Artistic Gymnastics (MAG/WAG) Live Chat

[sworddance21]

This whole situation is just horrendous. I really don't understand how in the heck you take a medal away from someone who did absolutely nothing wrong. Both of those women should have a Bronze Medal (and maybe Sabina, too). The inquiry was too late business is NONSENSE. They accepted the inquiry. It should stand.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

And it's official - The IOC has re-allocated the medal to Ana, and Ana alone.
Jordan was asked to return the medal and a reallocation ceremony will be held at some point.

This situation is pretty much completely unprecedented, even in situations with clear score manipulation (when the involvement of the athletes themselves couldn't be proven) the IOC has given out two medals instead of stripping the original medal winner of theirs.

 

[DemTuppesSeine]

I've read somewhere that Romania and US agreed on two bronze medals but officials said no, that's not possible

 

[Skating91]

The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.

I hope FIG and Team USA respect and comply with the decision rather than extend the pain and suffering for Barbosu who has already had this moment stolen from her. Maybe they will have a ceremony for her at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Edit. It seems USA are appealing the decision. Does this mean they go to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court? This is quite disappointing. The appeal was late and shouldn't never have happened. End of story. Let the poor girl have her bronze.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

And the gift that keeps on giving - USAG has now acquired new video footage that supposedly proves that the verbal inquiry was submitted 47 seconds after Jordan's score was published, and that Cecile Landi repeated this verbal confirmation of an inquiry 8 seconds later at 55 seconds post score publication.

At this point, just give both of them a bronze medal and be done with it, this is just harming the gymnasts, the reputation of the sport and the organisations involved.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

The appeal was late and shouldn't never have happened.

But it did happen. That it was accepted (regardless of it was late or not) was not USAG's, Cecile's or Jordan's fault, and it is unprecedented for an athlete to be stripped of a medal due to protocol errors committed by representatives of the governing organisation.

 

[DLong]

I liked Sabrina's performance the best out of all of the girls. They said she had harder difficulty than Rebeca's routine, Simone's was so messy, and I didn't think Jordan's was as good as Sabrina's. I wish Sabrina could have received a medal as she was very elegant -- it was a beautiful performance. She made her tumbling look easy. I wasn't as impressed with Ana's, but I felt very bad for her when she thought she had won the bronze. I'm happy she will get the bronze now, but this whole thing was such a mess.

 

[FlossieH]

The whole thing is a mess. If the event had been judged correctly, then Sabrina Voinea would have been the bronze medalist regardless of whether Chiles' appeal was accepted. The judges and officials screwed up (and yes, they are only human) and it is the gymnasts which are suffering for it.

 

[sworddance21]

But it did happen. That it was accepted (regardless of it was late or not) was not USAG's, Cecile's or Jordan's fault, and it is unprecedented for an athlete to be stripped of a medal due to protocol errors committed by representatives of the governing organisation.

Agreed! They accepted the inquiry and raised the score. To take a medal away from Jordan is unconscionable. I also think that it is horrendous that they gave Sabrina neutral deduction for being out of bounds when she clearly was not. Something needs to change. At this point, I would award all three women a Bronze medal and get to work fixing things so this kind of abomination doesn't happen again.

 

[VickB]

New video proves Jordan Chiles inquiry was submitted in time, USA Gymnastics says

Jordan Chiles' floor exercise inquiry at the Paris Olympics was submitted before the deadline, USA Gymnastics says. And it claims to have video proof.

www.usatoday.com

 

[SNAKSuyun]

While I agree that the everything about this is a mess (FIG basically failed everyone and everything like 4x over and is the true villain in all of this, it's pretty much impossible now to make a decision that both follows the rules as-written but also make everyone happy, etc.), it's hard for me to not feel for Ana more in this case given WAG like figure skating is a sport where more leniency and benefit of the doubt are often given to athletes from bigger feds (heck, even Zhou Yaqin getting BB silver over Manila Esposito in this competition, speaking as a CN person/fan). Anyone who has been following the sport for more than a few years have seen cases of where athletes from bigger feds or more star power have been awarded, often in E scores, credit for skills, and silvers/bronzes, more than some equally deserving others. Given how they've generally credited skills during this competition and how quickly (too quickly - I think some math suggested it was like 40 something seconds, which was definitely not enough to review a whole routine) it took them to accept Jordan's inquiry, I'm OK with her not getting it in the end regardless of how quickly the inquiry was filed.

 

[Skating91]

But it did happen. That it was accepted (regardless of it was late or not) was not USAG's, Cecile's or Jordan's fault, and it is unprecedented for an athlete to be stripped of a medal due to protocol errors committed by representatives of the governing organisation.

It only happened because the officials allowed an illegal challenge after the event.

If we're going to hand out medals for athletes that competed, that were allowed into the village, allowed onto the playing arena, passed all tests at the event, competed, won, but her and her team not awarded gold because of administrative errors relating to a previous tournament 100% out of their control, I can think of a famous case from a couple years back. The athlete was supposed to have received notification from the governing body no later than 20 days it took over double that time and caused all kinds of chaos. The athlete and team were punished despite the athlete being selected and competing in good faith.

Someone brought up F1. In the last race the winner was stripped of his win because his car was 1kg underweight which made little difference to outright pace. As harsh as it was to not just demote, but disqualify him, it was the only decision that could be made because an underweight car much like a weight violation, a pit speed violation, a time violation, these are all black and white decisions with no room for interpretation or subjectivity. Unfortunately the penalty for a weight violation even by 50 grams is a disqualification. There is no mechanism in the rules to make up a rule so that he is only demoted one place which would have been much fairer to the driver and reflected where he should have finished on track if not for the violation. In basketball the French player would have sent their match into OT if her foot was a couple inches back, if we allow illegal challenges that are 4 seconds late do we allow 3 points shots were the feet touch the line. The French woman was crying maybe we should have let her have the extra point to protect her feelings? As sad as it was to see her upset, there is no mechanism to allow 3 point shots where the feet touch the line just a little bit. If we allow 4 seconds, we'll have to allow challenges that are 10 seconds late, then 20 seconds, etc.

The US team are claiming they have proof that the challenge was made in time, but let's see how that pans out first. CAS have already seen videos from the official feed that prove otherwise. It could be a bluff or intimidation tactic to push FIG and the IOC to handing out a second bronze to the 5th place winner (which would be absurd if the 4th place winner misses out but 3rd and 5th don't) before going to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.

We're talking a bronze medal here, it's not like a gold medal is at stake. Team USA need to realise there is another girl in the middle of all of this, and consider the effect on her by trying to take the bronze medal off her TWICE. Chiles already has an Olympic gold, is it really worth the fight when scores were so close and Team USA has been the beneficiary of some favourable judging many times in the past. If we allow the illegal challenge, we'll have to allow Voinea's illegal challenge as well.

 

[Skating91]

By the way does anyone know why Biles had that boot on her foot at the Closing Ceremony? Looks like a boot for a stress fracture maybe. I did read on Biles bio she trains 35 hours per week which is incredible in such a demanding sport I hope it's not a long term injury.

 

[macy]

And the gift that keeps on giving - USAG has now acquired new video footage that supposedly proves that the verbal inquiry was submitted 47 seconds after Jordan's score was published, and that Cecile Landi repeated this verbal confirmation of an inquiry 8 seconds later at 55 seconds post score publication.

At this point, just give both of them a bronze medal and be done with it, this is just harming the gymnasts, the reputation of the sport and the organisations involved.

this situation is so wild. i feel so incredibly terrible for all 3 athletes put in the middle of this mess, none of which was their fault. it's absolutely shameful what has transpired, how it was allowed to happen and how it's been handled. they are the ones truly suffering the consequences here and i'd imagine this ruined their olympic experience...i can't imagine what they've been going through the last few days, especially Jordan receiving so many racist comments. it's just awful and i hope all of them have solid support systems and do what's best for themselves right now.

i'm so confused how there are apparently two different sources of the inquiry time that are so different? how is that even possible? what were they looking at in court the first time? how could they even prove what Cecile was saying in either one, or when time started/stopped if they weren't actually counting?

it's insane to me the complete and total lack of responsibility from FIG/IOC on this. not even so much as a simple apology, and they have caused so much harm to the athletes for their own incompetency. it's just heartbreaking three hardworking athletes' olympic experience is forever tarnished because of something they didn't even do.

 

[sworddance21]

By the way does anyone know why Biles had that boot on her foot at the Closing Ceremony? Looks like a boot for a stress fracture maybe. I did read on Biles bio she trains 35 hours per week which is incredible in such a demanding sport I hope it's not a long term injury.

I assume it has to do with the calf injury that she was fighting with through the competition, but that's just me guessing.

 

[ramurphy2005]

I assume it has to do with the calf injury that she was fighting with through the competition, but that's just me guessing.

That's definitely it. She did an interview with Mike Tirico right after she was done competing, and she said she was wearing the boot as a precautionary measure so she'd be able to do her upcoming tour.

 

[Skating91]

I wonder if they are playing down the injury and saying it's a calf not to alarm people since it was more her ankle that was heavily strapped, and that's the kind of boot someone would wear for a stress fracture not so much a minor calf injury. I hope they give her the time to heal and she doesn't feel compelled to perform on that tour while carrying an injury.

 

[4everchan]

Canadian gymnast four-time Olympian Ellie Black has won the Paris 2024 Fair Play Award!

 

[moonvine]

The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.

I hope FIG and Team USA respect and comply with the decision rather than extend the pain and suffering for Barbosu who has already had this moment stolen from her. Maybe they will have a ceremony for her at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Edit. It seems USA are appealing the decision. Does this mean they go to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court? This is quite disappointing. The appeal was late and shouldn't never have happened. End of story. Let the poor girl have her bronze.

The US has video time stamped proof that the inquiry was submitted in time.
Once the results have been finalized and medals awarded no changes should be possible.

 

[moonvine]

Agreed! They accepted the inquiry and raised the score. To take a medal away from Jordan is unconscionable. I also think that it is horrendous that they gave Sabrina neutral deduction for being out of bounds when she clearly was not. Something needs to change. At this point, I would award all three women a Bronze medal and get to work fixing things so this kind of abomination doesn't happen again.

That’s exactly the correct solution