Jordan Chiles found out that she won the first individual Olympic medal of her career, a bronze on floor, after a last-second inquiry with the judges bumped up her final score.
Emotions ran high at the Paris Summer Olympics on Monday after Romanian Ana Barbosu lost her bronze to American Jordan Chiles in the floor final when U.S. coaches called for an inquiry that boosted Chiles’ score and left Barbosu off the podium.
Barbosu broke into tears on the floor at the Summer Games when she learned she hadn't won a medal -- like she initially thought. Chiles was the final competitor, and the initial score posted on the videoboard was lower than Barbosu’s, prompting the Romanian to grab her country’s flag and begin celebrating.
Moments later, it was announced that Chiles’ coaches had asked judges to review the difficulty component of her score. That led to a .1 boost, bumping Chiles to 13.766 — just ahead of Barbosu’s 13.700.
A number of spectators expressed frustration on social media as did gymnastics great Nadia Comaneci, who's also from Romania.
“I can’t believe we play with athletes mental health and emotions like this… let’s protect them,” the nine-time Olympic medalist wrote on X.
Chiles herself had a message to those left disappointed.
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"It’s funny how people can still never be happy for someone…," she said on X.
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“At this point, we had nothing to lose, so I was like ‘We’re just going to try,” Team USA coach Cecile Landi said of the inquiry. “I honestly didn’t think it was going to happen but when I heard her scream, I turned around and was like ‘What?’”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
