Olympic Gymnastics is always chock-full of twists and turns, but Monday’s floor final will go down as one of the most shocking in the sport’s history.
Jordan Chiles won her first individual Olympic medal, a bronze, but it appeared at first that she would finish off the podium. She originally placed fifth but submitted an inquiry to the judges and received a tenth back on her final score.
Then she erupted in celebration.
A skill in her routine called a Gogean, a split leap with a 1.5-turn, was originally not credited by the judges. Their score sheets are not made public, but the rationale is typically related to insufficient rotation.
Upon review, Chiles earned full credit for the leap and it was a medal-making difference. Afterward, Chiles said she didn’t even know her coaches had submitted the appeal on her behalf.
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When her new score appeared on the screen, she fell to the ground and burst into tears. Her coach, Cecile Landi, also dissolved into tears and helped the gymnast to her feet, the pair cheering so loudly that Chiles lost her voice.
“I have no words, but I’m so proud of myself,” Chiles rasped after the meet. “So losing my voice means everything, because it takes a while for me to do that.”
Appealing a score is a risky business, which often results in an even lower score than before. The gymnast’s federation must pay a fee and file the inquiry to the judges promptly.
“You can go either way, go up, go down,” Chiles said. “I was the first one to see because I was looking at the screen.”
She quickly grabbed the attention of her coach and Simone Biles. “I was like, jumping up and down. They’re like, ‘What happened?’ And then I showed them … I honestly didn’t expect this whatsoever,” Chiles said.
“I’m proud of each and every one of these girls, and especially myself,” she added. She won a gold medal with her American teammates in Tuesday’s team final, as well as a team silver in Tokyo. A bronze completes her Olympic set.
Chiles had some unstable landings throughout her Beyoncé-themed routine, losing a few tenths in execution, but had a strong showing overall.
“I was so nervous, I didn’t know what to do,” Chiles said. “After my first pass, all I was thinking in my head was, ‘Jordan, keep your feet on the ground please, that’s all I ask.'”
In the end, she bested two Romanian gymnasts, Sabrina Voinea and Ana Barbosu, and finished third, earning a 13.766. Rebeca Andrade of Brazil earned gold and Biles, Chiles’ teammate and training mate, took silver.
It was the first Olympic gymnastics podium comprised of three Black gymnasts.
When they received their medals, Chiles and Biles bowed to Andrade in a show of their admiration.
“Why don’t we just give her flowers?” Chiles said of the gesture. “Not only has she given Simone her flowers, but a lot of us in the United States, our flowers as well. So giving it back is what makes it so beautiful. I felt like it was needed.”
Voinea and Barbosu both scored 13.700 on their floor routines, but until Chiles’ appeal, Barbosu retained the bronze medal position due to her superior execution score. While the sudden twist was a jubilant surprise for Chiles, it was a heart-wrenching loss for Barbosu, who thought she had earned her first Olympic medal.
The dramatic inquiry echoes Aly Raisman’s clutch appeal from the 2012 London Olympics, where she won a bronze on the balance beam after contesting her score.
Raisman, like Chiles, was also the last to go in her Olympic final, making the time-crunch to file an expedient appeal particularly intense and the result more dramatic.
Another Romanian, Catalina Ponor, lost her bronze to Raisman in London.