The women’s individual floor exercise competition on August 5 in Paris’ Bercy Arena will go down in history. While many will recall the iconic image of Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles bowing to Andrade Rebeca, it will be largely remembered for the bronze medal saga involving Chiles and Romanian gymnast Ana Maria Bărbosu. The medal went from being around Barbosu’s neck to Chiles’ before days later it was decided that the Romanian was the rightful winner.

Subsequently, court appeals, video evidence, and controversies followed, yet the debacle is still going on. After having two of her appeals turned down, Chiles filed an appeal with the Swiss Federal Tribunal on September 16, asking them to overturn the ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sports that stripped her of the Olympic bronze medal. In between all of this, the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee has opened the door for a possible amicable solution.

There has been some tension between USA Gymnastics and the Romanian Federation ever since the former argued that it didn’t have enough time to file a proper response with a video that showed Landi making the appeal within the stipulated time frame. However, now the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee’s President Mihai Covaliu said the organization will hold discussions with the American Artistic Gymnastics Federation to discuss the Chiles-Barbosu bronze medal debacle.

“This week we will have an online meeting with our partners in the United States, it’s more of a technical meeting, with the American Gymnastics Federation. First and foremost, we will discuss what is happening with these athletes, because they have suffered a lot on an emotional level,” stated Covaliu as per Ziare.com

Bărbosu was initially awarded the bronze medal after the women’s floor exercise competition. She even began celebrating, draped in the Romanian flag, however, Chiles’ coach Cecile Landi filed an inquiry asking the judge to reassess the American gymnast’s final score, believing she had not been adequately scored. The challenge was successful and Chiles’ total was increased from 13.666 to 13.766 toppling Barbosu, who held the third position with a score of 13.700.

Romanian Gymnastics Federation then filed an appeal to CAS alleging that Chiles’ inquiry was submitted four seconds after the required one-minute window was over. On August 10. CAS found that Chiles’ inquiry was raised late and her initial score should be reinstated, which meant she would she would be removed from the podium. The IOC gave the bronze to Bărbosu, who received her medal at a ceremony in Bucharest on August 16.

This back-and-forth has affected the athletes involved. Following the announcement that Barbosu would be reinstated in the third spot and given the medal, Chiles posted an Instagram story of a black screen and various broken heart emojis. She also posted another story with the announcement of her taking a break from social media. “I am taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health thank you,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, Bărbosu, who was left in tears after the initial decision to hand the bronze medal to Chiles at the Bercy Arena, posted a message on her Instagram highlighting the situation they have had to go through. Addressing Chiles and her compatriot Sabrina Voinea she wrote, “This situation would not have existed if the persons in charge had respected the regulation. We athletes are not to be blamed, and the hate directed to us is painful. I wanted to end this edition of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in the spirit of Olympism, the true value of the world.”

Mihai Covaliu added that the said meeting would focus on finding a common ground to resolve the ongoing legal fight. “After that, we will see a common way in which we can close this whole case as soon as possible,” Covaliu added. In their appeal last week, Chiles’s lawyers submitted a video that appears to show Landi making the inquiry during the competition before the one-minute deadline.

This video came from the camera crew which was following Simone Biles in Paris as part of the Netflix docuseries “Simone Biles: Rising.” However, the CAS refused to reopen the case in light of the new evidence, with their rules not allowing, “an arbitral award to be reconsidered even when conclusive new evidence is presented.” 

However, CAS did mention to USA Today on September 17, “If new evidence (i.e. objectively unknown at the time of the CAS hearing) appears after the issuance of the CAS decision, it would be possible to ask the Swiss Federal Tribunal to order that the case be reopened. The CAS would also reopen the case spontaneously if all parties agree.”

Despite their willingness to negotiate and find a solution, the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee is determined to hold its ground.

Mihai Covaliu later confirmed that the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee and the Romanian government will go the extra mile to defend Ana Maria Barbosu after Jordan Chiles ‘ appeal. “We have to defend what we have won so far, and we are talking about a medal that a female athlete from Romania won, and we also have to defend the honor and protect the other female athlete from Romania, who at some point could also win the bronze medal, but then this whole process came in.”

However, Covaliu chose not to comment on Romania’s Sabrina Voinea, who tied with Ana Maria Barbosu during the artistic gymnastics women’s floor exercise. Barbosu was placed above Voinea due to her better execution scores.

He further added, “So the fight continues outside the sports field, this time through lawyers,” Mihai Covaliu said. He added, “The important thing is that we have done our lessons, we are in contact with everything that happens both with the American side and with the Swiss side. There are things that change from one day to the next, what we have so far is a bronze medal in individual gymnastics for Romania.”

While the Romanian contingent is keen to defend its interests, USA Gymnastics isn’t leaving Chiles alone to fight her battles.

Chiles and USA Gymnastics file two separate appeals

On Tuesday, USA gymnastics joined Chiles’ cause in an attempt to wrestle away the bronze medal from Romania’s grasp. Both parties filed separate appeals to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, asking the case to be reopened and order the Court of Arbitration for Sport to consider new video evidence.

Chiles’s attorney Maurice M. Suh, noted, “We believe that CAS must consider the complete audio and video record that shows that Jordan without doubt followed all the rules on the floor and in her inquiry. Failing to do so would be fundamentally unfair and unjust.”

The two appeals by Chiles are due to procedural reasons with questions over when the CAS ruling went into effect. The video footage that shows coach Landi making two verbal inquiries before the 60-second deadline came to light after CAS announced its ruling on August 10, but before it announced a detailed explanation of the decision on August 14.

The argument from Chiles’s team is that the footage should either be considered new evidence, if the decision went into effect on August 10, or it was ignored by CAS, if the decision wasn’t final until August 14.

As for USA Gymnastics, they have cited why the video evidence which confirms Landi made two inquiries, at 47 and 55 seconds, within a 60-second time frame was not part of the CAS hearing. The Americans didn’t learn of Romania’s appeal until August 9, less than 24 hours before the CAS hearing. During the hearing, USA Gymnastics decided to look for the video evidence to support their cause and uncovered it on August 11.

Only time will tell if the Romanian and American entities can resolve the fight for the bronze in this week’s meeting. But, since Chiles has appealed and the Romanian authorities have pledged to continue the legal fight, there is also a chance for this back-and-forth to go on as an endless affair.