PARIS — Who is better off today, now that the International Olympic Committee has stripped U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal in the women’s floor exercise and reallocated it to Romania’s Ana Bǎrbosu because of a judging error? Certainly not Chiles, who after doing nothing wrong finds herself penalized. Not Bǎrbosu, who was the subject of one of the most excruciating moments of these Olympics when she realized midway through her celebration of third place that she had taken fourth and—presumably not wishing to inflict the same pain on another—asked to share bronze. Not the Olympics themselves, which will now end the most successful Games in recent memory with this unnecessary uproar. And not the public, which should want—as the authorities should want—to get it right.
This is not right.
