The multiple Olympic champion Nadia Comăneci declared, on Monday, after the floor final of the artistic gymnastics competition at the 2024 Olympic Games, in which Ana Bărbosu lost the podium following the USA’s appeal, that in the exercise of the athlete Jordan Chiles, the grade of difficulty counted.
Nadia Comaneci. PHOTO: The Truth Archive
“In the American one, the grade from the difficulty mattered, but you cannot appeal the execution grade. That’s the rule“, said the former great gymnast, according to Agerpres.
After the final, Nadia Comăneci discussed with the head of referees to understand why Sabrina Voinea’s grade was lowered.
“I’ll tell you what happened, because I went to the chief referee to understand why this deduction of 0.1 was made to Sabrina Voinea. They said they had a photo of a little piece of her heel that was a little out of line, which I didn’t see. But they saw the photo again and I understood that in terms of value, difficulty, on the first day it had a difficulty of six, today they gave it a 5.9. I did this to understand, because I knew that everyone was coming to ask me“, she explained.
However, the honorary president of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation declared that she is proud of the developments of Romanian athletes at the Olympic Games.
“But I want to say that I am proud of these girls who competed fabulously and the floor exercise was fantastic today. I am very happy, I hope everyone at home enjoyed watching this final and I hope these kids will continue and motivate today’s generation“, said Nadia Comăneci.
Romanian athlete Ana Maria Bărbosu placed fourth on the floor, on Monday, in the artistic gymnastics competition of the Paris Olympic Games, while Sabrina Maneca-Voinea placed fifth.
Bárbosu was a bronze medalist for a few tens of seconds, but the American Jordan Chiles filed an appeal and her score was increased, from 13.666 to 13.766 so she finished in third position.
Sabrina Maneca-Voinea also filed an appeal for the grade she received (13,700), but it was rejected.
The gold medal was won by the Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, scored with 14.166, while the silver went to the American Simone Biles (14.133). For Andrade, it is the second gold medal in his career, after the one in 2021, from jumping.
Romania has not won an Olympic medal in artistic gymnastics since 2012 (London), when Sandra Izbaşa won gold on vault, Cătălina Ponor won silver on floor, and the Romanian women’s team took bronze.
The Romanian women’s gymnastics team returned after 12 years to the Olympic Games on the occasion of this edition. Our gymnasts ranked 7th in the team final, Ana Maria Bărbosu 17th, and Amalia Ghigoartă 22nd in individual compound, Sabrina Maneca-Voinea 8th on beam and 5th on floor, and Ana Bărbosu 4th on floor .
