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Simone Biles has rallied behind fellow US gymnast Jordan Chiles who is set to lose her Olympic bronze medal just five days after winning it.
The team USA poster girl said she was sending ‘so much love’ to her teammate, telling the 23-year-old to ‘keep your chin up’ as she faces being stripped of the medal she won in the women’s floor final on Monday.
Chiles came third in the event after her score of 13.666, which had initially placed her fifth, was bumped up by 0.1 following an appeal from the US coach
But, in a bombshell ruling today, the Court of Arbitration of Sport ruled the judging panel were wrong to allow Chiles’ score to be increased and said the initial finishing order should be restored.
Chiles took to Instagram to say she was removing herself from social media ‘for my mental health’, while her teammate Biles said: ‘Sending you so much love Jordan. Keep your chin up Olympic champ! We love you!’
Elsewhere, Chiles’ sister Jazmin issued a scathing response to the controversy, writing on Instagram on Saturday ‘Please keep Jordan (and my family) in your prayers. Racism is real, it exists, it is alive and well.’
Jazmin continued: ‘They have officially, 5 days later, stripped her of one of her medals.’
‘Not because she didn’t win, not because she was drugged, not because she stepped out of bounds. Not because she wasn’t good enough. But because the judges failed to give her difficulty and forced an inquiry to be made.’
‘FOUR SECONDS. Her bronze was stripped over 4 seconds of time that would have never needed to happen if the judges did their job. I love you baby sis. And I got you back no matter what.’
In a following post, she added: ‘Just so y’all aware – in the HISTORY of the Olympics NO ONE has ever been stripped of their medal for this
‘Also – there are only TWO ways you can be stripped of a medal. Cheating or doping. She did neither.’
During the event of Monday, Romania’s Ana Barbosu and her teammate Sabrina Maneca-Voinea were left outside the medals in Monday’s floor final after finishing with matching scores of 13.700.
With Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade clinching gold and Simone Biles with silver, Barbosu thought she had won bronze over Maneca-Voinea via a tiebreaker – a higher execution score – and began celebrating with a Romanian flag.
Chiles was the last athlete to compete and initially given a score of 13.666 that placed her fifth, right behind Maneca-Voinea.
But her coach Cecile Landi called for an inquiry over a jump that had originally been given a lower difficulty grade.
It comes after the Romanian Gymnastics Federation said on August 7 it had submitted requests to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It said one of them was linked to the inquiry submitted by Chiles’ coaches.
‘Aware of the negative impact on Ana Maria Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation aims to correct the mistakes made by the judges and to restore the rights of our athletes,’ the federation said.
The results of the floor exercise had caused an uproar in Romania.
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Tuesday he will boycott the closing ceremony because of the ‘scandalous situation.’
Ciolacu promised Romania would honor Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea as Olympic medalists, ‘including in terms of the prizes.’
The bronze medal represented Chiles’ only individual medal of her Olympic career. She won a gold medal as part of the team event in Paris, and a silver medal in the same event in Tokyo.
Chiles teammate, Suni Lee, also blasted the ruling. Lee and Chiles were also on Team USA together during the Tokyo Olympics.
‘All this talk about the athlete, what about the judges??’ Lee said on social media. ‘Completely unacceptable. This is awful and I’m gutted for Jordan. I got your back forever Jo.’
USA gymnastics legend Simone Biles is close with Chiles as well, featuring the duo in a recent Instagram post entitled ‘red, white, Biles & Chiles.’
The removal of Chiles bronze also doubles as a nixing of the first all-black Olympic gymnastics podium in history.
Upon landing back in Romania after the event’s conclusion, Barbosu spoke out about temporarily falling to fourth place.
‘I want everyone to be fair and not throw stones at athletes of any nationality. We as athletes only want to perform as well as we can and be rewarded for our results.
‘The problem was on the judging side – how they calculated and decided the scores,’ she said.
Gymnastics fans have been critical of one of the sport’s legends, Nadia Comaneci, for supporting the athletes pushed down in the standings after Chiles’ inquiry.
Comaneci has attempted to argue for the mental health of all athletes, while Team USA fans believe her support has been disproportionate, with Chiles getting less support.
