Romanian gymnast stripped of medal in favor of the United States. Heartbreaking scene at the Olympics
Andrey Shitikhin August 6, 2024, 17:30 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Ana Barbosu even dropped the flag with which she had celebrated her bronze medal a moment earlier. It is impossible to watch this without tears.
Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu won bronze in floor exercises at the Paris Olympics. After the scores were announced, she jumped onto the mat with the national flag to celebrate her achievement with fans. But it was at that moment that the judges announced that the results had been revised, and as a result American Jordan Chiles was awarded bronze.
Barbosa was painful to watch. She put her hands on her heart as soon as the first words of the announcement of the results review were heard. The Romanian flag was in her hands at the time, but as soon as the final results were shown, the flag fell from the 18-year-old gymnast’s hands.
The beautiful smile she gave to all the fans just now was replaced by bitter tears. And it was simply impossible to watch this without tears.
It’s hard to blame Chiles. He did his combination and received a grade, but his coaches noticed that one element was not appreciated by the judges. The mentors protested the difficulty and got their way: 0.1 points were added to Jordan’s score.
This was enough to overtake Barbosa and take third place.
But the judges’ tricks – and earlier, another Romanian gymnast was seen with a shovel that was not actually there – provoked an outcry from the great Nadia Comaneci. She wrote on social media: “We talk about the mental health of athletes, but in the end this happens.”
It is not known how such a blow will affect Barbosa. The girl has already written on social media that such things must be overcome in order to become stronger. And a joyful Jordan Chiles, together with Simone Biles, unusually congratulated the freestyle champion, Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, at the awards ceremony. They had nothing to do with the sobbing Romanian woman.
What did the Americans do at the gymnastics awards?
Biles unusually congratulated her main rival on her victory. No one expected this from an American!
