In an ongoing battle for bronze, American gymnast Jordan Chiles saw her medal taken away for the individual floor event of the Paris Olympics.
After Chiles initially placed fifth, her coach appealed the judges' scoring of the routine's difficulty, bumping Chiles to third place. However, a court ruled that the appeal came four seconds too late and reinstated the original score, with bronze now going to Romania's Ana Barbosu. USA Gymnastics is currently appealing that decision.
Since the 1900s, Team USA has seen at least two dozen Olympic medals retroactively gained or revoked, for reasons ranging from doping to rules violations. Here are seven cases of American Olympians who returned their medal or gained a new one after another athlete was disqualified.
Jim Thorpe, 1912 Stockholm Games
Jim Thorpe, a Native American track and field athlete regarded as one of the greatest of his time, was the first Olympian to ever be stripped of a medal.
Thorpe won gold in both the pentathlon and decathlon, but the International Olympic Committee stripped him of both medals in 1913 after learning the athlete had played semi-professional baseball before the Stockholm Games, which violated the Olympics' amateurism rules in place at the time. His pentathlon gold went to Norway's Ferdinand Reinhardt Bie, and the decathlon gold to Sweden's Hugo Wieslander.
U.S. & World
Thorpe's medals were reinstated posthumously in 1982, 29 years after his death. The IOC determined that the disqualification had been improper.
Calvin Smith, 1988 Seoul Games
Doping violations by other athletes meant that sprinter Calvin Smith was never able to stand on the podium and receive his medal.
Smith finished fourth in the men's 100-meter dash at the 1988 Olympics; Ben Johnson of Canada was crowned the champion, followed by Team USA's Carl Lewis in second and Britain's Linford Christie in third. Johnson was later found to have tested positive for stanozolol, a commonly used performance-enhancing steroid, and he was stripped of his gold medal. This bumped Smith to a podium finish of third place.
However, both Lewis and Christie also had their own drugs scandals, though neither had been disqualified. It is why Smith says he should have been the gold medalist, and why the 1988 men's 100-meter race is described as one of the dirtiest in Olympic history.
Marion Jones, 2000 Sydney Games
Marion Jones had five Olympic medals revoked, the most of any athlete in the history of the Games.
Jones had won three gold medals and two bronzes after competing in the 100-meter, 200-meter, 4x100-meter relay, 4x400-meter relay and long jump in the Sydney Games. She admitted to steroid use seven years later in federal court and was banned from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Jones also admitted to lying about not taking drugs in a 2002 federal investigation, which resulted in her being sentenced to six months in prison.
The medal changes shifted the standing of seven other athletes.
Lance Armstrong, 2000 Sydney Games
Cyclist Lance Armstrong had to return his bronze medal from the men's individual time trial in the Sydney Olympics. He admitted to doping in 2013 and was not only stripped of his Olympic medal, but also all titles he had won since August 1998, including seven Tour de France titles and other cycling awards. Armstrong was banned from the Olympics for life.
Spain's Abraham Olano had come in fourth in the time trial, but the IOC decided the bronze medal spot would remain vacant.
Adam Nelson, 2004 Athens Games
Adam Nelson was crowned the runner-up in the men's shot put event at the 2004 Olympics. Eight years later, he found out he had actually been the champion.
Ukraine's Yuriy Bilonog, who had received the gold medal, had tested positive in a retroactive drug test in 2012 and was stripped of his Olympic title. Nelson finally received his gold medal in 2013. Denmark's Joachim Olsen was bumped to second, and Spain's Manuel Martínez received bronze. For both Denmark and Spain, this was their first medal in shot put.
Jason Turner, 2008 Beijing Games
Jason Turner originally placed fourth in the 10-meter air pistol competition. However, North Korea's Kim Jong-su — who initially won bronze — tested positive for a banned drug three days after the win. Kim was expelled from the Olympic Village, and the medal went to Turner.
Tyson Gay, 2012 London Games
In one of the most recent American cases preceding Chiles', Tyson Gay — along with Trell Kimmons, Justin Gatlin and Ryan Bailey — had won the silver medal in the men's 4x100-meter relay at the 2012 Olympics.
A year later, Gay tested positive for a prohibited drug and was suspended for a year by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. The entire sprint relay team was stripped of their medals. Trinidad and Tobago was re-allocated the silver medal, and France stepped onto the podium in third place.
