The Paris 2024 Olympics were filled with great, historic moments, while also very controversial moments. One of the later moments included Jordan Chiles and one of her 3 medals won at the 2024 Olympics. 

As Jordan Chiles took the floor for her routine on August 5, 2024, there was some tension as Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Meneca-Voinea (both team Romania) were tied at 13.700 and if she scored higher, it would be her first individual Olympic medal. Her routine was to remix five Beyonce songs and include the one skill that gave her a score of 13.766, which landed her 5th place on the board. The USA gymnastics coach appealed this score because she felt that one element of Chiles’ routine should be reevaluated. The judges accepted the appeal and re-scored the gymnast to give her a score of 13.766, one-tenth higher than her original score. Jordan Chiles then proceeded to be awarded the bronze medal and history was made with all three positions being held by Black women. 

For a team or athlete to make an appeal, the coach must get it to the designated person for the verbal inquiry, who must then enter it either electronically or through writing, all within one minute after the score is shown. One day after the routine and medal ceremony, the Romanian team challenged Jordan Chiles’ bronze medal on the issue that allegedly Team USA’s appeal was four seconds after the one-minute window for appeals ended. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) agreed with Romania’s appeal and ruled for the scores to return to the original, before the appeal. Though that put Chiles back in fifth place, both teams requested that all athletes be awarded a bronze medal. The International Olympic Committee rejected this on August 11, 2024, and requested the medal be returned and given to Ana Barbosu. Team USA was not satisfied and appealed again with CAS to show that the USA coach, Cecile Landi, submitted the inquiries, one 47 seconds after the score was posted and the other 55 seconds after, both well under the minute limit. However, the CAS rejected the additional evidence and Barbosu had an awards ceremony soon after in Romania, though Chiles did not return the medal yet. After they were declined by the CAS, Team USA went to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court where the decision could be overturned. 

There has not been a final decision on whether Jordan Chiles will get to keep the well-earned bronze medal or if both gymnasts could have a medal. However, despite the decision, this moment will go down in history as one of if not the most important parts of the Olympics.