U.S gymnast Jordan Chiles may have to return the bronze medal she won at the 2024 Paris Olympics following an appeal filed by the Romanian team, which finished fourth and fifth in the women’s floor exercise event.
During the August 6 event, Chiles initially earned a score of 13.666, which would have placed her fifth in the competition, behind eventual gold medal winner Rebeca Andrade, silver medalist and teammate Simone Biles, and a pair of Romanian gymnasts, Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Voinea.
However, after scoring, Chiles’ coaches filed an appeal to the judges, arguing that the routine’s level of difficult — and thus the score — was incorrect; the judges agreed, and when the score was adjusted by 0.1, Chiles’ new score of 13.766 was enough to surpass Barbosu and Voinea’s 13.700, giving her the bronze at the last-minute and resulting in the first-ever all-Black medal podium in Olympics gymnastics.
After the medal ceremony, the Romanian team filed its own appeal, first noting that an out-of-bounds penalty against Voinea that cost her 0.1 points might not have occurred — which would give that gymnast a 13.800, and the bronze — as well as that the appeal made by Chiles’ coaches occurred outside the time limit provided to question the judges’ scores.
On Saturday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which rules on these matters, agreed with the Romanians’ latter point: Coaches have one minute to appeal a score after judging, and CAS found that Team USA’s appeal came after one minute and four seconds, and thus the CAS voided Team USA’s appeal and dropped Chiles’ score back down to 13.666 and fifth place.
“We are devastated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling regarding women’s floor exercise,” USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee said in a statement.
“The inquiry into the Difficulty Value of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise route was filed in good faith and, we believe, in accordance to FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring.”
In the aftermath of Chiles’ bronze win, many Romanians — including gymnastics great Nadia Comaneci and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who said he would boycott the Olympics’ closing ceremony over the situation — turned to social media to bemoan the results.
“Throughout the appeal process, Jordan has been subject to consistent, utterly baseless and extremely hurtful attacks on social media. No athlete should be subject to such treatment,” U.S. Gymnastics’ statement added.
“We condemn the attacks and those who engage, support or instigate them. We commend Jordan for conducting herself with integrity both on and off the competition floor, and we continue to stand by and support her.”
Following the CAS ruling, Chiles herself wrote on Instagram that she would be avoiding social media for the foreseeable future. “I am taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health thank you,” she wrote in a message accompanied by broken heart emojis.
As of now, the Olympics haven’t announced the fate of Chiles’ bronze medal, whether she’ll have to return it or — as the Romanians suggested in their appeal — all three gymnasts (Chiles, Barbosu and Voinea) all receive bronzes.
Chiles, who Rolling Stone profiled prior to the Paris Olympics, also won a gold medal as part of Team USA’s team all-around win.
Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino stand as Spain celebrates its World Cup victory, on July 19, 2026.
America Got the World Cup It Deserves — Good and Bad
For the past six weeks or so I’ve been having a recurring fight with my friends. The dispute is over whether or not it’s ethical to support the U.S. national team in the World Cup.
To the vast majority of people reading this article, this is an absurd question: of course you can and should support the United States Men’s National Team, you weirdo. And look, I’m with you. But despite the fact that my friends are pompous dorks who are no fun to watch the game with, the question they raise is valid: Are our national teams avatars of the administration in power, or of the people and promise of that country?
If you believe the former, then yeah, it’s pretty fucking weird to support the USMNT. In doing so, by that thinking, you’d be engaging in a sort of athletic nationalism on behalf of a country run by Donald Trump, the most corrupt president in history, who forced the Iranian national team to flee across the border immediately after the final whistle of each of their games, whose federal police have shot numerous civilians dead in the street during a brutal immigration crackdown, who has started a war and supported a genocide while covering up his close personal friendship with the most notorious pedophile in modern history.
I mean just look at him. On Sunday he waddled down onto the field to present Spain with their trophy, lingering on stage with the victorious team as they tried to celebrate. The presence of Mexican President Claudia Steinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney did little to dilute the image of Trump standing next to his crony Gianni Infantino, grinning at all the trappings of their power, hands caressing a trophy they’d done nothing to earn, lingering well past his cue to leave Spain to their glory. This World Cup, literally, had Donald Trump’s fingerprints all over it.
And yet, this was one of the most thrilling, beautiful World Cups in recent memory. That’s America, baby — contradictions abound.
Over the past five weeks of the greatest athletic competition on Earth, we’ve seen games that will literally never leave my memory. The final, which I attended yesterday in New Jersey, was remarkably forgettable — a 0-0 draw until the 106th minute, with Spain dominating every second of play and yet unable to score, undone time and time again by their insistence on tricksy passing and the personal heroics of Argentina’s goalkeeper Emi Martinez. The rest of the tournament, however, delivered. Cabo Verde, refusing to lose until the very last moments of the first knockout round, battling back again and again against both teams that would eventually play in the final. The sheer dominance of France’s Kylian Mbappe in front of goal, scoring at will, rivaled only by the aging GOAT Leo Messi and the Norwegian warlord Erling Haaland. England’s heroic stand at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, 45 minutes in the rain, a man down, holding out for the win and singing “Wonderwall” with what felt like half the stadium when it ended. Off the pitch, too: the Algerian national team being welcomed with open arms by Lawrence, Kansas; Scottish braves drinking Boston dry and partying wildly with Haitian fans that overcame so much just to be at the tournament. In Mexico, of course, the World Cup was everything, and its fans threw joyous South Koreans pumped full of tequila into the air, and celebrated in the streets with opposing fans even after their hard-fought defeat to England.
For the United States, what the 2026 World Cup was — what our team was, what our fans were, what our performance as hosts was — is a reflection of two things at once: what our nation is and what it can be.
Our star striker, Folarin Balogun, was born here by accident, a citizen only because of a birthright system that our president is currently trying to erase. We have Ricardo and Giovanni and Freeman and Zendejas. We have another striker whose name is Haji, for goodness sake. I look at that team and I see the country America can be, one in which any soul born in or living within our arbitrary borders can become part of a great national project that seeks to improve the lives of everyone it can. And yet, I can also look at that team and see a reflection of what the country is, because there is an anchor around its neck. When Balogun was — albeit unjustly — suspended for a crucial match, Trump himself stepped in. Cronyism saved the day and got Balogun reinstated, but ruined the fragile harmony the team had enjoyed. On the pitch against Belgium, they came apart. Temperamental star Christian Pulisic tried to go alone and then quit, aging defender Tim Ream’s legs failed him when he needed them most, a young goalkeeper slipped and fell when he had no good options for support.
What more can you say about a team, about our country? The team is an entity that is capable of more but still has so far to go, that is vulnerable to the same forces of avarice and selfishness and fear that plague our national identity writ large.
It’s possible to end the story there, to say good riddance to another failed year and fractured team. But I think that’s a mistake. I think if you believe that you haven’t really been watching. I think that’s also why it pissed me off so much that some of my friends wouldn’t root for the U.S. Yes, we have flaws, like every country involved in the tournament. Yes, our current team management and political government are filled with morons. But if you won’t put on the shirt you’re essentially opting out of our future. We can’t wait around for a better world, a better team, a better president, before we deign to lend our support. Progress only comes from effort, from caring, from believing in something more.
One of my favorite images of the World Cup was a crowd shot of the opening match against Paraguay in Los Angeles: every race, color and creed of American there is, all covered in red white and blue. It’s corny and trite, sure. But that’s what it’s all about. That’s why we’re here. You have to believe. The U.S. won that game 4-2. In four years, we’ll be even better.