“My heart breaks for her” How Ana Bărbosu lost the bronze medal to Jordan Chiles

There’s no denying how much sweat, blood, and tears go into training for the Olympics. Every single athlete that makes it to the time-honored trials deserves their moment to shine. But few athletes make it to the top only to come crashing back down.

Romanian gymnast Ana Bărbosu was one of the unlucky few to have her dreams come true only to find out that she missed her moment just an insultingly small amount.

Why did Jordan Chiles take Ana Bărbosu’s Olympic medal?

It really isn’t fair to say that Bărbosu’s medal was stolen, but to anyone watching as it was happening, it really felt that way. The final scores were tallied for the women’s floor exercises, and the 18-year-old Romanian appeared to have cinched her spot by the barest fraction of a point. She took to the floor with her country’s flag, eager to celebrate her win.

But as she leaped for joy, there was trouble brewing behind the scenes. The judges had failed to score one of U.S, contender Jordan Chiles’ moves. With 13.66, Bărbosu narrowly sinched bronze, but when Chiles’ routine was recalculated to 13.766, it knocked her down to fourth.

Chiles’ trainers were the ones to push the judges to reevaluate their scores. The gymnast had performed a split leap with a 1.5 turn that had gone untallied. The meager tenth of a point was all that was needed to push Chiles into third. Bărbosu left the arena in tears, prompting fellow Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci to slam the Olympic committee in charge.

The bronze medal marks the first time 23-year-old Jordan Chiles has placed outside of her team in 2024. Throughout the games, a rule that limits the games to just two athletes per country and her two incredible teammates –Simone Biles, Suni Lee, and Jade Carey – have left Chiles on the sidelines.

The strain of professional gymnastics usually forces athletes to retire in their early 20s. We don’t have enough information to speculate on which gymnasts might be retiring after the Paris games, but there is a real chance Bărbosu may never face off against Chiles again.
Shortly after the devastating event, Bărbosu took to Instagram, “Thank you to everyone who encouraged me before, during, and after the competition,” she wrote. 

For her sake, however, we hope that she gets the chance to compete against her again, and this time, maybe the judges will be better at their jobs.