American Gymnast Jordan Chiles could robbed of medal at Olympics

Jazmine Chiles, Jordan's sister confirmed via Instagram today that she has been stripped of her Bronze medal.

This has sparked concerns about racism, as the event finished with three black women on the podium, including Chiles in 3rd place. Chiles bumped Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu to fourth place with a score of 13.766 to 13.700

Jordan Chiles originally finished the routine with a score of 13.666, just .004 points away from 3rd place, and the bronze medal. Her team then asked for a challenge, based on the difficulty of her routine, which resulted in a score adjustment of exactly .1 points. However, it has since been revealed that the appeal request came four seconds after the deadline passed.

Without a doubt, this is an extremely tough look for the Olympics. It is almost as if the IOC deliberatly wants bad press as controversy after controversy emerges from the Paris games. This one in particular seems to be especially unnecessary as four seconds of time seems like an extremely arbitrary reason to overturn a decision, especially when the appeal was accepted in the first place. To take the medal away days later because of four seconds? What is really going on here?

This controversy has even sparked the possibility of a lawsuit from the Americans after the IOC reportedly denied a settlement agreement that would have seen both Chiles and Ana Barbosu take home the Bronze medal.

Understandably, fans are not happy about this decision. It is especially frustrating considering Chiles would have won 3rd place even without an appeal if the judges had scored her correctly initially. But for whatever reason, those four seconds appear to make up the hill the IOC is willing to die on.

Sharing medals is not uncommon at the Olympics. In fact, it has happened many times before. Why is that not a satisfactory conclusion in this case? Who knows.

Source: MarkerZone
USA Olympian Jordan Chiles likely to be stripped of medal due to breach of rules