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

Jacob Camenker

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

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.

MORE: Updated qualifying results, scores, winners for men's and women's gymnastics

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.

RankGymnastScore
1Simone Biles59.566
2Suni Lee56.132
3Jordan Chiles56.065

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.

MORE: How Simone Biles can catch Larisa Latynina's Olympics medal record

'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.

YearGymnastScoreRank
2004Mohini Bhardwaj37.6998th
2004Courtney McCool37.28713th
2008Bridget Sloan60.42511th
2012Jordyn Wieber60.0324th
2016Gabby Douglas60.1313rd
2021Grace McCallum55.16513th
2024Jordan Chiles56.0654th

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

RankCountryScore
1United States172.296
2Italy166.861
3China166.628
4Brazil166.499
5Japan162.196
6Canada161.563
7Great Britain160.830
8Romania159.497

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

All-around

RankGymnastCountryScore
1Simone BilesUSA59.566
2Rebeca AndradeBrazil57.700
3Suni LeeUSA56.132
4Jordan Chiles*USA56.065
5Kaylia NemourAlgeria55.966
6Manila EspositoItaly55.898
7Alice D'AmatoItaly55.432
8Qiu QiyuanChina54.998
9Ellie BlackCanada54.766
10Rina KishiJapan54.699
11Flavia SaraviaBrazil54.199
12Ou YushanChina53.965
13Elisa Iorio*Italy53.898
14Ruby PassAustralia53.866
15Helen KevricGermany53.865
16Ana BarbosuRomania53.533
17Haruka NakamuraJapan53.532
18Filipa MartinsPortugal53.166
19Mana Okamura*Japan53.132
20Jade Barbosa*Brazil53.066
21Naomi VisserNetherlands53.032
22Bettina Lili CzifraHungary52.732
23Amalia GhigoartaRomania52.665
24Georgia-Mae FentonGreat Britain52.632
25Sarah VossGermany52.565
26Ava StewartCanada52.332
27Kohane Ushioku*Japan52.131
28Alice KinsellaGreat Britain51.999
29Aurelie Tran*Canada51.798
30Luisa BlancoColombia51.698

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

Vault

RankGymnastCountryScore
1Simone BilesUSA15.300
2Rebeca AndradeBrazil14.683
3Jade CareyUSA14.433
4Jordan Chiles*USA14.216
5Yeo SeojongSouth Korea14.183
6An Chang-okNorth Korea14.183
7Shallon OlsenCanada14.166
8Ellie BlackCanada14.000
9Valentina GeorgievaBulgaria13.999

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

Floor exercises

RankGymnastCountryScore
1Simone BilesUSA14.600
2Rebeca AndradeBrazil13.900
3Jordan ChilesUSA13.866
4Sabrina Maneca-VoineaRomania13.800
5Alice D'AmatoItaly13.700
6Ou YushanChina13.666
7Manila EspositoItaly13.633
8Rina KishiJapan13.600
 Ana BarbosuRomania13.600

Uneven bars

RankGymnastCountryScore
1Kaylia NemourAlgeria15.600
2Qiu QiyuanChina15.066
3Suni LeeUSA14.866
4Nina DerwaelBelgium14.733
5Zhang YihanChina14.700
6Alice D'AmatoItaly14.666
7Rebecca DownieGreat Britain14.666
8Helen KevricGermany14.600

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

Balance beam

RankGymnastCountryScore
1Zhao YaqinChina14.866
2Simone BilesUSA14.733
3Rebeca AndradeBrazil14.500
4Suni LeeUSA14.033
5Sabrina Maneca-VoineaRomania14.000
6Manila EspositoItaly13.966
7Alice D'AmatoItaly13.866
8Julia SoaresBrazil13.800

Jacob Camenker

Jacob Camenker Photo

Jacob Camenker first joined The Sporting News as a fantasy football intern in 2018 after his graduation from UMass. He became a full-time employee with TSN in 2021 and now serves as a senior content producer with a particular focus on the NFL. Jacob worked at NBC Sports Boston as a content producer from 2019 to 2021. He is an avid fan of the NFL Draft and ranked 10th in FantasyPros’ Mock Draft Accuracy metric in both 2021 and 2022.