A Romanian gymnast’s dispute over the evaluation of her floor exercise goes before the Swiss Federal Court
Romanian Olympic gymnast Sabrina Maneca-Voinea and the Romanian Gymnastics Federation have appealed to the Swiss Federal Court after she was penalized 0.1 points for her floor exercise at the Paris Games earlier this month.
Maneca-Voinea and Romanian officials had initially lodged their appeal with the Center of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) amid controversy over whether U.S. officials had made a timely request to the judges regarding Jordan Chiles’ score. The judges accepted the U.S. request and awarded Chiles enough points to win a bronze medal ahead of Ana Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea.
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When Romanian officials went to CAS earlier this month, the CAS agreed that U.S. officials had challenged Chiles’ score too late. They overturned Chiles’ score and awarded Barbosu the bronze medal instead. The Romanian Gymnastics Federation’s attempt to award the bronze medal to Maneca-Voinea, Barbosu and Chiles was rejected. Maneca-Voinea was placed fourth.
Romania’s problem was a deduction because Maneca-Voinea had left the field, but according to USA Today, replays of the drill showed that she had not left the field.
The CAS described its decision to dismiss the Romanian officials’ appeal as a “marginal decision”.
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“The decision as to whether a 0.1 point deduction was appropriate is a textbook example of a ‘field of play’ decision which does not allow the arbitrators to substitute their opinion for that of the referee,” the panel said. “It justifies non-interference by CAS as it requires the exercise of judgment by the arbitrator based on specialist knowledge of the ‘field of play’.”
“Whether the verdict is right or wrong cannot be verified.”
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USA Gymnastics also fought in the Swiss Federal Court to reclaim Chile’s bronze medal.
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