August 5, 2024: the date might go down as one of the most controversial ones in Olympic history, especially for gymnastics. Romanian gymnasts, Sabrina Maneca-Voinea and Ana Barbosu, stood at a similar score of 13.700 in the Paris Olympics floor exercise finals. What follows is a tiebreaker, and later, than marches with the Romanian flag, thinking her dream of an Olympic medal has come to life. But only if. An inquiry was made by Jordan Chiles’ coach. Result? Her score was boosted by 0.1 points, so now Chiles, who stood at 5, shot up to 4. Done and dusted, one might think. The Bronze medalist is decided. But only if.
Team Romania now appealed, saying that Chile’s inquiry was submitted four seconds late. Days later, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) agreed with them, and just like that, Jordan Chiles was no longer the 2024 Olympic Bronze Medalist according to CAS. Should have been the end of it, right? No. Chiles refused to return the bronze she was awarded and challenged CAS’s decision in the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland. In the meantime, Barbosu was awarded a new one. Now, about 10 months later, Barbosu is back again with comments over the controversy.
Ana Bărbosu captured the gold medal on the floor exercise at the 2025 European Gymnastics Championships in Leipzig, with a score of 13.833. In the post-meet interview she was congratulated for it, expressing gratitude she said, “Thank you so much it means a lot for me and also for my teammates and coaches because we did this result together it was a very tough time for me last year after the Olympics and in the beginning of this year and it shows me that I’m capable of getting over the hard times with the right people beside my side. ” Still, for an 18-year-old, she was very mature in dealing with it.
She did call the controversy saddening and that, “We expected the referees and staff at the Olympics to do their job properly.” But she also said that she had nothing but good thoughts for Jordan Chiles. When asked by the interviewer of her hard times and the level of difficulty in overcoming them, the 18-year-old said, “So for sure after the Olympics I was not in a good mood I was for sure heart broke I was heartbroken but with the help of my coaches family and friends I managed to get over that…” After the Olympics controversy, the young gymnast exposed the hatred on social media and decided to take a break from it.
Paris 2024 Olympics – Artistic Gymnastics – Women’s Qualification – Subdivision 1 – Bercy Arena, Paris, France – July 28, 2024. Ana Barbosu of Romania in action on the Floor Exercise. REUTERS/Hannah Mckay
Be it comments from Sabrina Voinea’s mom or comments from different celebrities in different sports, the bronze medal controversy has always been a trend and topic of discussion, and will still be after the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland’s decision. What is the update on that?
This report is developing…
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