Jordan Chiles wins appeal for Olympic bronze — Utah’s disappointing start

The big news of the week concerns Jordan Chiles, who won an appeal in her fight to keep the bronze medal she was awarded in the floor final at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Over a year following the conclusion of the Games, the Swiss Federal Tribunal ruled in Chiles’ favor on an appeal of the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision to strip her medal and give it to Romania’s Ana Maria Bărbosu.

If you don’t remember, in 2024 Chiles won bronze and bumped Bărbosu off the floor podium following an inquiry. After the competition, the Romanian Federation argued to CAS that the inquiry was made four seconds too late. CAS ruled in their favor, ordering the medals to be reallocated. Chiles then appealed this decision to the SFT. (Nancy Armour at USA Today breaks it all down really well).

This is a big win for Chiles, and she’s likely to come away with a bronze at the end of all this. It’s also great news for my therapist because I had buried my anger over this shitstorm deep, deep down over the past 18 months, and now it’s all coming back up like bad Thai food. 

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Unfortunately, the SFT decision doesn’t mean we’re done here. Bărbosu is still the official bronze medalist in the event. The case has been punted back to CAS, which will now consider video evidence showing that the inquiry was made in time. 

It’s unclear when this will happen, or what will happen to the hardware when it does. Chiles said she still had her medal seven months after it was stripped. Bărbosu, strangely, has one too. (While we’re here, “stripping” is such an odd word choice for taking someone’s medal. Maybe if we had video footage of a gymnast kicking and screaming while uniformed men tore a medal off her person, then this wouldn’t happen again).

When all is said and done, Chiles will likely be the official bronze medalist, as she should be. That won’t take away the pain she and Bărbosu have felt over the past 18 months. Chiles’ bronze should have been the happiest moment in her career. Instead, by making a CAS appeal based on a bogus claim, the Romanian Federation brought Chiles into an international scandal, in turn exposing her to racist attacks on social media.

It’s an unfortunate reality of the sport that to make it to this level means exposing yourself to people’s vitriol. But, as I explained just last week, it’s also an unfortunate reality that the adults in charge here aren’t doing their jobs — and in this case, several of them. Someone didn’t judge an out-of-bounds error correctly, another Joe Six Pack screwed up the timing on the inquiry, another party (the Romanian Federation) kicked and screamed like a Moceanu on floor, and, according to USA Gymnastics, yet another person at CAS sent emails about the case to the wrong address.

As per usual, the athletes get to pay for it. See: the 2000 Olympics controversies surrounding vault height, doping, and age falsification (what a year, right?); NBC commentators openly questioning the ages of the Chinese team members in 2008, and, of course, the biggest abuse scandal in the history of everything. 

In none of these cases did the athletes do anything wrong. They were failed by the people who were supposed to protect them. Then, as a byproduct of being the best at their sport, they had to deal with the consequences in front of the rest of the world. 

Hopefully, some good will come of this, and the FIG will revisit policies and put new standards in place. In the meantime, damage has certainly been done.

NCAA news

After week 4
Oklahoma: 197.783
LSU: 197.467
Alabama: 197.417
Florida: 197.417
UCLA: 197.181

Oklahoma and LSU both got the first 198s of the season, with Oklahoma (198.425) beating Georgia (196.8750) at home, and LSU (198.0500) beating Kentucky (195.7750), also at home. 

Speaking of home-team advantage, see Alabama’s season-high 197.5000 over Missouri (197.2250) and Arkansas’ season-high 197.4750 over S.E. Missouri (192.6750). Florida (197.1000) took the win over Auburn (196.7000).

Meanwhile, Utah continues to underperform, with a 195.7250 in their meet at Iowa State. Errors on floor meant they had to count a 9.0750. UCLA’s 197.4250 away score is their highest score of the season. 

LSU’s Kailin Chio got a 10 on beam:

Jordan Chiles is still killing it in the all-around, earning a 39.8750 on Sunday with a 10 on floor:

Yesterday featured Arkansas at Florida, Central Michigan, Fisk, and Temple at Georgia, Oklahoma at Kentucky, Oregon State at Alabama, LSU at Missouri, Arizona State at Utah, and Washington at UCLA. On Sunday, we have Michigan State at Michigan, Iowa State at Denver, and Auburn at Georgia.

Full standings and schedule at Road to Nationals, and CollegeGymNews has a recap here. 

The IX Soccer is here

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Just like The IX Basketball, this will be your destination for 24/7 women’s soccer coverage, including exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes looks at your favorite teams and leagues, as well as news from around the world.

Follow the link below and bookmark the page to stay up to date on the latest headlines in women’s soccer.

Elite gym news

USAG released the international roster for the upcoming American Cup.

USAG’s elite committee meeting minutes for Jan. 6 also dropped. They reiterated that they don’t like it when athletes living in both the NCAA and elite worlds don’t come to camp. Also, this:

The committee requested a Safe Sport Educator to serve as a resource for coaches to stay current with industry best practices, conflict resolution, and effective communication.

Denelle Pedrick of Canada retired. Lia-Monica Fontaine, also of Canada, trained a triple double.

Five at the IX

Utah’s Avery Neff spoke to Big 12 Conference about kicking off her season with a 10 on vault.