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Jordan Chiles' sister is defending the star gymnast against racist comments she's received amid the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to strip her of the bronze medal she earned in the gymnastics floor final.
Chiles was initially given a score of 13.666 on the floor final last week, falling short of Romanian gymnast Ana Bărbosu's bronze score of 13.700.
However, Chiles' coaches successfully challenged her difficulty score, which added 0.1 to her total and earned her the bronze medal.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) later ruled on Saturday (August 10) that the challenge made over Chiles' score was submitted after the one-minute deadline. The Internal Gymnastics Federation (FIG) said the ruling would reinstate Chiles' original score of 13.666, improving Bărbosu’s back to bronze.
IOC confirmed that the score change meant Chiles would be stripped of the bronze medal.
Over the weekend, Chiles' sister, Jazmin, spoke out about the IOC's decision on Instagram, saying "Racism is real, it exists, it is alive and well."
"They have officially, 5 days later, stripped her of one her medals,” Jazmin wrote on her Instagram Story. “Not because she didn't win, not because she was drugged, not because she stepped out of bounds, not because she wasn’t good enough."
"But because the judges failed to give her difficulty and forced an inquiry to be made," she continued.
"Her bronze was stripped over 4 seconds of time that would have never needed to happen if the judges did their job," Jazmin added.
Jazmin continued to defend her sister on her Instagram Story, saying "in the HISTORY of the Olympics NO ONE has ever been stripped of their medal for this. Also, there are only TWO ways you can be stripped of a medal. Cheating or Doping. She did neither.”
The Team USA gymnast's sister later clarified that she was referring to "the racism that’s BEHIND the comments and vulgar and vile comments that are being made toward my sister." Jazmin shut down the notion that her sister's competitors were racist or that racism was the "root cause" of her medal being stripped.
“Just give the other girls a bronze and leave it at that! Period,” she added.
USA Gymnastics announced Sunday (August 11) that it would be appealing the decision with additional video evidence that will prove that the challenge to Chiles' was made within the one-minute deadline requirement.
Video evidence “conclusively establishing that Head Coach Cecile Landi’s request to file an inquiry was submitted 47 seconds after the publishing of the score, within the 1-minute deadline required by FIG rule," the organization said.
“The video footage provided was not available to USA Gymnastics prior to the tribunal’s decision and thus USAG did not have the opportunity to previously submit it.”
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