The ongoing drama surrounding American gymnast Jordan Chiles being stripped of her bronze medal in floor exercise at the 2024 Paris Olympics has brought about the seemingly unwavering support of Black Twitter, as well as that of one celebrity who’s no stranger to fighting the power.
As previously reported by The Root, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped Chiles of her bronze medal after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that Team USA’s initial inquiry, which resulted in Chiles moving up to third place, came in too late. The IOC is now saying she needs to return her medal so it can be awarded to Romania’s Ana Bărbosu.
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One user has a simple explanation for why Chiles is caught up in this controversy, writing on X, “Why do yall refuse to accept the reason Jordan Chiles is being punished. It’s because she’s [Black]. Yall can read and analyze RULES all you want but those rules aren’t for Black gymnasts.”
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Another person pointed out how nice it is to see USA Gymnastics supporting the two-time NCAA national champion, posting, “I’m loving that America is standing 10 toes down for Jordan Chiles.”
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The Olympic gold medalist also has the support of Public Enemy legend Flava Flav, who was present at multiple events in Paris, had a bronze version of his signature clock necklace created for Chiles.
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The situation has led to nonstop backlash against the IOC, CAS and the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) extending beyond Black Twitter. According to Yahoo! sports, on Wednesday, CAS released a 29 page statement about the hearing and its ruling. It explained that it couldn’t award three bronze medals to Chiles, Bărbosu and Romania’s Sabrina Maneca-Voinea—the athletes involved in the inquiry.
CAS also took FIG to task for causing them “a great deal of heartache” because it “did not provide a mechanism or arrangement to implement the one minute rule it established under Article 8.5.”
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“If the FIG had put such a mechanism or arrangement in place, a great deal of heartache would have been avoided,” the statement reads. “The Panel expresses the hope that the FIG will draw the consequences of this case, in relation to these three extraordinary Athletes and also for other Athletes and their supporting personnel, in the future, so that this never happens again.”
USA Gymnastics (USAG) responded with its own statement where it asserted that the inquiry was submitted within the allotted one minute deadline, criticized CAS for sending case filings to the wrong email address, which prevented USAG from reacting in a timely manner and questioned its handling of the panel’s conflict of interest disclosures.
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The fact that the chair of the panel has been doing legal work for Romania for almost a decade has become a big sticking point.
“USA Gymnastics strongly disagrees with the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s detailed decision released today. As noted in the decision, USA Gymnastics did not become aware of the case until August 9 – three days after it was filed, two days past the deadline to submit objections related to panelists, and less than 24 hours before the hearing. This was due to CAS sending case filings to incorrect email addresses,” the statement says. “Further, CAS did not send the conflict-of-interest disclosures of any panelist to USA Gymnastics, nor have we seen the disclosures to date. As stated previously, video evidence later made available to USA Gymnastics and submitted to CAS conclusively establishes that Head Coach Cecile Landi verbally inquired 47 seconds after the publishing of the score, within the 1-minute deadline required by FIG rule. We will pursue these and other matters upon appeal as we continue to seek justice for Jordan Chiles.”