The Jordan Chiles controversy has shaken up the whole gymnastics world. The athlete was awarded a bronze medal on the floor final after an appeal from the US team on the difficulty of her moves. But it was then stripped off after it was revealed that the appeal was not done in a timely manner. The medal was given to Romania’s Ana Barbosu. This decision got a lot of flak, as many supported Chiles since she refused to give back her medal to the committee despite Ana being awarded hers.

This scandal has affected the Romanian gymnastics federation a lot. However, the worst part is that they were still recovering from a previous scandal before this. That one also involved Ana Barbosu, who was said to have been bullied by journalist Alina Alexoi after a disagreement with a former gymnast. The whole thing was tedious and made Ana contemplate quitting gymnastics altogether.

The whole incident between Ana Barbosu and Alina Alexoi which resulted in a huge scandal

Just before the Paris Olympics, Alina Alexoi was suspended by the International Gymnastics Federation(FIG) from all competitions organized by them. What led them to this decision? It was all started by Catalina Ponor, a former Romanian gymnast. She was present at the World Championships last year in Brussels as a FIG representative. Catalina was not impressed after watching a training session by the Romanian team.

She decided to go up to 17-year-old Ana Barbosu and criticize her. “If you don’t learn to stretch your legs, your jump will be downgraded. Haven’t you learned this by now?” This wouldn’t have been a problem if it was just a legend imparting wisdom to a younger athlete. But, the tone somehow seemed malicious to the whole team, who didn’t appreciate it. Apparently, the reason for this tone of hers was because Ana Barbosu decided to work with Dutch coach Patrick Kiens over his Romanian counterpart Octavian Bellu. The coach reported the incident to Donatella Sacchi, who told Catalina to not pull a similar stunt ever again as it’s not legal.

The former gymnast did not like this and felt that Ana Barbosu was being wrongly influenced by Patrick Kiens. She further complained about his apparent rude nature. “He does not greet anyone. I felt a rejection from the start”. This is when Alina Alexoi entered the picture. She started criticising Ana, who was only 17 at the time as she believed she reported Catalina Ponor to Donatella Sacchi herself. This belief led her to say horrific things, calling the Olympic bronze medallist a ‘human trash’. This led to Ana Barbosu being severely trolled on the internet, causing her to contemplate retiring. In fact, she was very close to submitting a letter of withdrawal to the Romanian Gymnastics Federation. However, eventually, she decided to stay and prove everyone wrong with her performance.

Ana Barbosu’s family took actions against her daughter’s bullying

The gymnast’s relatives ended up submitting a complaint to the Romanian Olympics and Sports Committee against Alina Alexoi. But they didn’t take any action. “Nothing happened. Evidence papers were swept under the rug, COSR did nothing. Because Alexoi is an advisor to President Covaliu and deals with the communication of the Olympic Committee,” Sources told Golazo.ro. Finally, the International Gymnastics Federation came into the picture and started gathering all the evidence of the events. Ana Barbosu was also backed by the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation as they felt that she was bullied by Alina Alexoi too as a minor.

Finally, the International Gymnastics Committee decided to suspend Alina Alexoi from all competitions organized by them. The Romanian Gymnastics Committee has also decided to implement this decision. During the medal ceremony of Ana Barbosu in Bucharest, her mother spoke about the bullying of her daughter. She said, “Dear adults, as a mother, please stop all defamation. I am a teacher too. The anti-bullying and cyberbullying law is applied in the school environment“. It is quite unfortunate that despite Ana Barbosu’s immense talent, she has been at the center of two huge controversies in the sport despite being directly responsible for none of them. Hopefully, she recovers from this and bags another medal at the Los Angeles Olympics, shutting down the noise once and for all.