The controversial saga of United States Olympian Jordan Chiles and her contested bronze medal has taken another fascinating turn.
In a proverbial game of tug of war, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled earlier this week that the bronze medal would belong to Romania’s Ana-Maria Bărbosu, not Chiles, after much administrative haggling on all sides.
Later, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation proposed a King Solomon-esque split-the-baby approach, with the twist of adding a third competitor to the mix.
“The initiative to award bronze medals to all three athletes, Jordan Chiles, Ana-Maria Bărbosu, and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, was proposed by the lawyers of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, with the prior approval of the Federation,” the Federation said in a statement.
“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.”
Maneca-Voinea, also of Romania, was additionally a subject of a controversial score in the contested floor exercise.
Initially, judges ruled that Bărbosu was the medal winner.
The United States appealed and Chiles’ score was subsequently ruled higher, but later the IOC said Team USA’s appeal was filed too late, after the one-minute deadline.
USA Gymnastics has insisted that it has proof the appeal was filed on time.
On Tuesday, it was also revealed that the panel chair in charge of deciding the fate of Chiles’ bronze medal has deep ties to Romania.
An inevitable winner in this saga? Lawyers’ billable hours.
As USA Today’s Christine Brennan pointed out, there is precedent for shared medals amid controversial judgments.
China and Russia wound up sharing a gold medal during the infamous Russian judge scandal of the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.
