Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said he will not attend the Olympic closing ceremony after his country was denied a medal in the women’s gymnastics. “I decided not to attend the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics, following the scandalous situation in the gymnastics, where our athletes were treated in an absolutely dishonourable manner. To withdraw a medal earned for honest work on the basis of an appeal … is totally unacceptable!” Ciolacu said in a social media post.
Ana Barbosu of Romania had already begun celebrating her bronze when coaches for Jordan Chiles of the United States, entered an appeal to judges which resulted in a 0.1 boost for Chiles, enough to overtake Barbosu’s score for the last spot on the podium.
Barbosu, thinking she had won the Bronze medal, was holding a Romanian flag when she saw the scoring change on the board. She then dropped the flag and walked off in tears. Ana Barbosu and her teammate Sabrina Maneca-Voinea finished fifth.
Romanian PM Ciolacu promised the country would honour Barbosu and her teammate Maneca-Voinea as Olympic medallists. “You have with you an entire nation for which your work and tears are more precious than any medal, no matter what precious metal they are from,” he said.
“The fact that hundreds of millions of viewers from all over the world were, like us Romanians, effectively shocked by this terrible scene, shows that somewhere, in the system of organizing this competition, something is wrong. I don’t want to argue with anyone today, but I just choose to protest with my gesture against a blatant injustice towards some Romanian women who have fully proven their worth!” he added.
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