Jordan Chiles Assigns Blame for Ana Barbosu-Olympic Medal Controversy

Jack Gruber-USA TODAY Sports

Jordan Chiles Assigns Blame for Ana Barbosu-Olympic Medal Controversy

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Michael Gallagher | Last updated Mar 7, 2025 8:59 PM ET

It’s been seven-plus months since Team USA gymnast Jordan Chiles was controversially stripped of her Olympic bronze medal.

The 23-year-old Chiles initially placed fifth in the floor exercise behind Brazil’s Rebecca Andrade, USA teammate Simone Biles, and Romanian gymnasts Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Voinea, but jumped to third place after USA coach Cecile Landi filed a score inquiry that bumped her score to a 13.766 and into third place.

However, the Court of Arbitration of Sport stripped Chiles of her medal after ruling her score inquiry was filed too late and awarded the third-place medal to Barbosu.

But Chiles challenged the ruling by filing multiple appeals with video evidence proving Landi did, in fact, file her score inquiry on time, and another citing conflict of interest after it was revealed the chair of the three-person CAS panel, Hamid G. Gharavi, was an active member of Romania’s legal counsel at the time of the hearing and was the one who stripped Chiles of the medal.

And while Chiles awaits the final ruling of the Swiss Federal Tribunal, she candidly addressed the medal conflict and who she feels is at fault for the entire situation in her new book “I’m That Girl.”

“I was crushed and angry,” Chiles wrote. “None of this would have happened if Ana's coach, who knew that Cecile had submitted an inquiry right after my floor routine, had waited for the inquiry results to come in before allowing Ana to take the podium, holding her flag.

“That was highly unusual and premature. Our coaches would not have allowed us to do that. Everyone knows you don't celebrate until after everything is final and an inquiry for my score had been announced.

“The fact that the validity of my medal was being questioned after the fact—days after the medal ceremony had taken place—was surprising and outrageous to me. Once the medal ceremony has happened, that is the final result unless a drug or rules violation is discovered. That had been the case at every single Olympics in history.”

Most expect the Swiss Federal Tribunal to rule in Chiles’ favor and return her bronze medal in addition to letting Barbosu keep hers and giving one to Voinea as well—a decision the Romanian Olympic Committee fully supported.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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