The Romanian gymnast who controversially snagged bronze over Olympic star Jordan Chiles two years ago has been temporarily suspended from the sport after being hit with a doping violation.
Romania’s Ana Maria Barbosu, 19, was charged with an anti-doping rule violation and slapped with a provisional suspension after dodging three drug tests within a 12-month span, according to the International Testing Agency.
Olympic athletes are required to log daily whereabouts – including a one-hour testing window – during the off-season and any three missed tests or filing failures in a year count as a doping violation, officials said.
Barbosu referred her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), where she’ll have to justify each no-show.
“The athlete has requested for the case to be referred for adjudication to the Court of Arbitration for Sport Anti-Doping Division where the athlete will have the opportunity to present explanations and evidence regarding each of the three whereabouts failures,” the organization said on Thursday.
The athlete could be suspended for up to two years depending on the outcome of her appeal.
Babosu fired back on social media after the announcement, blaming college for the lapse and stressing her missed tests had nothing to do with “prohibited substances.”
“I wanted to share and clarify some information that has been circulating,” she posted on her Instagram Story, NBC Sports reported.
“As you can imagine, moving to the US and starting college (at Stanford within the last year) has been a big transition. Navigating through all the changes has been challenging, and I’m continuing to learn and grow through each experience,” she continued.
“To be clear, this situation has nothing to do with prohibited substances, and I have been grateful for the guidance and support through the process.”
Barbosu is currently in an ongoing appeals process with Chiles over the disputed bronze medal decision.
Chiles originally finished third in the floor exercise at the 2024 Paris Olympics only to have the medal given to Barbosu after the Romanian team appealed the score.
Before the dispute, the US team initially appealed Chiles’ score, bumping her from fifth to third.
But a CAS panel reversed the decision after finding the inquiry was filed four seconds past the one-minute deadline, dropping her back to fifth and forcing her to give the bronze to her Romanian opponent.
Chiles challenged the ruling to Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court, which sent the case back to the CAS to review new video evidence earlier this year.
Judges want CAS to examine footage suggesting the US inquiry was filed within the one-minute window.
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