How a last-minute inquiry led to Jordan Chiles’ first bronze medal, and why it was then stripped from her

The Olympics are a prime arena for upsets, surprises, and sensational beginnings for the athletic legends of tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean that the games don’t play host to some familiar aspects, too.

One such familiarity is the ever-pronounced presence of the United States women’s gymnastics team, spearheaded by the one and only Simone Biles, who at just 27 is the most awarded gymnast of all time (altogether, she has 43 medals, 32 of which are gold).

Between Biles and her teammate Jordan Chiles, the United States women’s gymnastics team made up two-thirds of the women’s floor event medal podium at the 2024 Paris Olympics, topped by Brazil’s gold medalist, Rebeca Andrade. The photo of that trio is already iconic, but we wouldn’t have gotten it had Chiles’ coaches not stepped in at the last minute.

Jordan Chiles’ floor score update, explained

Chiles struck bronze for the women’s floor finals, but it was initially set to go to Ana Bărbosu of the Romanian team. Bărbosu scored 13.700 on her routine, while Chiles scored 13.666, but per an inquiry from Chiles’ coach, the latter’s score was updated to 13.766, which shot Chiles up to third place and booted Bărbosu from the running.

Now, that probably makes gymnastics scoring sound arbitrary, but it’s a bit more concrete than one might think. Floor scores in gymnastics are made up of two components; a “difficulty score” (known as D-score) and an “execution score” (E-score).

An E-score starts at 10.0 points and receives deductions for every mistake the gymnast makes during their routine. This can include balancing struggles, falling, or improper posture. A D-score, meanwhile, pinpoints the eight most difficult gymnastics skills performed during the routine and grades them based on where the skills fall on a scale of A to J (A’s are worth 0.1, J’s are worth 1.0).

In Chiles’ case, one of the moves she displayed during her routine — a tour jeté full, which is a type of split leap — was, in the eyes of her coaches, improperly credited in the D-score. Chiles initially finished her floor routine with a D-score of 5.8. After the inquiry, the score was elevated to 5.9 — in other words, it was decided that the tour jeté full was graded one degree lower than what it should have been — which changed her overall score from 13.666 to 13.7666. Chiles’ E-score for the routine was 7.866, and she received no additional point penalty; additional penalties can come in the form of stepping out of bounds or going over your allotted time.

Bărbosu, meanwhile, finished with a higher E-score at 8.000, but a 5.8 E-score and an additional 0.1 point penalty saw her finish with a 13.700 score, giving Chiles the bronze.

Why was the bronze medal then stripped from Jordan Chiles?

The third-place finish was Chiles’ first individual Olympic medal win of her career, but it was later relinquished back to Bărbosu on Aug. 11 when the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee won an appeal regarding the inquiry that took place during the event, ultimately reverting Chiles’ score back to 13.666.

The appeal argued that the United States’ inquiry during the event came after the one-minute deadline for appeals, and the investigation conducted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport concluded that the inquiry came four seconds too late, thereby validating the Romanian claim and rearranging the women’s floor standings back to what they were prior to the United States inquiry. In other words, Chiles ultimately finished in fifth place with a score of 13.666, and Bărbosu got her bronze medal with 13.700.

Perhaps, then, “arbitrary” isn’t the worst word in the world to describe gymnastics scoring.