Olympic gymnastics qualifying, explained: Why Jordan Chiles won't compete in all-around final despite fourth-place score

Jordan Chiles failed to qualify for the all-around final at the 2021 Olympics. She was hoping to achieve that goal in 2024.

She came up just fractions of a point short of earning that honor.

Chiles and her teammate, Suni Lee, were locked in a tightly contested battle to represent the USA in the all-around final. Lee edged Chiles by 0.067 points to relegate Chiles to top-alternate territory.

Of course, it's worth noting that Chiles posted one of the best all-around scores in Paris. That will lead some to wonder why she isn't going to the finals along with Biles and Lee.

It's all because of a rule meant to create competitive balance within the Olympic gymnastics competition.

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Why isn't Jordan Chiles in the all-around final?

Chiles isn't in the all-around final at the 2024 Olympics because of the two-per-country rule.

The rule is fairly simple: no country can send more than two gymnasts to each of the five event finals — the all-around and the four apparatuses (the vault, floor, bars and beam). As such, any gymnast who finishes with two of her countrymates ahead of her in the standings will not advance to the event finals regardless of how highly they rank within the field.

That's exactly what happened to Chiles. She was third in the all-around standings following Subdivision 2's qualifying round, but her total score came in behind Biles and just 0.067 points behind Lee.

As a result, Chiles was eliminated from the all-around final despite her stellar performance. The only way she can draw into the event now is if Biles or Lee withdraws from it.

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'Two per country' rule history

The two-per-country rule was initially established at the 1976 Olympics to diversify the competitive pool at each Summer Games. Certain events and apparatuses tended to be dominated by one country — as evidenced by Russia sending four women to the six-woman vault final in 1972 — so the International Olympic Committee (IOC) desired a rule change, per USA Today's Nancy Armour.

The result was the two-per-country rule, which originally applied to the four individual event finals. The IOC still allowed three gymnasts per country to participate in the 24-woman all-around final.

All-around participation was limited to two gymnasts per country beginning in 2004. Since then, the USA has had at least one gymnast fail to qualify for the all-around finals despite logging a top-15 score.

They aren't the only country to see that happen either. The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) had three top-six finishers at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Viktoria Listunova was left out of the all-around final as a result.

Even at the 2024 Olympics, Chiles is far from the only gymnast who fell victim to the two-per-country rule. Elisa Iorio (Italy), Mana Okamura (Japan), Jade Barbosa (Brazil), Kohane Ushioku (Japan) and Aurelie Tran (Canada) all had better scores than Luisa Blanco — the final qualifier for the all-around competition — but were left out because their countries already had two representatives.

Plenty of other examples of this phenomenon exist throughout the rule's history, which has led many to wonder whether the rule once established for fairness is perhaps unfair to potential medal contenders.

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How gymnastics qualification works for 2024 Olympics

There are two types of gymnastics qualifying at the 2024 Olympics. The first is team qualifying, which sees countries choose four of the five gymnasts on their team to compete on each apparatus. The three highest scores from each event are factored into the team score and the eight highest-scoring squads advance to the team final.

The United States finished with a score of 172.296 in team qualifying, improving upon its 2021 performance by 1.734 points and easily qualifying for the team final.

Individual qualifying is a bit different. A total of 24 gymnasts will be chosen for the all-around final while eight will be selected for individual event finals.

The top-scoring qualifiers on each apparatus will be selected for the event finals. But as mentioned, the two-per-country rule will only allow the top two scorers from each country to participate. That means that the event finals may not necessarily be comprised of the eight (or 24) highest scores, as evidenced by Chiles' exclusion from the all-around final.

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Olympic gymnastics women's qualifying results 2024

Team

Eliminated: Netherlands (159.096), Australia (158.964), France (158.979), South Korea (152.496)

All-around

* Did not qualify because of the two-per-country rule.

Vault

* Did not qualify because of the two-per-country rule.

Floor exercises

Uneven bars

Simone Biles (14.433) is the top alternate in this event.

Balance beam