Barb Caffrey's Blog

Folks, I am livid.

I watched the Summer Olympics, as many did, keeping a close eye on the gymnastics competition. (They now want to call it “artistic gymnastics” as opposed to the rhythmic gymnasts who use ribbons and balls and such. I think we can tell which is which, but whatever.) The American gymnasts were excellent. Simone Biles was her usual self, competing with Rebeca Andrade (pronounced “An-dra-jee”) of Brazil, and Suni Lee, Jade Carey, and Jordan Chiles all had excellent Olympic performances as well. (I don’t mean to slight the other gymnast, Hezly Rivera. She won an Olympic gold team medal and did her best.)

So, what made me livid? How about this: In the final competition, which was the floor exercise, the judges from the International Olympic Committee screwed up. They messed up the scores to the point that Jordan Chiles’s coach had to appeal to get a point put back. (A tenth of a point, actually.) Ms. Chiles won the bronze medal, got her medal, Simone Biles got the silver, and Rebeca Andrade got the gold.

So far, so good.

The Romanian gymnasts (they were in fourth and fifth) were very unhappy. The judges didn’t score them right either. One of them was said to have a foot out of bounds when she hadn’t gone out of bounds. The other had just had her medal taken away, by her view, and also felt some of how she’d been scored was wrong.

My solution would’ve been to give all three medals, as the judges obviously screwed up.

Instead, the IOC’s decision is to try to strip Jordan Chiles of her medal. I don’t approve of that at all.

Pat McEnroe, former tennis pro and brother of John, has said the judges are the real problem here. I agree. They did not do the right thing. They messed up. Yet Jordan Chiles and the two Romanian gymnasts have to pay the price for the judges’ inaccuracy and stupidity.

That’s what makes me livid.

There are a lot of things that upset me. One of my good friends’ homes burned down recently; I need to write a blog about that, one longer than this one if possible. (I will mention her GiveSendGo info: https://www.givesendgo.com/GD2AK) If you can help my friend Betsy and her family, please do…ultimately that matters a ton more than any sport.

But the reason I said this today, about Ms. Chiles, the IOC, and everything else, is because it angers me when bad things happen to good people. We expect sports to be as unbiased as possible. We don’t expect the IOC to have their thumb on the scale and do wrong things to athletes who went to the Olympics, did their best, and now are told to return medals (or whatever else).

So, that’s why I wrote this blog about Jordan Chiles. She is an inspiration to many, did her level best, was awarded the medal, and deserves to keep her medal.

The IOC is wrong, wrong, wrong, a thousand times wrong, and should be going after the judges who mis-scored the event rather than trying to get back a medal Ms. Chiles rightfully earned.