American gymnast Jordan Chiles was initially in sixth place after her floor exercise. However, an inquiry from Team USA led to officials revising her score, propelling the 23-year-old to a bronze medal at Bercy Arena on Monday.
As the score was being reviewed, Romania’s Ana Barbosu began celebrating her anticipated bronze medal by holding her country’s flag high.
Watch full video of Barbosu realizing she had lost and Chiles celebrating upon hearing the news:
The review and ruling
Upon review, officials adjusted the start value of Chiles’ routine from a C to a D, increasing her score from 13.666 to 13.766. This change edged out Barbosu and fellow Romanian Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, who both had scores of 13.700.
Barbosu looked up in disbelief and dropped her flag when she realized Chiles had overtaken her due to the score adjustment. The 18-year-old Romanian had to be consoled as she walked off the floor in tears.
Chiles, on the other hand, was ecstatic with her first individual Olympic medal.
“This is just a dream come true,” Chiles said on a private news outlet broadcast. “It’s my first time ever in an event final. Like we said, it was a redemption tour, and I just wanted to come out and do the best that I could. So this medal means everything.
“First event final, first event medal. Oh my gosh, I have no words, but I’m very proud of myself.”
Romania has accumulated seven medals in the 2024 Games, with five in rowing and two in swimming as of Monday afternoon.
For the Americans, this success contrasted sharply with the day’s earlier events, where both Simone Biles and Suni Lee fell off the balance beam during their routines and failed to medal.
Lee’s fall prevented her from tying Shannon Miller for the second-most medals by an American gymnast. She will leave Paris with three medals.
What is an ‘inquiry’ in Olympic gymnastics:
The reason behind Jordan Chiles’ score change lies in her original final score of 13.666, which included a 5.8 D score. Based on Chiles’ floor routine, Team USA coaches submitted an inquiry to raise her D Score by 0.1 points.
Coaches told NBC that a skill called a Gogean, a split leap with a 1.5-turn, was in Chiles’ routine but was not initially credited by judges. After reviewing, the judges agreed that Chiles deserved full credit for the leap, raising her score to 13.766.
In gymnastics, an inquiry is a challenge to a gymnast’s score after their routine. It can only be submitted after the final score is posted but before the event ends.
Elite gymnastics scoring consists of a difficulty score (D) and an execution score (E). The D Score starts at 0, based on the difficulty of skills and connections performed, while the E Score starts at 10 and is determined by the execution of those skills. Errors during the routine lead to deductions in the E Score. The final score is the sum of the D Score and E Score, minus any penalties or neutral deductions, like stepping out of bounds.
An inquiry can only challenge the D Score. A verbal inquiry must be made before the next gymnast begins their routine or within a minute of the score being displayed if the gymnast is the last in the event. A written inquiry must follow within four minutes of the verbal inquiry.
The inquiry prompts a review of the gymnast’s routine and can result in the score being raised or lowered.
