USOPC to Appeal Jordan Chiles Being Ordered to Return Bronze Medal After IOC Ruling

The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced Sunday it plans to appeal the decision to request gymnast Jordan Chiles relinquish her bronze medal from the floor exercise.

"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," the organization said, per Will Graves of the Associated Press.

USA Gymnastics also said it submitted video evidence that the initial inquiry came within the required one minute:

Chiles was awarded the bronze after her coach, Cecile Landi, filed an inquiry over her original score. The judges raised her difficulty score by 0.1 points following the review, and that put her overall score at 13.766.

As a result, Chiles leapfrogged Romania's Ana Bărbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea and moved into third place.

However, the Romanian federation filed an appeal of its own, which culminated in the Court of Arbitration for Sport finding that Landi missed the window to formally lodge an inquiry by four seconds. It said the original finishing order should be restored, with Bărbosu, Maneca-Voinea and Chiles occupying third, fourth and fifth respectively.

The CAS did, however, allow for the International Olympic Committee to hand out medals as it saw fit. Romania, for its part, argued in favor of giving bronze medals to Chiles, Bărbosu and Maneca-Voinea. In the case of Maneca-Voinea, she was deducted 0.1 points for stepping out of bounds when a replay showed she had stayed inside the perimeter.

Instead, the IOC is seeking to retrieve Chiles' medal.

USA Gymnastics issued a statement Saturday saying it was "devastated" by the CAS ruling, adding that Chiles has been the target of abuse on social media in the aftermath of the floor event.

Beyond pointing to the initial judging error with Chiles' score, the USOPC is maintaining it "was not given adequate time or notice to effectively challenge the decision" in the moment.