While the judges did amend Jordan Chiles’ score by 0.1 point, propelling her from 5th to 3rd place, the aftermath saw the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) deem the inquiry unlawful, nullifying the score addition that occurred right after the event. This decision returned the 3rd place to Ana Bărbosu. In such a situation, I believe that the FIG and the IOC should intervene and award the bronze medal to Ana Bărbosu, Sabrina Voinea, who initially held the 4th place before Chiles, and also to Jordan Chiles—resulting in three bronze medalists. There have been precedents in other sports where the same medals were awarded due to unfair or unlawful judgment processes. What do you think?
The dilemma is that if we base our judgment on performance, Chiles edges out Bărbosu and Voinea. The judges did indeed omit 0.1 points in the difficulty score, which they later corrected. On the other hand, if we base our judgment on a ‘by the book’ interpretation of the rules, the CAS decision is correct because the appeal came 4 seconds after the 1min deadline.
Yes, and I think because of the profile of this particular competition, it’s essential that it be followed by the book. Doing anything but diminishes the validity of all previous competitions as well as those in the future.