teammates and the rest of the Olympic world came to her defense this weekend as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially ruled Sunday the American gymnast needs to give back her bronze medal she initially won in the women’s gymnastics floor final in Paris. The controversy stems from a protest filed by the Romanian Federation of Gymnastics, which argued that Chiles’s coach Cecile Landi sent in an appeal of the gymnast’s difficulty score after the allowable one-minute time limit. Chiles’s score, which was boosted to 13.766 after the successful challenge, was returned to 13.666 after the ruling, dropping her from third place back to fifth. Simone Biles, who won the silver medal in the floor competition, weighed in on the situation on social media. “Sending you so much love Jordan,” Biles wrote on Instagram on Saturday. “Keep your chin up Olympic champ! We love you!” Simone Biles / IG American teammate Suni Lee, who won one gold and two bronze medals in Paris, shared a similar message about the situation. “All this talk about the athlete, what about the judges?” Lee wrote on her Instagram story on Saturday. “Completely unacceptable. This is awful and I’m gutted for Jordan. I got your back forever Jo, [you] have all my flowers and you will always be an Olympic champion.” Suni Lee / IG Thousands of other Olympic gymnasts, athletes and fans also criticized the decision to remove a bronze medal from Chiles’s possession five days after the competition took place. The bronze medal will be given to Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu, who landed a 13.700 score in the floor final. Although Chiles will be giving the hardware back, she’ll still return to the United States as an Olympic champion after helping Team USA win the women’s all-around gymnastics team final in Paris.
Simone Biles, Olympic World React to Jordan Chiles Getting Stripped of Bronze Medal
