August 5, 2024: Sabrina Maneca-Voinea and her Romanian teammate Ana Barbosu stand at a score of matching scores of 13.700 in the Paris Olympics floor exercise finals. The latter, thinking she had won the bronze after a tiebreaker, starts celebrating with a Romanian flag. But not so early. Jordan Chiles’s coaches called for an inquiry on her score, bringing her 0.1 points more. This boosted her position to three from five, going over the Romanians. Barbosu covered her face with her hands and went away from the arena in tears, seeing the scorecard change. But was it the only heartbreak?

Unfortunately, the answer is a BIG NO! An appeal was made by Team Romania, saying that Chiles’ inquiry was submitted four seconds late. Days later, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) agreed with them, and just like that, Jordan Chiles was no longer the 2024 Olympic Bronze Medalist according to CAS. But that could have been the end of it, right? But to this day, Chiles has yet to return her medal and is fighting for it by challenging it in the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland. In the meantime, Barbosu was awarded a new one. But in all this, Sabrina Voinea was not talked of much, but now even her part of the story has also started to come out, thanks to her mother. What did she say?

Probably feeling angry with the post-controversy bronze medal controversy, Sabrina Voinea’s mother, Camelia Voinea, the former Romanian gymnast, said on Facebook today, “The moment Sabrina’s medal was stolen in Paris…” in Romanian, which was then translated to English. This came out as a caption to a TikTok, which started with Jordan Chiles’ footage celebrating with her team after winning the bronze with the TikTok version of the song “Who Is She?” by I Monster.

The overlaying text said, “She may have won the „3RD place,” which switched to “but we all know who actually WON” when Sabrina Voinea entered the video with her Paris floor routine with the words, “Watch for heat, does it touch the mat? And I’ll tell you what, it does not” being extra loud in the background.  This looked like a shot at the CAS, who didn’t address Voinea’s appeal according to the Romanian Gymnastic Federation.

After Jordan was stripped of her bronze, it was awarded to Romanian Ana Maria Bărbosu. She had the same points as Voinea, except that Voinea had gotten a 0.10-point deduction for being out of bounds. An appeal was made on behalf of the gymnast by the Romanian Olympic Committee, but CAS denied it, saying it was a ‘field-of-play’ decision. Had the appeal been considered and points returned, Sabrina Maneca-Voinea’s showcase would have won Olympic bronze as her score would have been 13.08, way ahead of Ana and Jordan.

The Romanian Federation, after the result, submitted a letter saying, “The way in which the score was assessed and the refusal to present the full reasons/proofs for the rejection of the appeal submitted within the time limit set by the rules seriously harms the image of international gymnastics but in particular affects the athlete, even jeopardizing their mental health.” On the matter, CSA stated, “It warrants the non-interference of CAS as it entails the exercise of judgment by the referee, based on expertise in the ‘field of play.’ Whether the judgment is right or wrong, it cannot be reviewed.” 

With yet another new addition, the controversy seems to be not ending anytime soon. Also, what’s the update on Jordan Chiles’s case?

Top Comment by Michelle Johnson

If Sabrina did not step out of bounds — and apparently it’s still arguable whether or not she did —...more

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How far has Jordan Chiles’ case gone?

“While we are appreciative that this process has continued to shine a light on Jordan’s world-class skill and character, we look forward to a decision by the Supreme Court of Switzerland in the coming months.” These were the words of Maurice M. Suh, a Gibson Dunn partner and counsel for Chiles in the case against CAS. The case was filed in the Swiss Tribunal on September 16, 2024, against the CAS panel’s decision.

The Romanian Gymnastics Federation, the International Gymnastics Federation, and CAS have submitted their arguments to the court. In response to this, Dunn and his co-counsel Homburger AG have submitted two briefs in the court in January 2025. They address the issues presented by the committees named above and bring to light the injustice surrounding the procedure and outcome of the CAS proceedings.

Chiles’ team has argued that CAS’s procedures that led to its panel’s ruling were not only unfair but also breached all legal standards—overall giving an unfair verdict. They believe that the audio and video proof submitted by Chiles not being considered makes their decision factually incorrect. Also, they have raised the concern that CSA failed to provide Chiles with a legally sufficient notice.

Also, Jordan Chiles’ legal team has pointed out that the prominent arbitrator Hamid Gharavi had a “blatant conflict of interest” and, thus, should not have been involved in the case. He has previously been associated with Romanian cases. To make it clearer, Dr. Gharavi is currently leading the CSA panel for the bronze medal case.

Thus, it seems not just Jordan but others are fighting to make sure that no other athletes have to go through the same mental trauma as these three have gone through. They want the game’s results to be shown very precisely in the records.