Olympics – Gymnastics – USA’s Childs faces bronze medal stripping after CAS ruling Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) – U.S. gymnast Jordan Childs will likely lose her bronze medal in the women’s rhythmic gymnastics competition after the Court of Arbitration for Sport accepted an appeal by Romania’s Ana Babossu, who moves up to third.

Babosu and her team appealed to CAS, arguing that the investigation into the event’s results took place after the one-minute deadline and that Childs should not be awarded a score of 13.766, which put her in third place behind winner Rebecca Andrade of Brazil and silver medalist Simone Biles of the United States.

Childs initially scored 13.666, while Bobosu scored 13.700.

“The question submitted on behalf of Jordan Childs in the women’s floor exercise final was raised after the one-minute time limit expired,” CAS said.

“The original score of 13.666 given to Ms. Jordan Childs in the women’s floor exercise final will be reinstated.”

CAS also ordered the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) to determine the final rankings and “allocate medals in accordance with the above decisions”.

The decision did not affect Andrade and Biles, who received scores of 14.166 and 14.133, respectively.

USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee issued a joint statement saying they were shocked by the decision.

“We believed that the investigation into the difficulty of Jordan Childs’ floor exercise routine was conducted in good faith and in accordance with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring,” they said.

She also said she was harassed online while appealing and that she had been slandered by those involved in the assault.

“Throughout the appeal process, Jordan has been subjected to consistent, completely unfounded and extremely hurtful attacks on social media. No athlete should be treated like that.”

“We condemn the attacks and those who engage in, support or instigate them. We commend Jordan for her integrity on and off the field, and we continue to support and advocate for her.”