The Romanian gymnast who was given the medal that Jordan Chiles was forced to hand back has finally broken her silence amid the controversy.
It was confirmed on Sunday (August 11) that Chiles would be stripped of her bronze medal following a controversial decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The 23-year-old was given the bronze medal in the floor final after her score was raised from 13,666 to 13.766 all thanks to an appeal made by USA Gymnastics' coach Cecile Landi.
Landi argued that the gymnast had initially scored too low in terms of difficulty, especially regarding a leap that involved performing a split in the air while turning 540 degrees.
It seemed as though the judges agreed, accepting the appeal and boosting Chiles into the third place position and awarding her her first-ever solo Olympic medal, but that victory was short-lived as the Romanian Olympic committee submitted a counter-appeal on behalf of Ana Barbosu.
In their urgent request, they argued that Barbosu, along with Chiles and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea who was tied with the same score (13.700) as Barbosu, should also be awarded a medal for her efforts but after further investigation, it was concluded that Landi's appeal was four seconds outside of the one-minute time frame, meaning that it no longer counted.
This in turn dropped Chiles back to fifth place and stripped her of her bronze medal, giving all the glory back to Barbosu.
In the wake of all the drama, the Romanian gymnast has spoken out on social media.
Taking to Instagram Stories, she shared a statement in which she expressed her sadness for both Chiles and Maneca-Voinea, who came in fifth and fourth place respectively.
"Sabrina [Maneca-Voinea], Jordan, my thoughts are with you. I know what you are feeling, because I've been through the same. But I know you'll come back stronger," she wrote. "I hope from deep of my heart that at the next Olympics, all three of us will share [the] same podium.
"This is my true dream!" she continued, before adding: "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."
She concluded the post by tagging all the named gymnasts.
It comes shortly after Chiles announced that she would be taking a break from social media following the Court of Arbitration for Sport's controversial decision.
