Jordan Chiles breaks silence on bronze medal being stripped
(NEW YORK) — U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles broke her silence over having the bronze medal she won from the floor exercise in Paris stripped by the Court of Arbitration for Sport following a challenge.
“I am overwhelmed by the love I have received over the past few days,” Chiles wrote on Instagram. “I am also incredibly grateful to my family, teammates, coaches, fans, USAG, and the USOPC for their unwavering support during this difficult time.”
She continued, “While celebrating my Olympic accomplishments, I heard the devastating news that my bronze medal had been stripped away. I had confidence in the appeal brought by USAG, who gave conclusive evidence that my score followed all the rules. This appeal was unsuccessful.”
In discussing the unsuccessful results of the appeal, Chiles shared her disappointment.
“I have no words. This decision feels unjust and comes as a significant blow, not just to me, but to everyone who has championed my journey,” she wrote.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport announced on Monday it would not hear Chiles’ appeal to keep her bronze medal from the Paris Olympics despite new evidence, according to USA Gymnastics.
Initially, Chiles finished fifth in the individual floor exercise at last week’s Games, only to be moved up to the bronze medal spot when her coaches appealed the scoring of one of the elements in her routine. She jumped from fifth to third, leaping over two Romanian gymnasts — including Ana Barbosu, who had already begun celebrating bronze.
The International Gymnastics Federation awarded Barbosu third place after the Court of Arbitration for Sport voided the appeal made by Chiles’ coach at the event, with CAS saying Chiles’ score was “raised after the conclusion of the one-minute deadline.” In saying the challenge came too late, the CAS reinstated the incorrect 13.666 score.
Chiles also noted Thursday that since the appeal process, she has received hurtful messages online.
“To add to the heartbreak, the unprompted racially driven attacks on social media are wrong and extremely hurtful. I’ve poured my heart and soul into this sport and I am so proud to represent my culture and my country,” she wrote.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The widow of Columbus Blue Jackets star Johnny Gaudreau, Meredith Gaudreau, announced her pregnancy with their third child at Monday’s memorial service for Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew Gaudreau.
“John and I had the best six months as a family of four. These will forever be the best six months of my life,” Meredith Gaudreau said at the service. “There’s specifically one week that I will cherish forever — it will be my favorite week of my life out of those six months. We’re actually a family of five. I’m in my ninth week of pregnancy with our third baby.”
She called the pregnancy a “total surprise.”
“John was beaming and so excited,” she said. “His reaction was just immediately kissing me and hugging me.”
Their first child, daughter Noa Harper Gaudreau, was born Sept. 30, 2022. Their second, son Johnny Edward Gaudreau, was born Feb. 22.
“Noa, our oldest, hasn’t even turned 2 yet. In less than three years of marriage, we’ve created a family of five,” Meredith Gaudreau said at the memorial service. “It doesn’t even sound possible, but I look at it as the ultimate blessing. How lucky am I to be the mother of John’s three babies? Our last one being a blessing and so special despite these difficult circumstances.”
“To my babies, daddy loves you all so much and you have the best daddy in the world,” she said.
On Aug. 29, Johnny Gaudreau, 31, and his brother Matthew Gaudreau, 29, were riding bikes in Salem County, New Jersey, when they were struck and killed by a driver suspected of being under the influence of alcohol, according to police. The suspected driver was arrested and charged with two counts of death by auto, according to police.
Matthew Gaudreau’s wife, Madeline Gaudreau, is also pregnant with their first child.
“This last week has felt like I’ve been trapped in a nightmare I can’t wake up from,” Madeline Gaudreau said at the memorial service. “I feel numb, angry, sad, blessed all at once. Some days the thought of this new reality is debilitating. But mostly, I just miss Matt.”
“The 14 years we spent together will never be enough, but I will cherish those and carry them close to me, especially on the extremely hard days,” she said.
“He was born to be a dad,” Madeline Gaudreau said. “The moment we found out about our son Tripp, it consumed his every day. He was downloading apps, ordering books, finding the best diaper brand, making sure I had the best vitamins and asking for tips from John. I will never forget the tears he had in his eyes when he first heard Tripp’s heartbeat.”
“I know Matt will surround his son for the rest of his life,” she said through tears.
She said she hopes her son and Meredith Gaudreau’s baby, Johnny, have the same bond their dads did.
To Meredith Gaudreau, she said, “I promise that I will always be there for you and the kids.”
Madeline Gaudreau also made a point at the service to urge people to not drink and drive.
“Please do not put another family through this torture,” she said.
The Gaudreau brothers died the night before their sister, Katie, was set to get married, according to their former coaches.
The brothers were “always side by side” and “absolute best friends,” Meredith Gaudreau wrote on Instagram two days after their deaths.
“I don’t think John could live a day without you so I’m comforted knowing you are of course together in heaven,” she said in a message to her brother-in-law.
“Matty, thank you for loving our babies like your own and for being such an amazing uncle and godfather,” she added, pledging to take care of his wife, Madeline, and their future son.
“Please continue to take care of John like you always have. I got Madeline and Tripp,” she said.
(PARIS) — From Bacon (both Sarah, a diver, and Phoebe, a swimmer) to Coffey (both Olivia, a rower, and Sam, a soccer player), Team USA will be sending a veritable smorgasbord of talent to Paris for the 2024 Olympics.
You probably know the big names — such as gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky — but there are 592 U.S. Olympians competing in Paris.
The returning members of Team USA have already won 110 gold medals before arriving in Paris, led by swimmers Ledecky (seven) and Caeleb Dressel (seven) and women’s basketball player Diana Taurasi (five). Ledecky also has the most total medals (10) while Biles has seven total medals, including four gold. No one else on the team has more than four gold.
Not sure who else to pay attention to in Paris? We’ve compiled a list of the 10 Americans to know when the Summer Games kick off this weekend.
Chase Budinger, beach volleyball
If you think you remember a basketball player named Chase Budinger, who played eight seasons in the NBA and was co-MVP of the McDonald’s All-American Game in 2006 alongside Kevin Durant, you’re probably confused why “beach volleyball” is next to his name above. But no, that’s not a typo.
Budinger, the California Basketball Player of the Year in his senior season in high school, hung up his basketball shoes in 2017 and hit the beach for his second-best sport — volleyball. Then again, maybe it’s his best sport?
The 36-year-old was actually a huge volleyball recruit in high school, too. But he passed up playing the indoor game for a college basketball career at Arizona. Now, he and partner Miles Evans will be heading to Paris to play beach volleyball as part of Team USA.
Evans and Budinger only started playing together last year, but they are the U.S.’s No. 2 team behind Andy Benesh and Miles Partain. Partain, just 22 years old, and Benesh are a great story in their own right and probably a better bet to win gold from the U.S. teams. They’re ranked No. 9 in the world.
But Budinger and Evans are ranked No. 13 and have two tournament wins in less than 20 matches as partners.
Katie Moon, pole vault
There was definitely a pun to be made with Moon’s last name, but for now we’ll just focus on her out-of-this-world talent.
Moon, then known by her maiden name, Nageotte, won gold in pole vault in Tokyo and followed that up with world titles in 2022 and 2023. She also took home top honors on the Diamond League circuit (a regular season, so to speak) last year.
Her toughest competition will likely be Great Britain’s Molly Caudery, who has also grabbed headlines for her modeling work, and Australia’s Nina Kennedy, who won at the last Diamond League event before the Olympics. Caudery won the indoor world championships in March and has the world best this year (4.92 meters).
Moon can be a streaky jumper. She finished eighth (last place) at last week’s London Diamond League event and was upset by unheralded (and unsponsored) Bridget Williams in the U.S. Olympic trials.
But Moon’s personal best of 4.95 meters, set ahead of the Tokyo Games, is better than any of her competitors and back-to-back gold is easily within her reach.
Katie Grimes, swimming
Theoretically, swimming is swimming, no matter where you are doing it. But it’s unusual for a talented swimmer in the pool to also compete in open-water swimming. No American woman had ever done both until this year.
Grimes will be doing the double in Paris, swimming in the 1,500 meters and the 400-meter individual medley indoors as well as the 10-kilometer open-water event — still scheduled to be held in the Seine River as long as no one’s skin melts off during training.
Grimes is actually a bit of a prodigy. She was Team USA’s youngest member in Tokyo at just 15 years old. At 18, she’s still one of the youngest Americans at the Games (gymnast Hezly Rivera, 16, is the youngest).
She had already qualified for Paris in the open-water event before showing up at the indoor swim trials in Indianapolis last month by taking bronze in the 10-kilometer outdoor event in July 2023. She was actually the first American to make the U.S. team in any sport.
No woman has ever won a medal in their career in both the pool and open-water competition (though it has happened on the men’s side). Grimes has a real chance to do both in the same Olympics.
Salif Mane, triple jump
No slight to Fairleigh Dickinson University, but the New Jersey school isn’t exactly known as a track and field powerhouse. In fact, Mane was the only competitor from FDU at the NCAA track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon, last month as he wrapped up his senior season.
That didn’t stop the triple jumper from winning Fairleigh Dickinson’s first individual national title in any sport and then upsetting everyone at the U.S. Olympic trials.
Mane jumped a personal best 17.52 meters at the U.S. Olympic trials just weeks after setting a previous personal best (17.14 meters) at the NCAA championships.
Now the Bronx native has a chance to continue a legacy in triple jump for the U.S., which has won five of the last 10 gold medals in the event.
Tara Davis-Woodhall, long jump
Mane was a jumper who wasn’t on many people’s radar not long ago, but Davis-Woodhall has been a star jumper with gold medal potential for awhile. She won gold in junior world championships and even broke future Olympian Marion Jones’ California high school state record that had stood since 1993 (well before she was born).
She’s hardly been a disappointment on the senior level, but Davis-Woodhall is finally realizing her full potential. No doubt the most exuberant and outgoing member of Team USA — she’s never not bouncing around with a megawatt smile — she is currently ranked No. 1 in the world in long jump.
Davis-Woodhall, who is married to three-time Paralympic medalist Hunter Woodhall, finished second in the U.S. Olympic trials in 2021 and qualified for the Olympics as well. But the then-22-year-old finished a disappointing sixth at the Tokyo Games.
The weight of expectations appeared to lie heavily on her shoulders at this year’s trials. She scratched on both her first two jumps in the finals, but qualified to continue on with her third and final jump. but she qualified for the Paris Games on her last jump of the competition.
Davis has had the best season of her career, finishing first in every competition she’s competed in, including a win in the indoor world championships in March. She hasn’t competed in any Diamond League events, but has the second-best jump (7.18 meters) in the world this year. Germany’s Malaika Mihambo, the gold medalist in Tokyo and the owner of the longest jump in the world this year (7.22 meters), will be Davis-Woodhall’s stiffest competition.
Fiona O’Keeffe, marathon
There’s beginner’s luck and then there’s just beginner’s talent. O’Keeffe, who won at the U.S. Olympic trials in the first professional marathon of her life, hopes it’s the latter.
The 26-year-old literally put her blood, sweat and tears into her first marathon in Orlando back in February. She crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 22 minutes and 10 seconds — a trials record — with her bib covered in blood, which she ascribed to a “little chafing situation.”
O’Keeffe was an All-American at Stanford University as a 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter runner before taking her talent to the road.
Medalling in Paris is unlikely given the depth of the Ethiopian and Kenyan teams, but she has huge potential in a discipline that is traditionally dominated by veteran runners.
Jimmer Fredette, 3×3 basketball
“College player” is a derisive term that has plagued college basketball and football players for decades. From Tim Tebow to Adam Morrison to Charlie Ward (in both sports), the names are well-known by sports fans.
Fredette, who was a star at Brigham Young University, was given the label well before he even left college. He still developed a legion of fans for his reputation as a gunner and ultimate competitor (think Caitlin Clark before Caitlin Clark). He led the nation in scoring as a senior in 2010-11, earning Associated Press player of the year honors, and setting just about every scoring record in BYU history.
He was drafted 10th overall by the Sacramento Kings in 2011, but bounced around to the Chicago Bulls, New Orleans Pelicans, New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns in an unremarkable NBA career. He was certainly never close to making the men’s Olympic basketball team.
And yet, at 35 years old, more than five years removed from his last game in the NBA, he’s shooting for gold in Paris as a member of the U.S. 3×3 basketball team — a half-court, outdoor version of the game that debuted in Tokyo. (The U.S. men’s team didn’t even qualify for the Tokyo Games, so this is technically the United States’ debut in the sport.)
Jimmermania has been revived again.
Kennedy Blades, wrestling
Blades already has the coolest name on the U.S. team, but now she’s looking for some hardware in Paris.
The 20-year-old from Chicago, who is already posing for photos in Paris with Snoop Dogg and getting praise from MMA legend Jon Jones, is a rising star in wrestling — and maybe combat sports in general (can it be long before the UFC comes calling?).
Blades barely missed the Tokyo Games, losing to Tamyra Mensah-Stock in the final match in the 76 kg weight class, at just 17. Mensah-Stock went on to win gold in 2021 and Blades’ profile in the sport skyrocketed. She was used to defying expectations though, becoming the first girl to win a state title against boys in the annual Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation tournament at just 12 years old.
Blades defeated Adeline Gray, a six-time world champion who took the silver medal in Tokyo, to qualify for Paris.
Her timeline for greatness has moved up.
Emma Hunt, climbing
It will take the women’s Olympic gold medalist about 10.5 seconds to run the 100-meter dash. Hunt wonders why they waste so much time.
The 21-year-old — who was ranked No. 1 in the world at just 18 — owns the American speed climbing record, climbing the 15-meter-high wall in 6.55 seconds. She’ll be looking to spend as short a time competing in Paris as possible as speed climbing is contested as a standalone sport for the first time (In Tokyo, bouldering, lead and speed were combined in one event).
Hunt set the U.S. record in Salt Lake City in May when she won the World Cup final against Aleksandra Kalucka of Poland. Kalucka’s countrywoman, Aleksandra Miroslaw, holds the current world record — which has fallen repeatedly in recent years — at 6.25 seconds.
Both Polish climbers will be among the top competition for Hunt in Paris, as will be Indonesian star Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi, who edged out Hunt for the world title in 2023 (Miroslaw took bronze, while Kalucka took fourth).
Victor Montalvo, breaking
We’re not here to legislate whether breakdancing — officially known as breaking — should be in the Olympics. Besides, the United States has the best competitor in the world, so just wait for another gold medal.
Montalvo, 30, is the defending world champion in breaking. Known as B-Boy Victor, he has carried on a back-and-forth rivalry with Canadian Phil Wizard in each of the last three world championships. Victor won in 2021 and 2023, while the Canadian won in 2022.
The sport, which developed from the 1980s dance craze, takes place in head-to-head “battles” over multiple rounds. Each dancer is graded in five categories: technique, vocabulary, originality, musicality and execution. The scoring is done by the judges in real time with winners advancing through a bracket.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE Chi Cubs 2, NY Yankees 1 Atlanta 4, Toronto 3 Seattle 10, St. Louis 4 LA Dodgers 4, Cleveland 0 Arizona 12, Houston 6
AMERICAN LEAGUE Tampa Bay 2, Baltimore 0 Chi White Sox 7, Boston 2 Kansas City 2, Minnesota 0 Texas 7, LA Angels 4 Detroit 9, Oakland 1
NATIONAL LEAGUE Pittsburgh 7, Washington 3 Miami 10, Philadelphia 1 Cincinnati 3, NY Mets 1 Colorado 4, Milwaukee 1 San Francisco 7, San Diego 6
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE Buffalo 34, Arizona 28 Chi 24, Tennessee 17 Houston 29, Indianapolis 27 Miami 20, Jacksonville 17 Minnesota 28, NY Giants 6 New England 16, Cincinnati 10 New Orleans 47, Carolina 10 Pittsburgh 18, Atlanta 10 LA Chargers 22, Las Vegas 10 Seattle 26, Denver 20 Dallas 33, Cleveland 17 Tampa Bay 37, Washington 20 Detroit 26, LA Rams 20 (OT)
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION Minnesota 78, Washington 71 New York 75, Las Vegas 71 Indiana 104, Atlanta 100 (OT) Chicago 92, Dallas 77 Connecticut 79, Los Angeles 67