U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles won a medal in the women’s floor final at the 2024 Paris Olympics in controversial fashion on Monday.
Perhaps as surprising as Chiles’ result was how one of her opponents responded to the news.
According to the New York Post, Chiles’ score was changed after a challenge.
When she first finished her routine, Chiles was in fifth, according to The New York Times. Then, a Team USA inquiry resulted in officials changing her score, rocketing the American up to third place.
But when Chiles moved up to third place, Romania’s Ana Barbosu was bumped down, depriving her of a bronze medal.
While awaiting the results of the review, according to E! Online, Barbosu held her nation’s flag aloft, excitedly preparing to climb the podium and receive her medal.
But then, once she learned the news, the Romanian dropped the flag and began to weep, E! Online reported.
If Barbosu had won, the bronze would have been Romania’s lone gymnastics medal from the current competition.
In an Instagram post, Barbosu thanked her supporters, but also, according to E! Online, she reposted an Instagram story containing the angry words of former Romanian Olympic gymnast Sandra Izbasa-Bianca bashing the last-minute change.
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The words were stunningly blunt:
“I hear more vividly than ever the words that the coaches repeated to us almost daily in the training room,” Izbasa-Bianca wrote in Romanian, according to E! Online.
“‘You, as Romanians, must be more than perfect in order not to leave room for interpretations!’ And here, it proves itself once again! Girls, head up and back straight! Keep believing in your dreams! Go Romania!”
Chiles, meanwhile, was grateful to win her first individual medal.
“This is just a dream come true,” Chiles said, according to the Post.
“It’s my first time ever in an event final. Like we said, it was a redemption tour, and I just wanted to come out and do the best that I could. So this medal means everything.
“First event final, first event medal. Oh my gosh, I have no words, but I’m very proud of myself.”
Laurie Hernandez, a retired gymnast who competed for the United States with the blockbuster team known as the “Final Five” in the 2016 Rio de Janero Olympics and is doing commentary for NBC and Peacock’s Paris Olympics coverage, called the Chiles score review a part of the competition.
“That’s why inquiries happen,” she said on the live stream, according to E! Online.
“Sometimes, they do miss it, and they’re able to go back and double check.”
