3 Bronze medals should have been awarded for the women’s gymnastics floor event

It wouldn’t be Olympics without controversy in gymnastics and the latest occurred during the artistic gymnastics floor routine on Monday evening.

Romania’s Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea performed flawless routines and found themselves in third and fourth place, with Jordan Chiles — who made a slight mistake on one of her tumbling passes — in fifth. After it was announced Barbosu placed third and was jubilantly celebrating with the Romanian flag draped around her, an inquiry from the American team’s coach resulted in Chiles being bumped up from fifth to bronze. It was heartbreaking to watch Barbosu dissolve into tears of disbelief, with gymnastics legend Nadia Comaneci visibly upset in the audience.

Chiles joined team member, Simone Biles (silver), and Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade (gold) atop the medals podium for the award ceremony. As amazing as it was to see two American phenoms such as Biles and Chiles share the limelight like that, it was difficult to cheer after seeing the understandably indignant Romanians.

Now the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has ruled in the Romanians’ favor — with agreement from the Federation of International Gymnastics (FIG) — that Chiles should not have received the bonus score that gave her the bronze, and the original result stands. Chiles was ordered to return her Bronze medal.

Awful.

First, you had an upset Barbosu who suffered public humiliation on the night of the event. And then Chiles — who got to celebrate her achievement for just a few days — has the humiliation of having to return her reward.

This is a major catastrophe in a sport that has had its share of controversy and questionable decisions. To make it right, the only solution is to award the bronze to both women. That has certainly be done before (think figure skating) and it certainly could assuage some of the humiliation these hard-working women have felt at the hands of the gymnastics judges. This was their fiasco and the gymnasts shouldn’t be punished for it.

"All this talk about the athlete, what about the judges?" Chiles’ teammate Suni Lee said on Instagram, according to Fox News. "Completely unacceptable, this is awful and I’m gutted for Jordan."

In the meantime, Chiles has withdrawn from social media, stating: "I am taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health thank you," Jordan posted as an Instagram story, via Buzzfeed.

The American coach, Cecile Landi, was correct to dispute Chiles’ score, which did not receive the full .100 for a tour jete full leap. The rule is that the dispute must be filed within the one-minute mark after the scores are posted. Because the “verbal inquiry” supposedly came in just slightly after, CAS ruled to maintain the original scores. If that’s the rule they’re sticking with — the rules are the rules in gymnastics — then why wasn’t that determination understood the night of? It would have saved both women tremendous heartache.

"The inquiry into the Difficulty Value of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise routine was filed in good faith and, we believed, in accordance with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring," USA Gymnastics wrote in a statement.

But the organization also says that the inquiry was filed on time and they have the proof.

“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 continued in its statement, via the NY Post. “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.”

Why 3 incredible women should share the Bronze

Instead, the Romanians had to watch two of their best gymnasts perform flawless routines on the floor, only to leave the Games disillusioned and disappointed. Barbosu’s routine was slightly better than Chiles and she should have had the opportunity to celebrate her accomplishment that night.

Additionally, the Romanian team also filed on behalf of Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, who was penalized for stepping out of bounds, even though video footage showed that her heel didn’t touch. In my opinion, Maneca-Voinea’s routine was the best one of the night besides Andrade’s, but lacked the difficulty of Biles’. There’s also a strong case that Maneca-Voinea should have been awarded the bronze as well. In that instance, CAS rejected the appeal filed on her behalf. Was her score unfair? There certainly is reason to believe so.

“Sabrina [Maneca-Voinea], Jordan, my thoughts are with you. I know what you are feeling, because I've been through the same. But I know you'll come back stronger,” Barbosu wrote in an Instagram story, via People.

"I hope from deep of my heart that at the next Olympics, all three of us will share [the] same podium," she continued. "This is my true dream!"

At any rate, it was a terrible way to end the women’s gymnastics events, which had been incredible up until that point. The friendly rivalry between Biles and Andrade was so awesome for the sport. And Biles was flanked by strong U.S. teammates who thrived during the Games, including Chiles.

"The USOPC will be appealing the recent decision made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) regarding Jordan Chiles," the organization said in a statement Sunday, according to Sports Illustrated, indicating that this sordid saga will likely continue. "We firmly believe that Jordan rightfully earned the bronze medal, and there were critical errors in both the initial scoring by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the subsequent CAS appeal process that need to be addressed."

I’m not sure if the Olympics will be able to correct this wrong. It certainly doesn’t seem like they’re interested in mutually resolving the situation. But if they did, we should be looking at a new ceremony with three incredible women sharing the Bronze with smiles and cheers. All three women performed phenomenal routines that night and Barbosu, Maneca-Voinea and Chiles equally deserve Bronze.