Why Did Jordan Chiles’s Score Change, Exactly?

In Paris, the final day of the Olympic Games for Team USA Women’s Gymnastics took an unexpected turn for one gymnast in particular — Jordan Chiles.

During the women’s floor exercise final event on Aug. 5, Team USA put on a strong showing — and so did several other gymnasts, including Rebecca Andrade with Team Brazil (who ultimately won gold, edging out favorite Simone Biles by a narrow margin) and Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu, who initially seemed to have won bronze.

Barbosu was already celebrating, and many spectators and commentators also seemed to move forward with the understanding that she had medaled. But at the last minute, the scoreboard numbers were revised. Chiles’s score leapt from 13.600 to 13.766, beating out Barbosu’s 13.700 and catapulting Chiles from fifth place to third, leaving many people wondering: “Wait — what just happened, exactly?”

Let us explain: After the scores were released, the Team USA Gymnastics coaches submitted an inquiry to have Chiles’s score reexamined on the basis that one of the moves she’d performed actually deserved a higher difficulty score. (A reminder about how gymnastics is scored can be found here but briefly: both the difficulty of a particular move and its execution count toward a gymnast’s overall score.)

The move in question was a split leap skill with a 1.5 turn, also referred to as a Gogean. In her original score it hadn’t been credited, per NBC. But, after further review, Chiles was given full scores for the technique — and that nudged her up into third place.

According to Yahoo, the coaches shelled out $351.10 to submit an official inquiry for the judges to double-check Chiles’ score.

While the score change was shocking to spectators — and Barbosu herself — its well within the rules. Per the Code of Points for USA Gymnastics, “A coach may inquire verbally about the Difficulty Score to the chief D Judge immediately following the posting of the score or before the completion of the performance of the next gymnast. D Panel will conduct a video review, if necessary. If there is still a question, a written inquiry must be submitted to the chair of the Superior Jury by the start of the next rotation. A financial fee accompanies the inquiry, which is returned if the inquiry proves correct. If not, the fee is donated to the FIG Foundation.” In this case, Chiles was the last gymnast to compete in the event.

Ultimately, the outcome of the women’s floor exercise final event was shocking for many reasons: Chiles’s last-minute score change, her earning her first individual Olympic medal, Biles beating her own record for most Olympic medals won by a woman gymnast again, and Biles being beat out for gold by Andrade. Throughout the event, Andrade kept the ranking for the top score. Biles came quite close, but due to stepping out of bounds, and other deductions from her floor exercise routine, her final score ultimately kept her in second place for silver.

After receiving their medals, Biles and Chiles bent down into a bow towards the gold medalist Andrade, a touching moment of sportsmanship and as an act of genuine respect to the Brazilian gymnast, which may have become one of the most poignant moments of the Paris Olympics.

In a post-interview with NBC sports correspondent, Zora Stephenson, Chiles — almost voiceless from a non-stop week — said that the bronze medal means “everything” to her, adding that competing in the individual floor event was part of her own “redemption tour.”

Jade Esmeralda, MS, CSCS, is a health and fitness staff writer. A lifelong martial artist and dancer, Jade has a strong passion for strength and conditioning, sports science, and human performance. She graduated with a Master of Science degree in exercise science and strength and conditioning from George Washington University.