ranking by the International Gymnastics Federation, the IOC will reallocate the bronze medal to Ana Bărbosu (Romania)," the IOC said in a statement.
"We are in touch with the NOC of Romania to discuss the reallocation ceremony and with USOPC regarding the return of the bronze medal."
And now, in the latest update of the saga, Chiles may now get to keep her medal after new evidence was submitted amid the controversial score change.
USA Gymnastics has since posted a statement to Instagram confirming that they submitted 'letter and video evidence' to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Sunday (11 August), '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 continued: "In the letter, USA Gymnastics requests that the CAS ruling be revised and Chiles' bronze-medal score of 13.766 reinstated.
"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 statement also pointed to 'time-stamped, video evidence' submitted by USA Gymnastics on Sunday evening which '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'.
The USAG statement ended: "The video footage provided was not available to USA Gymnastics prior to the tribunal's decision and thus USAG did not have the opportunity to previously submit it."
