Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu will be awarded the Olympic floor exercise bronze medal originally given to Jordan Chiles, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Sunday.
The IOC decision follows a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling on Saturday which cancelled the re-evaluation of Chiles’ score on the grounds that the appeal of her degree of difficulty was lodged by the US team four seconds after the regulatory deadline, set at one minute.
After the review, the score for Chiles, who won team gold with the United States, was upgraded to 13.766 points, meaning she moved from fifth to third position. That was enough to earn bronze behind Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade and US superstar Simone Biles.
But it was a devastating blow for Barbosu who thought she had bagged bronze with her score of 13.700, and was already celebrating with the Romanian flag.