We ask a lot of our Olympic athletes — to perform with grace and humility, to carry the Olympic spirit even as they pursue their own individual goals; to abide by the rules, and to accept their fates, however they may go, with dignity.

Jordan Chiles has exemplified all of that in these Paris Olympic Games.

Is it so much to ask the people who hold her Olympic dreams in their hands to do the same?

What is happening — and has happened — to Chiles and, by extension, Romania’s Ana Bărbosu, is a travesty of borderline technical malfeasance that has toyed with the emotions of two women who have done nothing wrong.

On Monday afternoon at Bercy Arena, Chiles finished her floor routine in the event final, scoring a 13.666, just out of reach of the 13.700 awarded to Bărbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea and off the medal podium. Bărbosu, whose execution score was higher than her teammate’s, was awarded the bronze. Cecile Landi, Chiles’ coach, however, asked the judges to review the difficulty for one of the elements in Chiles’ floor routine. The request went ahead to the technical chair who agreed that, upon review, Chiles was not scored appropriately. Immediately her 13.666 was upped to a 13.766. She was the bronze medalist, not Bărbosu.

While Chiles sobbed in joy and Simone Biles enveloped her in a bear hug, Bărbosu cried in agony, gutted by the review that demoted her to the dreaded fourth position. It was the Olympic experience writ large, in all of its pain and glory.

Now it turns out, the U.S. failed to beat the buzzer, according to a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling revealed Saturday. Inquiries, by rule, must be filed within a minute of the conclusion of a routine. Landi asked too late — four seconds too late, according to a USA Gymnastics source. Which, hey, that’s more than fair — even in a subjective sport such as gymnastics, a deadline is a deadline.

But the trail to that result is a comedy of errors, none perpetuated by the gymnasts involved, and yet they are the only ones made to suffer.

Consider the lunacy: Chiles’ difficulty was erroneously scored and corrected only because a coach suggested the judges take a second look, but that judging mistake has since been disregarded because the Romanians realized that someone else failed to keep his or her eye on a clock, and allowed an inquiry to go forward when it shouldn’t have. The result: Chiles is back to a 13.666 (even though her difficulty should have made it a 13.766 in the first place), and the Court of Arbitration for Sport punted the whole thing, asking FIG, the international gymnastics governing body, to figure out who gets the bronze. The Romanians asked that all three gymnasts share the bronze, which seems fair, but at best requires an asterisk next to their names.

This all took five days to sort out. Five glorious days for Chiles, who already had been made to endure the rollercoaster of gymnastics rule foolishness. On the first day of competition, during the qualification round, Chiles finished fourth in the overall all-around standings. The top 24 women quality; except Chiles, while fourth overall, was third on the U.S. team, and Olympic gymnastics apparently likes to treat itself more like 4-year-old Sunday afternoon soccer, where everyone gets to participate. Each delegation can only send two women forward to the final, which meant that Chiles’ teammate, Sunisa Lee, who topped Chiles by 0.067, got the nod and Chiles did not.

A devastated Chiles spent two days licking her wounds but then, in a real-time show of the Olympic spirit, returned to help the U.S. secure a team gold two days later. She later showed up to cheer on Lee and Simone Biles in the all-around, while focusing her own energies on the event final, in search of her first personal medal.

Chiles competed last in the floor final and will be the first to admit she could have hit her routine more cleanly. She was packing up her things as Landi put in the inquiry and when the announcer flashed her new score, she finally was given her moment. But Chiles instead opted to celebrate her peers and not herself. From her side of the podium, Chiles caught Biles’ eye hatching a plan, and when Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade stepped to the podium for her gold medal, Chiles and Biles bowed.

It was an extraordinary act of grace conceived by a woman who had shown nothing but grace all week. For five glorious days, Chiles felt the beautiful weight of an Olympic medal around her neck, and did the very American version of a victory lap, visiting Disneyland Paris and making the morning-show circuit. She was, as she declared herself, That Girl.

That Girl just announced she’s taking a break from social media to concentrate on her mental health. The people in charge seem to have finally done what nothing else could: douse Jordan Chiles’ Olympic spirit. Her last post: a string of broken-hearted emojis.

(Top photo of Jordan Chiles after the floor routine at the Paris Olympics: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)

By Jenna West, Kevin Fishbain and Ben Standig

Saturday’s preseason action gave NFL fans their first glimpse of quarterbacks Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels, the Nos. 1 and 2 picks of this year’s draft, and the rookies delivered.

The Buffalo Bills hosted the Chicago Bears, who played Williams for the entire first quarter. He delivered a throw late in the quarter that made everyone’s eyes go wide when Williams rolled to his right and, on the run, threw a 26-yard pass to Cole Kmet. It might’ve been slightly behind Kmet, but the arm strength to make that throw while moving to his right is rare.

Both of Williams’ drives ended in field goals, giving the Bears an early lead against the Bills, who started Josh Allen.

Williams finished with 4 of 7 with 95 throwing yards, while he added one carry for 13 rushing yards. Backup Tyson Bagent took over in the second quarter.

Caleb Williams is MONEY on the run.

📺: #CHIvsBUF on @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/otxvQ2oyCV

— NFL (@NFL) August 10, 2024

In New York, Daniels and the Washington Commanders took on the Jets. The anticipation for Daniels’ debut, even in the preseason, became must-see TV from the moment Washington drafted the reigning Heisman Trophy winner. His dual-threat capabilities shined on the opening possession.

Daniels, a passer who runs, uncorked a perfect 42-yard strike down the right side to wide receiver Dyami Brown on third-and-six to New York’s 24-yard line. Facing third-and-three from the Jets’ three-yard line after a pair of first downs, Daniels faked a handoff on the zone read and bounced outside for an easy touchdown run to the right corner of the end zone.

Jayden Daniels keeps it for the TD on his opening drive 🔥 @JayD__5

📱: Stream #WASvsNYJ on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/HbRsYFo9m6

Advertisement

— NFL (@NFL) August 10, 2024

That was all the coaching staff needed to see, especially with a shorthanded offensive line; Washington’s top three tackles were ruled out. Daniels finished 2-of-3 for 45 yards with the three-yard scamper on the 11-play, 70-yard opening drive. Marcus Mariota took over on the next possession and Daniels’ day was over.

How did Williams look?

It looked similar to his training camp struggles when Williams dropped back for his first NFL pass. The pocket eventually collapsed, he was forced to scramble, Darnell Wright was flagged for holding and Williams eventually threw it away as he got to the sideline. But he kept his eyes downfield the entire time, and two plays later, he calmly went through his reads before hitting DJ Moore for a first down on third-and-12.

On the next play, Williams didn’t panic against the rush and got the ball to D’Andre Swift on a screen pass. It might’ve been a no-look pass, too. Swift took it 42 yards.
The following drive went 74 yards on 12 plays and featured two more Williams completions and a 13-yard scramble on third down — when Williams used his slip n’ slide skills to slide in the open field. — Kevin Fishbain, Bears staff writer

Caleb Williams’ first completion is a laser for a first down

📺: #CHIvsBUF on @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/934KG1UBTw

Advertisement

— NFL (@NFL) August 10, 2024

What ignited his throw to Kmet?

An illegal contact on third down when Williams tried to find wide receiver Rome Odunze ignited that drive. I noticed Williams was pretty adamant a flag be thrown, and he was fired up about the new set of downs. Then he got to work. Kmet and Moore dropped would-be completions, and when Williams’ heave to Odunze on third down in the back of the end zone was too high, you could tell Williams saw an opening and wanted it.

The offense didn’t have any pre-snap penalties, which was a priority for head coach Matt Eberflus. While Williams would’ve liked to have found the end zone, he did plenty to show the potential of what’s to come. — Fishbain

How is Daniels settling in with Washington?

Passing highlights or low moments typically define the perception of a quarterback, especially for a rookie arriving on the scene. Yet the other aspects of the job that require smarts and maturity stood out to coach Dan Quinn in training camp.

The pass to Brown was a strong example. Speaking on the local television broadcast in the first half, running back Austin Ekeler said Daniels checked out of a screen pass to target the receiver running long.

“I had high expectations for (Daniels) coming in,” Quinn said earlier in the week, “but I would say he’s definitely surpassed even my expectations of the readiness, the command. I knew he was going to be cool, knowing the system. He’s just got that way about him.”

The Jets sat 28 players for Saturday’s preseason opener while the Commanders sat 11, including tight end Zach Ertz. That’s important context, especially since Washington’s offense generated minimal yards in Thursday’s rain-soaked joint practice against New York’s first-string defense. However, Daniels displayed poise and steady decision-making. He continued to protect the ball, a habit that’s been constant all training camp.

“It feels like the game is starting to slow down for (Daniels) even more,” McLaurin continued. “Coming in, he had a great feel (for) his ball placement and his anticipation. I think that’s what really sets him apart.

As offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury installed more of the system, Daniels began showing off his arm talent with pinpoint throws down the field. The completion to Brown was quite the example.

Jayden Daniels launches it DEEP on his second throw

📱: Stream #WASvsNYJ on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/tGSoMxc4gI

Advertisement

— NFL (@NFL) August 10, 2024

Teammates have praised Daniels’ work ethic — the 23-year-old is among the first to the team facility before practices — and locker room camaraderie. The rookie arrived for Saturday’s game in a Doug Williams jersey. Williams won the 1987 Super Bowl with Washington and currently works as a senior advisor to the team. — Ben Standig, Commanders senior writer

Will Daniels get the starting gig?

Quinn has yet to name the starter for Washington’s Week 1 matchup at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There is no drama here. Daniels will get the gig. He’s earned the opportunity. That’s different from saying he will light up the league from the jump. He’ll need help, and the offensive line questions remain. After one preseason drive, so do the sky-high expectations. — Standig

Required reading

(Photo: Mark Konezny / USA Today)

PARIS — Van Chancellor knew he wanted Diana Taurasi on the 2004 Olympic team in Athens. She was young, skilled, confident, brash. He expected she would be a centerpiece of American basketball in the years to come, but he also knew that she would still be able to contribute on the squad of superstars that had been selected for his team — “Dream On” members who had helped re-center the world of women’s basketball by retaking the gold in 1996 in Atlanta.

On Taurasi’s first day with Team USA that year, just the morning after she had helped UConn to a national title over Tennessee, she sat down on the bus next to Chancellor and asked him a very straightforward question: What do you need out of me, Coach?

“I need for you to act like a rookie,” he told her.

“Coach Chancellor,” she said, “if that’s all you need, I’m ready to roll. I’m ready to help this team.”

That was Diana 20 years ago. It was her four days ago, too, when after 33 consecutive Olympic starts for Team USA, coach Cheryl Reeve moved her to the bench in their quarterfinal game against Nigeria in favor of 26-year-old Jackie Young, the second-youngest player on the roster. When the team broke the huddle, Taurasi bounded back to the bench as if it were where the ball would be tipped. She sat down, rubbed her hands together and locked in.

What did the team need from her in that game? To do exactly that. Be the best leader and teammate, to pass the torch a bit and light everyone else’s fires on the way.

On Sunday, Taurasi will play in her final Olympic basketball game. It’s hard to imagine a USA Basketball world in which Taurasi doesn’t play a part. Of the 60-consecutive wins the program has had, she has been a part of 43.

“She has defined USA Basketball,” Reeve said. “I don’t know that there’s a greater competitor. … Dee is Mount Rushmore in that way.”

After the team won gold in 2021 in Tokyo, Taurasi, then 39, surprised everyone when she stared into the NBC camera and ended her postgame interview by yelling, “See you in Paris!” before she walked off. Sue Bird, who had been in on the interview, too, looked back at the camera with a laugh and remarked, “She said what she said.”

While many assumed the statement was in jest, she did not. She said what she said. And then, she did it. She came to Paris and led this team. First from the starting lineup, and then from the end of the bench.

Against Nigeria, she didn’t enter the game in the first half, and instead was the first to jump out of her seat with good plays from her teammates and coached people up when they came to the bench.

After the semifinal win over Australia, Reeve said that when this is all over, she could speak more truthfully about the burden of carrying the legacy of eight straight gold medals and the expectations of this program. She hasn’t slept much and instead has toiled in the film room imagining all the ways basketball could be unfair to one of the greatest rosters ever assembled. She said she received a message from Dawn Staley, who coached the team in Tokyo to its seventh consecutive gold medal, that read: “There’s nothing I can say to you. I know what you’re feeling. You just have to go through it.”

What do you need out of me, Coach? You can imagine Taurasi saying.

To take a benching, as competitive Taurasi is, in a way speaks to the unselfish nature of this team. To be as steady as possible in a world where Reeve must feel like Atlas at every corner. To be someone who Reeve doesn’t have to worry about when she looks down the bench. Because they have Dee. She has seen everything. Nothing rattles her.

OK, would be Taurasi’s response, if that’s all you need, I’m ready to roll. I’m ready to help this team.

In her sixth and final Olympics (that part is fact — she quipped to reporters in London ahead of the Olympics that they would see her in Los Angeles … “on the beach with a beer”), her inclusion in this roster has been argued by keyboard jockeys who couldn’t name three players on the team.

But as she was in 2004, she is in 2024 — she’s here to help this team. It looks different now than it did a decade ago, two decades ago, but it’s the same Diana. Still, at 42, she leads the guards and wings through every drill. She’s the first to stand up and clap from the bench. First to high-five teammates. First to pull players into the huddle, and first in those huddles to speak.

Diana Taurasi has embraced the mentor’s role on this U.S. team, coming off the bench in each of the Americans’ last two games. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)

If that sounds cliché and unimportant, then perhaps it’s because the pressure this team exists underneath is entirely its own. Other teams don’t need a Dee because other teams don’t operate in this unique space of perfection.

Perhaps there’s no better endorsement of Taurasi than the fact that the two best players in the world — A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart — cede their space, their speaking time, their ability to “be first” to someone else.

“The biggest thing that I love about DT is that she does not change,” Wilson said. “She is always so consistent in what she does — that is a sign of greatness.”

Taurasi’s greatness has been on display through these Games. In moments big and small. In how she has handled herself. In her graciousness in understanding her role, and how it has changed. In how she has remained constant in who she is not just in these six games, but in her last 43.

“Think about that — two decades not two Olympics,” said Geno Auriemma, former U.S. national team coach and Taurasi’s college coach at UConn. “The commitment and passion, the love of the game — all these in and of itself would be monumental. But add in that for two decades she was the face of the team, the best player, best teammate and the greatest winner in the history of the game.”

With that commitment and that time has come age. For several years now, Taurasi has made efforts to take care of her body in a different, more focused, way — went vegan, did lengthier pre- and post-practice stretching and treatment regimens longer than the practice itself. She has sacrificed to continue to play, to continue to be here for not just herself but her teammates.

On Sunday, Taurasi will put on her No. 12 USA jersey one final time in an Olympic setting. No athlete has done what she has done before, and it’s hard to imagine it happening again. Nearly half of her life has been spent representing the U.S. on an international stage. But before Taurasi came around, it was hard to imagine 60-straight wins or eight-straight gold medals. Now, Team USA is on the precipice of just that.

Her legacy is cemented, and has been, but in these final Games for her, she has shown what’s possible to both her teammates and the next generation of players. Stewart calls her the “gold standard” of USA Basketball, and she’s just that. And not just because she already has five gold medals to her name.

Every Olympic coach she has had has asked her to do something different for her team — be a rookie, be a scorer, be an elite passer, be a leader, be a veteran, come off the bench, use your voice more than your passing skills. In short: Be Dee.

“I’m here to compete. I’m here to play at a high level. I’m here to give to my teammates and I’m here to win a gold medal — that’s it,” Taurasi said when she arrived in Paris. “I don’t care about the last 20 years. I’m worried about the next 20 years.”

The next 20 years of Team USA are in good hands. Taurasi has made sure of it. Just ask Young. Or Wilson. Or Kahleah Copper. Or Sabrina Ionescu.

And four years from now, when this group is going for a gold medal in Los Angeles, she’ll hopefully be on a beach somewhere, drinking a cold one. She has more than earned it.

GO DEEPER

Can the rest of the world catch up to Team USA? Our women’s basketball experts debate.

Advertisement

(Top photo of Diana Taurasi during Friday’s semifinal game against Australia: Daniela Porcelli / Eurasia Sport Images / Getty Images)