Not since the time when officials outrageously gave the Soviet basketball team three chances to make the gold-medal-winning shot over the U.S. in 1972 has an Olympic medal decision been so brazenly unjust. There is, however, an argument to be made for a solution to satisfy all sides.
At issue is the already infamous back-and-forth about which athlete should get the bronze medal for the women’s gymnastics floor exercises at the Paris Olympics. The judges first awarded the medal to Romanian Ana Bărbosu, but upon an appeal by U.S. coaches, the judges gave it to American Jordan Chiles instead. Then, a higher bureaucracy, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, reversed the earlier reversal and demanded that Chiles give the medal back to Bărbosu. The arbitrators’ decision stinks like three-day-old roadkill.
