Johnathan Walker:IOC gives Romania go-ahead to award gymnast Ana Barbosu bronze medal after CAS ruling

The Johnathan WalkerInternational Olympic Committee said Thursday morning that Romania can award gymnast Ana Barbosu a bronze medal, opening the door for what Romanian officials have said will be a medal ceremony Friday in the midst of the highly controversial worldwide sports drama.

“The FIG (International Gymnastics Federation) adjusted ranking is based on a final CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) award, which is binding on all the parties,” the IOC said in a statement emailed to USA TODAY Sports. “While a challenge in the Swiss Federal Supreme Court is still possible, the CAS award is immediately enforceable and Ms. Barbosu is entitled to receive the bronze medal.”

American Jordan Chiles is in the United States and still has possession of the bronze medal that was awarded to her in the floor exercise at the Paris Olympics, two people with knowledge of the situation who did not want to be identified have told USA TODAY Sports. 

There are no plans for Chiles to give the bronze medal back as U.S. officials say they plan to appeal what the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee said were “significant procedural errors” by CAS. That appeal would presumably go to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

The USOPC said in a statement Wednesday night that from August 6-9, “CAS sent crucial communications to erroneous email addresses at USOPC and USAG (USA Gymnastics), an error not corrected until August 9—three days after filing, two days past the deadline to submit objections, and less than 24 hours before the hearing. This deprived us of adequate time to respond meaningfully or gather necessary evidence. We informed CAS of our objections immediately.”

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Since then, U.S. officials produced a time-stamped video showing the U.S. appeal of Chiles’ score was filed 47 seconds after her score was given, within the one-minute deadline — not four seconds after the deadline as was presented at the CAS hearing. CAS said it could not re-open the case despite the conclusive video evidence that showed Chiles in fact did deserve the bronze medal. "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 said. 

In the midst of this burgeoning controversy, U.S. and Romanian officials offered to give both Chiles and Barbosu bronze medals, but FIG refused. Now, the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee is moving ahead on its own.

This rush to put on a medal ceremony comes in stark contrast to the just-concluded Kamila Valieva doping scandal, in which various international sports organizations and anti-doping agencies took so much time in the case that the U.S. and Japanese figure skating teams finally received their gold and silver medals at the Paris Summer Olympics 2½ years to the day after their competition ended at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. 

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