The (terrible) optics have become the story in the Jordan Chiles case — Other gym news

Well. No sooner did I submit my column last week — with its featured photo of floor exercise gold medalist Rebeca Andrade flanked by Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles, silver and bronze medalists in the event, respectively, bowing to her — did the news start brewing that Chiles’ medal was under scrutiny. 

By the time the column ran last Saturday, its subject matter, about the broader cultural change in the sport being obvious during the Olympics, already seemed far too sunshiny, given the crisis at hand. 

And on Sunday, the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) stripped Chiles of her medal. Their rationale was that the inquiry that altered her score and the final standings had been filed four seconds too late. Ana Barbosu of Romania, who had secured the bronze before the inquiry on Chiles’ score, would have her medal restored. 

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Most of you know all this so I am not going to rehash it here; I just wanted to reiterate that it happened so quickly that my piece, written Friday and published Saturday, was obsolete by Sunday. Them’s the breaks in journalism. Rarely in gymnastics, but there’s a first time for everything! 

Why are the CAS, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) content to allow a gymnast to face the music for errors committed by judges? A stripped medal is serious business and typically means that an athlete either doped or cheated or both. Chiles did neither; she was not even aware of the inquiry filed on her behalf until her score changed at the conclusion of the floor final. 

And yet, Romania has continued to paint itself as the victim of these circumstances. Did anyone among us enjoy watching Barbosu realize in real time that the bronze medal she thought she won was no longer hers? No. That was excruciating. We wouldn’t wish it on our worst enemies, right? So why then put Chiles in that position, seemingly as revenge for Barbosu’s televised humiliation? (That sounds petty, but four seconds also sounds petty, so petty I too shall be.) 

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And I’m not even certain that Romania was thinking first of Barbosu when they got CAS involved. Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, Romania’s second athlete in the floor final, placed fourth behind Barbosu initially, then fifth after the inquiry for Chiles bumped them both down a place. Maneca-Voinea’s had been docked for an alleged out-of-bounds, shown in photographs after the fact to be dubious at best, and her team was vocal about challenging it. Without it, she would have had the bronze.

CAS rejected that argument out of hand — someone on Reddit noted, accurately, that the CAS wording around the argument for Maneca-Voinea’s score to be adjusted sounded like “And none for Gretchen Wieners, bye.” The reinstatement of Barbosu’s medal subsequently came off feeling a bit like a consolation prize, with Chiles suddenly thrust into an impossible position. 

Chiles removed herself from social media this week, but broke her silence yesterday about the impact of the ruling on her well-being. 

She referenced the racist attacks she has received on social media in the wake of the decision by CAS, noting that it was a particularly harsh comedown after “finding joy” in gymnastics again with the culture shift in the sport over the past few years. 

That this debacle was ever allowed to proceed to racism against Chiles should be — but has not, at press time — been denounced by all parties involved in this decision. In a sport where racism has long been allowed to thrive unchecked, including in judging, this is not a good look.

You might recall that Chiles reportedly was asked to alter her hip-hop floor routine at a national team camp earlier this year, the argument being that it would get docked for artistry. However that statement was intended, it came across to many fans as racist. Pulling her medal for errors that were not hers just furthers Chiles’s case that she is not being judged fairly in the sport. 

The optics are bad. That the optics have been allowed to become the story is worse. 

Other gym news

My esteemed colleague Jessica Taylor Price published a wonderful piece for Bleacher Report about the Chiles controversy. Her kicker gets me every time. Read it. 

Over in NCAA judging, another place where judges famously need a little more oversight, they are getting it. College Gym News has the story. 

CGN also brings us a Day in the Life piece by former Temple gymnast-turned-CGN reporter Julianna Roland about strength training and recovery as an NCAA gymnast. There’s also a piece about families’ financial commitment to club gymnastics and a story on the NCAA teams with the highest cumulative GPAs (Spoiler: Alaska is number one. YGG!)

Kara Eaker transferred to Georgia. Redemption tour, part two, electric boogaloo, coming right up! 

Ellie Black of Canada will appear on the Gold Over America Tour (aka the GOAT Tour, aka Simone’s Tour). 

Oksana Chusovitina casually trained a Produnova vault into a pit. 

Social media post of the week

Khoi Young, one of two traveling alternates for the U.S. men’s gymnastics team, vlogged his Paris adventures. A highlight is being given a bow by Leanne Wong, one of the women’s team alternates.