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Jordan Chiles has experienced a whirlwind of emotions stemming from the controversy surrounding the bronze medal she was awarded at the Olympics, and Ana Barbosu—the Romanian gymnast who originally secured the final spot on the podium—has chimed in as the drama continues to unfold.
It initially appeared Jordan Chiles was left on the outside looking in when the individual floor routine competition wrapped up at the Olympics in Paris. The American gymnast received a score of 13.666, which put her in fourth place behind Ana Barbosu of Romania, who was draped in her country’s flag while celebrating the bronze medal she’d presumably won with her score of 13.7.
However, things took a wild turn after Team USA filed an appeal that asserted the judges had improperly calculated Chiles’ difficulty score—a last-ditch effort that paid off after the footage was reviewed before she was awarded a 13.766 and, in turn, the bronze.
Romania filed an appeal of its own in an attempt to have the score of Sabrina Maneca-Voinea (who finished in fifth) increased to surpass Chiles, and while officials denied that request, the Court of Arbitration for Sport issued a surprising ruling on Sunday that asserted the United States waited four seconds too long to challenge Chiles’ result and subsequently directed the International Olympic Committee to give the bronze to Barbosu.
USA Gymnastics claims it has evidence to the contrary, and as things currently stand, it’s unclear how the situation will ultimately play out (both America and Romania have said they would be open to both gymnasts receiving a bronze, but the IOC has made it clear it considers Barbosu the only rightful winner).
On Sunday, Barbous addressed the controversy by sharing a message on her Instagram Story directed at Chiles and Maneca-Voinea, saying:
“Sabrina, Jordan, my thoughts are with you. I know what you are feeling, because I’ve been through the same.
But I know you’ll come back stronger. I hope from deep of my heart that at the next Olympics, all three of us will share same podium. This is my true dream!”
It’s hard to imagine either of her competitors will take much solace in those words, and they’ll definitely have some extra motivation to leave it all on the mat if they end up at the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.