What if Jordan Chiles, Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea just shared the bronze medal for the floor exercise and put the lasting Paris Olympics drama to be once and for all?
That’s what the Romanian Gymnastics Federation (FRG) maintained in a statement on Monday as USA Gymnastics launched and was denied an appeal to the Center of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after its ruling that Chiles’ score should be reverted back to 13.666, dropping her back to fifth place in the floor exercise. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Chiles should give back her medal.
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USA Gymnastics said it had new evidence to show that its inquiry into changing Chiles’ score at the competition was made within the 1-minute deadline. The organization said CAS declined to hear the new evidence and vowed to take every legal action to rectify things.
The FRG also wanted CAS to change Maneca-Voinea’s score to 13.800 because officials believed a penalty was given without basis. Additionally, the FRG wanted the CAS to award all three gymnasts the bronze medal. The CAS denied the other requests and only ruled on Chiles‘ score.
On Monday, the FRG defended its position and doubled down on all three gymnasts getting a medal.
“The initiative to award bronze medals to all three athletes, Jordan Chiles, Ana-Maria Barbosu, and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, was proposed by the lawyers of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, with the prior approval of the Federation,” the FRG said.
“The leadership of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation (FRG), through its representatives, took all necessary steps to reach this consensus. We emphasize that certain requests were made by the American side to achieve this goal, and our side consistently complied with these requests, a fact that was appreciated by the American representative.”
The FRG said it wanted to solve the issue “in a manner that shows respect and appreciation for the athletes involved.”
“We hereby appeal to the entire gymnastics community, both within the country and abroad, to put (a) STOP to the attacks against gymnasts Jordan Chiles, Ana-Maria Barbosu, and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, and especially against Nadia Comăneci, whose support has always been in favor of all three athletes/three medals,” the statement continued.
“FRG never agreed on taking away a medal.”
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