"her glitter just glittered better"

13. Aliya Mustafina, gymnastics

Key accomplishments: Seven-time Olympic medalist, two-time Olympic gold medalist, 11-time World Championship medalist.

Before Simone Biles made it seem easy to be successful across multiple Olympic cycles, there was Russia's Aliya Mustafina. She burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old to win the 2010 world all-around title, while leading her team to gold and earning three additional silver medals in event finals. She would go on to capture the Olympic gold on bars in both 2012 and 2016, with routines that are still lauded today for their variety of skills, easy swing and picture-perfect release moves.

She got to go up on the podium and have a medal ceremony for a medal she didn’t earn. Ana may get a medal eventually, but she’ll never have that moment of having her flag raised as she stands next to Simone and Rebeca, and Sabrina will get neither. Jordan will go back to a well funded college program and a well funded elite program with tons of potential for endorsements. She’s still got her Olympic gold and silver.

First: Jordan’s coaches didn’t do anything wrong. Coaches frequently submit inquiries when a gymnast isn’t awarded their maximum possible start value, particularly when it’s not clear why.

Second: neither did Jordan. She’s said herself she didn’t even know the inquiry had been submitted. She didn’t ask for it, she didn’t cheat, and she certainly didn’t steal anyone’s medal.

Third: inquiries are always announced. As soon as this one was announced, the Romanian coach should have told her athletes not to celebrate until the inquiry was addressed. Not to mention, the athletes themselves should have realized this and held off. The entire celebration debacle was completely avoidable.

Fourth: in my opinion - and I’m basing this on watching the slow-motion replay and understanding how gymnastics scoring works - the judges made a mistake. Jordan did not complete the skill. Her feet did not make it all the way around to the 1.5 turn mark. Her inquiry should have been rejected and her score unchanged.

Fifth: Sabrina did not go out of bounds. Her heel did not touch the floor outside the line. However inquiries can only be submitted on the difficulty score, and neutral deductions are not considered part of this score. This may be why the initial Romanian inquiry was rejected, though it’s unclear. Either way, this was another judging error.

Lastly: rules are rules, whether you like them or not. 1:04 is more than the 1:00 time limit for submitting an inquiry. Yet again, this is on the judges. They shouldn’t have allowed the inquiry to proceed in the first place.

HOWEVER… none of this is Jordan’s fault, nor is it the fault of her coaches or the Romanian gymnasts or coaches. If you’re mad, blame the judges. But DO NOT take it out on the athletes or the coaches.

cecile inquired too late

judges accepted the inquiry despite it being late

judges didn't rewatch jordan's entire routine

judges credited a dodgy gogean

line judges gave sabrina a fake oob

camelia didn't inquire sabrina's line deduction

and that's not even going into the more competition-wide issues like judging being strict all week except for americans and line judges viewing remotely from angles that have had issues before.

I was waiting for the NBC Primetime angles to confirm whether Sabrina went OOB or not and she was clearly in bounds omg. FIG actually robbed her. She would have been 13.8 and won bronze without the 0.1 ND.

AA final: Suni goes OOB on vault, but line judge misses it & she avoids 0.1 ND

FX final: Sabrina stays in bounds on floor, but line judge incorrectly calls it OOB

Missing out of bounds is one thing, but inventing one is way worse. Giving gymnasts the benefit of doubt or missing deductions in real time is one thing. Inventing deductions that don't exist is completely worse.

Even if FIG never changes the results, they need to give an explanation for what the ND is and change things so there is robots, sensors, video review, you're able to inquire NDs, etc. so this doesn't happen again.

This is like the most blatant error FIG has ever made because e score and even d scores or incorrect start values can be subjective. OOB is completely objective, you're either in or out and Sabrina was in.