American gymnast Jordan Chiles lost her bronze medal on floor exercise. What happened?

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American gymnast Jordan Chiles lost her bronze medal on floor exercise. What happened?

2024-08-11 22:14 Last Updated At：22:21

PARIS (AP) — Romania’s Ana Barbosu replaced American Jordan Chiles as the Olympic bronze medalist in gymnastics floor exercise after the International Gymnastics Federation restored Barbosu to third.

The International Olympic Committee confirmed the reallocation of the medal less than 24 hours after the Court of Arbitration for Sport voided an appeal from Chiles’ coach during Monday's competition that vaulted her over Barbosu and onto the podium.

Here's a look at how Chiles, Barbosu and Romanian Sabrina Maneca-Voinea wound up in a scoring controversy that has been painful for all three.

Chiles qualified third in women's floor exercise and competed last in the eight-woman final, where the order was determined randomly in advance.

The 23-year-old finished her routine and was awarded a 13.666, which was fifth just behind Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea at 13.700.

Cecile Landi, who is Chiles' personal coach and also served as coach for Team USA in Paris, appealed to the judges to have an element restored to Chiles' routine. Judges approved the appeal, boosting Chiles' score by .1, good enough for Chiles to earn her third career Olympic medal to go with the team silver she won in Tokyo in 2021 and the team gold she helped the U.S. capture in Paris.

The Romanian Gymnastics Federation asked CAS to review the procedure surrounding Landi's appeal of Chiles' score.

International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) guidelines require coaches to make any appeal of a score within one minute of the score being posted.

CAS ruled that Landi officially made her appeal in 1 minute, 4 seconds, just past the deadline.

The appeal on Chiles was granted, with CAS ruling that Chiles' score should be dropped back down to 13.666 and that the initial order of finish should be restored.

Yes.

CAS wrote in its ruling that the FIG shall determine the final ranking, but added that FIG should assign the medal “in accordance with” the CAS decision. The FIG placed Barbosu third, Maneca-Voinea fourth and Chiles fifth.

The FIG said while the initial order was restored, it was up to the IOC to determine what would happen with the medals.

The IOC announced the bronze would indeed go to Barbosu and that it would work with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to have the bronze awarded to Chiles returned.

The decision is in line with how the IOC typically views medal allocation.

At the Olympics, the governing body of each sport manages the competition and decides the results. The IOC typically accepts that result — once appeals to CAS are completed — and formally awards the medals.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee says it plans to try, but it's unclear what the exact process would be. The two potential places the USOPC could take the appeal would be to Switzerland’s highest court, the Swiss Tribunal, or the European Court of Human Rights.

“The initial error occurred in the scoring by FIG, and the second error was during the CAS appeal process, where the USOPC was not given adequate time or notice to effectively challenge the decision,” said the USOPC statement, which was released Sunday.

While Barbosu was relatively quiet in the aftermath, Maneca-Voinea was not.

She used her social media accounts to highlight what she believed was incorrect scoring during her routine. The judging panel dinged her 0.1 point for stepping out of bounds while spinning around to start a tumbling pass.

Video evidence seemed to indicate that Maneca-Voinea's heel did not actually step on the boundary. The Romanian federation asked CAS to restore 0.1 to Maneca-Voinea’s score for a penalty that was given to her “without basis.”

The request was denied in part because Maneca-Voinea's coach did not appeal the score in real-time during the meet.

Chiles, who left Paris earlier this week to return home to the U.S., went dark on social media shortly before the CAS decision became public.

The two-time Olympian had been subject to attacks on her various social media platforms in recent days, with some critics suggesting she give the medal back.

Chiles posted on X not long after the final that “it's funny how some people can still never be happy for someone.”

Maneca-Voinea put together an aggressive campaign on social media, asking for justice.

Barbosu asked for calm earlier in the week, blaming the judging panel and not the gymnasts.

The Paris Olympics served as a comeback of sorts for one of the sport's former superpowers. The Romanian program medaled in the team final in 10 straight Olympics between 1976-2012 before falling on hard times over the last decade. When Barbosu and her teammates walked onto the floor for qualifying on July 28, it marked her country's first appearance under the rings in 12 years.

“We as athletes don’t deserve something like that, we only want to perform as best as we can and to be rewarded based on our performance," Barbosu said after returning to Romania. "The problems lie with the judges, with their calculations and decisions.”

American star and two-time Olympic champion Simone Biles encouraged Chiles — a longtime friend — to “keep her chin up.” U.S. standout and six-time Olympic medalist Sunisa Lee chimed in late Saturday, putting the onus on the judges and calling the outcome “unacceptable.”

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Danish leader tells the US 'you cannot annex another country' as she visits Greenland

2025-04-04 19:36 Last Updated At：19:40

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — Denmark's prime minister has told the U.S. during a visit to Greenland that “you cannot annex another country,” even with the argument that international security is at stake.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, said on Friday that Copenhagen “should focus on the fact that the Greenlanders don’t want to be a part of Denmark.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was wrapping up a three-day visit to the strategically critical Arctic island on Friday as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks control of Greenland. He argues that Greenland, a semiautonomous territory belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark, is critical to U.S. security.

A week ago, Vice President JD Vance visited a remote U.S. military base in Greenland and accused Denmark of underinvesting in the territory.

Frederiksen pushed back against the U.S. criticism as she spoke on Thursday alongside Greenland's incoming and outgoing leaders on board a Danish naval ship. She argued that Denmark, a NATO ally, has been a reliable friend.

Speaking in English, she said that “if we let ourselves be divided as allies, then we do our foes a favor. And I will do everything that I can to prevent that from happening.”

“When you ask our businesses to invest in the U.S., they do. When you ask us to spend more on our defense, we do; and when you ask of us to strengthen security in the Arctic, we are on the same page,” she said.

“But when you demand to take over a part of the Kingdom of Denmark’s territory, when we are met by pressure and by threats from our closest ally, what are we to believe in about the country that we have admired for so many years?”

“This is about the world order that we have built together across the Atlantic over generations: you cannot annex another country, not even with an argument about international security,” Frederiksen said.

The Danish leader said that, if the U.S. wants to strengthen security in the Arctic, “let us do so together.”

Political parties in Greenland, which has been leaning toward eventual independence from Denmark for years, last week agreed to form a broad-based new coalition government in the face of Trump's designs on the territory. Those have angered many in Greenland and Denmark.

In an interview with Newsmax on Thursday, Vance repeated the accusation that Denmark has “really underinvested in the infrastructure and security of Greenland.”

He said Trump's point is that “this matters to our security, this matters to our missile defense, and we're going to protect America's interests come hell or high water.”

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who was attending a meeting in Brussels with his NATO counterparts, wrote on social network X that he had an “honest and direct” meeting Thursday with Rubio.

“I made it crystal clear that claims and statements about annexing Greenland are not only unacceptable and disrespectful,” Løkke Rasmussen wrote. “They amount to a violation of international law.”

Rubio told reporters in Brussels Friday that “Denmark should focus on the fact that the Greenlanders don’t want to be a part of Denmark."

“We didn’t give them that idea. They’ve been talking about that for a long time,” he said. "Whenever they make that decision, they’ll make that decision.”

“If they make that decision, then the United States would stand ready, potentially, to step in and say, okay, we can create a partnership with you," Rubio said, adding that "we’re not at that stage.”