PARIS– PARIS (AP) — Romanian Ana Barbosu has replaced American Jordan Chiles as the Olympic bronze medalist in floor exercise after the International Gymnastics Federation placed Barbosu back in third place.

The International Olympic Committee confirmed the medal reassignment less than 24 hours after the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned an appeal by Chile’s coach during Monday’s competition that gave her the win over Barbosu and placed her on the podium.

Here you can find out how Chiles, Barbosu and Romanian Sabrina Maneca-Voinea got into a points dispute that was painful for all three.

Chiles qualified third in the women’s floor exercise and competed last in the eight-woman final, where the order was randomly determined in advance.

The 23-year-old completed her routine and received 13,666 points, which meant fifth place just behind Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea with 13,700 points.

Cecile Landi, Chiles’ personal trainer and also coach of the US team in Paris, appealed to the judges to reinstate an element in Chiles’ routine. The judges upheld the appeal and increased Chiles’ score by 0.1, which is good enough for Chiles to win her third Olympic medal, adding to the silver medal she won in Tokyo in 2021 and the gold medal she helped the US win in Paris.

The Romanian Gymnastics Federation asked CAS to review the proceedings related to Landis’ appeal against Chiles’ score.

According to the guidelines of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), coaches must appeal the result within one minute of it being published.

The CAS ruled that Landi had officially lodged her appeal within 1 minute and 4 seconds, shortly after the deadline had expired.

The appeal against Chiles was upheld and the CAS decided that Chiles’ score should be reduced back to 13.666 and the original order at the finish should be restored.

Yes.

The CAS wrote in its decision that the FIG should determine the final ranking, but added that the FIG should award the medal “in accordance with” the CAS decision. The FIG ranked Barbosu third, Maneca-Voinea fourth and Chiles fifth.

The FIG stated that although the original order had been restored, it was at the discretion of the IOC what would happen to the medals.

The IOC announced that the bronze medal would indeed go to Barbosu and that it would work with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to return the bronze medal to Chile.

The decision is in line with the IOC’s usual practice in awarding medals.

At the Olympic Games, the governing body of the respective sport manages the competition and decides on the results. The IOC usually accepts this result – once the appeals to the CAS have been completed – and officially awards the medals.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has said it will try, but it is still unclear what the exact process will be. The two possible venues the USOPC could appeal to would be the Swiss Tribunal, Switzerland’s highest court, or the European Court of Human Rights.

“The first error occurred in FIG’s evaluation and the second error occurred during the appeal process at CAS, where the USOPC was not given sufficient time or notice to effectively challenge the decision,” the USOPC said in a statement released on Sunday.

While things remained relatively quiet for Barbosu afterwards, this was not the case for Maneca-Voinea.

She took to her social media accounts to point out what she believed was an incorrect scoring during her routine. The judges deducted 0.1 points for stepping out of bounds while turning at the start of a tumbling pass.

Video evidence appeared to indicate that Maneca-Voinea’s heel had not actually touched the boundary. The Romanian FA asked CAS to restore Maneca-Voinea’s score to 0.1 for a penalty awarded to her “unjustified”.

The request was partially rejected because Maneca-Voinea’s coach did not appeal the result in real time during the competition.

Chiles, who left Paris earlier this week to return to his native United States, disappeared from social media shortly before the CAS decision was published.

The two-time Olympian has been subjected to attacks on her various social media platforms in recent days, with some critics suggesting that she return the medal.

Shortly after the final, Chiles posted on X: “It’s funny how there are some people who can never be happy for anyone.”

Maneca-Voinea launched an aggressive social media campaign demanding justice.

Barbosu had called for calm earlier this week and blamed the jury rather than the gymnasts.

The Paris Olympics marked a comeback of sorts for one of the sport’s former superpowers. The Romanian team won medals in the team finals at 10 consecutive Olympics between 1976 and 2012 before hitting hard times in the last decade. When Barbosu and her teammates took to the court for qualifying on July 28, it was their country’s first appearance under the rings in 12 years.

“We as athletes do not deserve this, we just want to perform to our best and be rewarded according to our performance,” said Barbosu after returning to Romania. “The problem lies with the judges, with their calculations and decisions.”

American star and two-time Olympic champion Simone Biles encouraged Chiles – a longtime friend – to “keep her head up.” American standout and six-time Olympic medalist Sunisa Lee chimed in on her commentary late Saturday, pointing the finger at the judges and calling the result “unacceptable.”

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games