You just knew that the Paris Olympics would not end without a judging controversy, didn’t you?
This one involves American gymnast Jordan Chiles, who won the bronze medal on the floor exercises until she didn’t. It seemed her routine had a higher degree of difficulty than that of the original bronze medalist, Romania’s Ana Barbosu, and the U.S. filed an immediate appeal, giving Chiles the medal and devastating Barbosu. But then Romania appealed and Chiles was stripped of the medal, because the U.S. appeal was four seconds too late, even though video reportedly shows that it wasn’t.
The U.S. and Romania agreed to share the bronze medal, but the International Federation of Gymnastics said nothing doing, and now it’s off to the Swiss Federal Tribunal for the ultimate decision. In the meantime, it didn’t take the press long to uncover that Hamid G. Gharavi, who headed the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) panel that ruled against the U.S., had represented Romania in some arbitration cases. So not the most unbiased of judges.
On Friday, Aug. 16, Barbosu got the bronze medal — different from the one awarded at the Paris Games — and Chiles, still in possession of the bronze from Paris, vowed to seek justice.
So what about Romania’s Sabina Maneca-Voinea, who had the same score as Barbosu but was given a deduction for having her feet out of bounds at one point — when the video showed they were not. Still, her appeal came too late. (Apparently, Barbosu’s routine received a higher execution score, the tiebreaker in such matters.) Needless to say, all three young women have been subjected to abusive as well as supportive comments, with those directed at Chiles often being racist.
Why can’t all this be hashed out at the moment? And when a subsequent appeal is made and there are real errors in the judging, why can’t that appeal be immediately adjudicated? Why did it take two and a half years for the American figure skating team to get their team gold, after the Russians were penalized for doping in Tokyo, at the Paris Summer Games?
It’s just a reminder that gymnastics is the figure skating of the Summer Olympics, and that the judging is a crock. Plus, the controversies always seem to involve girls and young women. I bet if Steph Curry or LeBron James were involved, a resolution would be quick in the offing.
It’s also a reminder of how great these games were — and weren’t. Yes, we had impassioned, incandescent athletes and performance across disciplines featuring legendary names — Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles, Léon Marchand, Novak Djokovic. And we had Paris, one of the most famous cities in the world, in a time zone friendly to NBC’s broadcasting schedule.
And yet we didn’t. The City of Light is famous for its culture, but we got very little of it. Instead, we got a parade of people — Peyton Manning, Kelly Clarkson, Martha Stewart and especially Snoop Dogg, who however talented in their spheres have never been either cultural reporters or Olympic athletes. NBC should’ve bumped up Terry Gannon, Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir to the opening ceremonies and the Paris Olympics Committee should’ve dropped the faux symbolic narrative in the closing ceremonies about the rings being lost and found. Indeed, all future closing ceremonies should drop the attempt at drama and just stick to farewell and the handoff.
And speaking of the handoff, if NBC’s tribute to 2028 host Los Angeles, which served as a coda to the closing ceremonies, was any indication, LA is going to have to tap dance really hard to match Paris. Frankly, the city does not have the cultural gravitas that Paris does.
What did I take away from the Olympics? The images of the Eiffel Tower wearing the Olympic rings and the Olympic flame in the hot air balloon caldron. Matthew McConaughey’s sly performance as a Wyatt Earp-like narrator in a pair of Salesforce commericals. (On the other hand, why did the Uber commercial use The Beatles’ early hit “I Want to Hold Your Hand”? Uber doesn’t want to hold your hand. It wants to pick you up, drop you off, get paid and get out. Made no sense.)
The Minions, on the other hand, made no sense — fabulously. Their zany Olympics routines to “Chariots of Fire” was laugh out loud genius. And kudos to Tom Cruise for flying “Mission Impossible”-like into the Stade de France.
Readers of this blog may guess that my most satisfying moment was Djokovic’s gold in men’s singles against Carlos Alcaraz. I started following, then covering, Djokovic at a time of terrible transition in my life. His rise mirrored my delivery into a brilliant second act. And now the career end is near, though not yet.
It is a bittersweet moment. But then, in our different ways, we’ll always have Paris.