The last week has been a roller coaster ride for Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu and the USA’s Jordan Chiles. The quick succession of alternative moments of triumph and shock over the Olympic bronze medal in the floor exercise was enough to unsettle the involved gymnasts. Yet, they did not lose their composure. While their conduct has been an utmost example of solidarity and grace, not all gymnastics enthusiasts could replicate the same.

When the IOC directed Jordan to return her Olympic bronze, the gymnastics community in the country announced their stance in the Washington native’s corner without deliberation. From rapper Flavor Flav to Democrat representative Stephen Cohen, the voices rallying behind Chiles have been loud. However, one American gymnastics veteran seems to be convinced that the decision was biased toward the 23-year-old’s Romanian as he came out with an outrageous comment on social media. Thankfully, there were fans to remind him of the truth.

Camp Jordan Chiles has a combative fan

A discussion thread on the Reddit group r/Gymnastics sheds light on how Ana Barbosu has been subjected to grueling treatment by American gymnastics loyalists, who are enraged by how their national star was stripped of her Olympic honor. The post features an Instagram post by Inside Gymnastics and a comment from Andy Memmel on that. For context, Andy is the dad of gymnastics Hall of Famer Chellsie Memmel, who’s not only a technical lead for the U.S. National women’s team but also an Olympic medalist.

“Cheating is cheating,” read Andy’s comment on the post that highlights how the Romanian expressed her concern over the “difficulties of the situation.” Barbosu was heard saying the thought of Chiles has been a prominent thing in her mind, and she also reiterated how the gymnasts involved in the fiasco had no fault of their own. Naturally, other fans were taken aback by the unexpectedness of the situation.

Given Memmel’s background, one would expect him to understand the tough side of the sport—yet his comment was anything but expected! Notably, Barbosu was awarded her medal on August 16 in a special ceremony in Bucharest. This made her the first Romanian gymnast to clinch an individual medal since Cătălina Ponor’s silver on the floor and Sandra Izbașa’s gold on the vault in London 2012. This entire saga stemmed from one move that Jordan had performed on that fateful night.

The move in question is called a ‘tour jete full’. Without going too deep into the technicalities, the move can be simply explained as a split leap. to be more precise, doing the splits while rotating in mid-air. Chiles received deduction in the difficulty score of the move since the judges thought that she did not rotate enough to receive the full difficulty score as her score stood at 13.666, earning her a fifth place. This is what was challenged by Laurent Landi.

As told by Landi, he was standing at the same angle as the judges. So he thought Jordan’s tour jeté full “was way better than all the other meets that she’s done, so what the heck? We may as well try.” Despite not being sure of the merit of the appeal, they raised it. And to their surprise, it was accepted wiping out the deduction while taking her score to 13.766. But that was just the beginning of the controversy.

Chiles has been somewhat unlucky to have been the last competitor on the floor. According to the FIG’s technical rule, gymnasts performing at the beginning or the middle of the competition can submit their appeal at any point before the score of the next competitor’s score is shown. But for the last gymnast in the row, it should be submitted within a minute “after the score is shown on the scoreboard.” So who is the one to keep track of this time?

According to FIG, “The person designated to receive the verbal inquiry has to record the time of receiving it, either in writing or electronically, and this starts the procedure.” However, FIG has not yet disclosed the identity of this person in this case. And there has been a clear ambiguity in this timing. The Romanian side claimed in the Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS) that the query was submitted after 64 seconds. But after the ruling, the US side claimed that it had found video evidence of Landi submitting the appeal within 47 seconds.

However, according to USA Gymnastics, CAS could not reconsider its ruling, which is why Jordan had to return her medal. However, USAG and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee have said they planned to challenge the CAS verdict at the Swiss Federal Tribunal, which is the highest court in Switzerland.

Understandably, the two gymnasts caught in the wind had nothing to do in this. If anything can be blamed for the entire complication, that is the rules and the discrepancies in following them. The enthusiasts did not take time to remind Memmel of the same while slamming his lack of judgment.

The gymnastics community discards the ‘unnecessary’ outburst of Memmel

Notably, also caught in the controversy was Ana’s teammate Sabrina Maneca-Voinea. They both scored 13.700. But Sabrina’s difficulty score was less than that of Ana in the tiebreaker. After Ana was awarded the bronze, she displayed the pinnacle of sportsmanship as she stated that she hoped one day might come when all the gymnasts involved would be awarded the medal in such a scenario. On the other hand, Jordan just withdrew herself from social media. The Reddit users noted that Memmel failed to match the athletes’ maturity.

“I think we’d feel luckier if the actual adults had acted with maturity,” the user wrote. Before Jordan Chiles was awarded the bronze based on the adjusted score after the inquiry, Barbosu was already celebrating her achievement on the podium. Naturally, the announcement of Chiles as the new recipient of the hardware saw her crumble with heartbreak in Paris just a few weeks ago.

Referring to the ordeal that all involved gymnasts had to go through, one fan thinks Memmel should understand how such comments can impact their mental health. “This is such an unprofessional and unnecessary comment to make towards Ana,” reads the comment by one such fan, who reiterates how Barbosu isn’t the one to blame in the scenario.

In the incident, the judges have been in the eye of the storm from the very beginning. According to Olympic legend Dominique Dawes, the error in this lies with the judges who “missed a dance element” in her floor routine. Just days ago, retired tennis player Patrick McEnroe also noted that the judges should take responsibility for the situation.

On the other hand, Romanian Gymnastics legend Nadia Comaneci has noted that such turmoil can aggressively impact athletes’ mental health. “I can’t believe we play with athletes mental health and emotions like this,” she said on social media on August 5 after the matter first came to the fore. One user also endorsed the mental turmoil side of the matter.

The fan thinks the harassment that the American and Romanian gymnasts are being subjected to wouldn’t happen if the people in charge did their job correctly. “she and Jordan have done nothing wrong and yet they’re getting cyberbullied thanks to incompetence,” they frowned.

While the gymnasts were in perpetual anxiety about the fate of their Olympic glory moment, fans seemed to have gotten a clearer idea about where many of their comrades stood on the matter. “Losing respect for so many people during this saga,” grunts another fan, who has had enough of the adults who handled the entire thing.

One more fan is flabbergasted by how Andy chose to make a comment without putting too much thought into how it could affect his daughter and her reputation on the gymnastics circuit in the USA. “since he has a prominent US following among gymnastics fans and is the father of one of the most powerful USAG officials, I would have expected more discretion,” The fan’s comment bears traces of genuine surprise. What is your take on Memmel’s stance on the situation? Drop in with a thought of your own in the comments below.