Ana Barbosu was left in tears after her win at the event was overturned handing the medal to Chiles. Sabrina Voinea was left frustrated that her appeal wasn’t heard. Days later, when the IOC reversed the decision in light of new evidence, Jordan Chiles had to take a break from social media for her mental health. The controversy over the bronze medal for women’s floor has taken its toll on the three players involved. Given how the saga continues to add a new chapter with every passing day, tennis legend Patrick McEnroe has come up with a way to resolve the dispute.

There have been more twists and turns in the medal saga after the Court of Arbitration for Sports got involved following the appeal from the Romanian Gymnastics Federation. After the CAS’s ruling on Wednesday, which held the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) responsible for the debacle, McEnroe has issued words of advice to the IOC.

Tennis icon gets behind Jordan Chiles’ cause

Former captain of the USA’s Davis Cup team and French Open doubles winner, Patrick McEnroe, appeared for an interview with News Nation on Wednesday. During the conversation, McEnroe addressed how the CAS didn’t give a ruling but passed it to FIG, who then asked the IOC to come up with the final verdict. However, the former tennis icon noted that the whole thing could have been easily avoided if the judges had done their task without fumbling while scoring the gymnasts in Paris, and opined that the American and two Romanian stars should all be compensated for their troubles.

“The judges on site made multiple mistakes. All three gymnasts should get the bronze, that’s what should happen,” said McEnroe, while also underscoring the fact that the judges didn’t score Sabrina Voinea properly either, which could have also changed the current scenario significantly.

During her routine, Voinea was penalized for being out of bounds. But video footage showed that she made no such error and her appeal wasn’t entertained, a point she made after Chiles was awarded the bronze on behalf of her compatriot Barbosu.

Going a step further, Patrick also said that the IOC should claim responsibility for the entire thing. “It’s the judges that made the mistakes. It’s the IOC that is responsible for those judges. This is not about the gymnasts themselves, and all they had to go through. It’s an absolute travesty that they had to,” said the 58-year-old solemnly.

Barbosu’s initial celebration was cut short after judges found that they didn’t award Chiles the correct difficulty score for one of her skills. The medal was snatched from Barbosu and handed to Chiles. This left the Romanian inconsolable as she was seen crying. This was followed by Chiles receiving many hateful comments on social media that her mother addressed as well.

After the decision to strip Chiles of her medal on August 11, following the evidence that Cecile Landi was four seconds late in submitting the appeal, Barbosu was awarded the medal leaving everyone baffled.

“To me, at the end of the day, there were so many mistakes made by the judges in this instance…So IOC…wake up and do the right thing,” Patrick added. The former tennis player isn’t the only one calling for the IOC to take this step and award all three gymnasts the medal.

Romania’s gymnastics icon Nadia Comaneci took to social media to share argue such scoring disputes play with the mental health and emotions of young athletes. Sharing an excerpt from Barbosu’s message to Chiles and Voinea, Comaneci wrote, “That will be the perfect decision 3 bronze medals for the ladies,” on her Instagram story on August 10.

The Romanian Gymnastics Federation had also proposed that each gymnast involved in the sage should be provided with bronze medals. The saga did witness another twist when it was found that the CAS panel that overturned Chiles’ appeal was headed by Dr Hamid G Gharavi, who represented the Romanian government in various arbitration cases, thus creating a conflict of interest.

As for the proposal to award three bronze medals, the CAS in its statement on Wednesday said its hands were tied in making such a decision and that FIG failed all three gymnasts.

“If the FIG had put such a mechanism or arrangement in place, a great deal of heartache would have been avoided,” the CAS stated. This happened after the CAS dismissed an appeal by USA Gymnastics on Monday, that provided evidence of Chiles’ appeal being within the stipulated time limit stating that its decision cannot be changed “even when conclusive new evidence is presented”. However, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has lashed out at the statement.

USOPC brings up further problems with the CAS decision

Following the decision to award Chiles’ medal to Barbosu on grounds of the appeal by her coach being 4 seconds late, USA Gymnastics submitted timestamped video evidence that Cecile Landi submitted her inquiry “47 seconds after the score is posted, followed by a second statement 55 seconds after the score was originally posted.” However, the CAS refused to consider the appeal, stating that it cannot reconsider an arbitral award.

However, The USAG and the USOPC alleged that they were denied a chance to appeal against the IOC’s decision because of mistakes from CAS’ end in sending the valid communications on time, denying the defendants an opportunity to counter the FIG and IOC’s handling of the issue.

“From Aug. 6 to 9, CAS sent crucial communications to erroneous email addresses at USOPC and USAG, an error not corrected until Aug. 9 – three days after filing, two days past the deadline to submit objections, and less than 24 hours before the hearing,” a statement from USOPC read.

They also stated, “Our objections have since been validated by new evidence indicating administrative errors by FIG and mishandlings by CAS, which would have been impossible to raise at the time of the rushed hearing. In short, we were denied a meaningful opportunity to be heard.”

The USOPC also stated that their “pursuit of truth in this matter remains unwavering” and through their appeal, they will ensure Jordan Chiles “receives the recognition she deserves.”

Even though the IOC has directed Romania to carry out the medal ceremony for Ana Barbosu, there could be more twists in this drawn-out Olympic saga. Will we see a swift resolution? Or will the situation continue to get murkier with each passing day?