Gymnast in Jordan Chiles' Olympic medal drama joins rival college team amid court battle over rightful winner

NCAA gymnastics is getting a dose of international drama next year. 

Romanian Olympic medalist Ana Barbosu announced her commitment to Stanford on Wednesday. 

"It feels almost surreal to announce that I’ve been accepted to Stanford University!" she wrote in a statement. "Can’t wait to join this amazing family! Go Card!" 

Barbosu will now compete right up the coast from American gymnast Jordan Chiles, who goes to UCLA. Stanford and UCLA are historic rivals in college sports, as they were flagship schools in the Pac-12 before the conference saw a mass exodus of programs last season. 

UCLA is now in its inaugural season in the Big Ten, while Stanford has joined the ACC. However, the two gymnastics programs still compete against each other, as they have a meeting scheduled this season for March, and will likely continue to face each other in the future. 

With Chiles still set to compete for UCLA in 2026, any potential matchup vs. Stanford will pit the two gymnasts against each other after they were at the center of a global controversy over the rightful winner of a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Chiles is currently engaged in a court battle over the medal. 

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At the end of the floor exercise final at the summer games in August, Barbosu clinched third place and a spot on the podium after judging initially finished. Barbosu was visibly thrilled when she saw the final scores. 

But then, a U.S. coach spoke to the judges and appealed the scoring on one of Chiles' moves. After review, Chiles' score was bumped up, putting the American in third place, and leaving Barbosu off the podium. When Barbosu looked up and saw the scoring change on the board, she dropped the Romanian flag she was holding, covered her face with her hands and walked away in tears.

Chiles went on to accept the bronze medal and join her U.S. teammate Simone Biles and the gold-medal winner Brazilian Rebeca Andrade on the podium. 

But days later on Aug. 10, it was announced that the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the judging panel had improperly granted an inquiry that increased Chiles' score. It ruled that the appeal had been submitted past the one-minute deadline and should not have been granted. 

The next day, the International Olympic Committee determined Chiles had to return the bronze medal she won in the Paris Olympics.

Though Chiles was ordered to return the medal, there have been no reports that she has. She called the ruling "unjust" in a statement later that week. 

"This decision feels unjust and comes as a significant blow, not just to me, but to everyone who has championed my journey. To add to the heartbreak, the unprompted racially driven attacks on social media are wrong and extremely hurtful. I’ve poured my heart and soul into this sport and I am so proud to represent my culture and my country," Chiles said. 

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Meanwhile, Barbosu received her bronze medal shortly after the Olympics ended, and expressed sympathy for her American opponent, as well as a Romanian teammate, Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, whose finish was also impacted by the back-and-forth scoring change. 

"I can't help but think about Sabrina and Jordan right now," Bărbosu said in a statement. "It's a difficult situation for us, with so many uncertainties and overwhelming emotions. I hope everyone understands that we have not done anything wrong at the Olympics. And that the Olympic spirit is more important than any misunderstanding between the authorities.

"I want to believe that the day will come when all three of us will receive a bronze medal."

Chiles went on to say that the emotional devastation of losing the medal was related to her "skin color," when she gave her first sit-down interview about the incident this week during a panel at the Forbes Power Women's Summit 2024 in September. 

"To me, everything that has gone on is not about the medal, it's about, you know, my skin color," Chiles said, sobbing. 

Chiles previously claimed she was facing "racially driven attacks" from social media users in a statement posted to X on Aug. 15. When Chiles won the bronze medal, it resulted in the first gymnastics podium in Olympic history that featured three black contestants. 

Chiles and Team USA are currently involved in an appeal against a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for its decision.

Chiles' lawyers have argued that her coach did in fact make the request in time and that there is video evidence to prove it, and have also indicated that the official who made the decision to strip Chiles' medal had ties to Romania. 

"Chiles asks the Supreme Court to find that the CAS decision was procedurally deficient for two reasons," Chiles’ lawyers said in a statement, according to Olympics.com.

"First, CAS violated Chiles’ fundamental ‘right to be heard’ by refusing to consider the video evidence that showed her inquiry was submitted on time – in direct contradiction to the findings in CAS’ decision.

"Second, the entire CAS proceeding was unfair because Chiles was not properly informed that Hamid G. Gharavi, the President of the CAS panel that revoked Chiles’s bronze medal and awarded it instead to a Romanian gymnast, had a serious conflict of interest: Mr. Gharavi has acted as counsel for Romania for almost a decade and was actively representing Romania at the time of the CAS arbitration."

Chiles has also filed an appeal in the Swiss Federal Supreme Court to overturn the CAS decision. She argued that she was not given a fair opportunity to defend herself and that the CAS did not properly consider video evidence.

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