Romanian Gymnast Suspended for Doping Violation While Appealing Olympic Bronze Medal

Romanian gymnast Ana Maria Barbosu has been provisionally suspended after being charged with an anti-doping rule violation for missing three drug tests within a 12-month span. The International Testing Agency announced the suspension on Thursday. Olympic athletes must provide daily whereabouts information including a one-hour testing window even during the off-season.

Three missed tests or filing failures in a year constitute a violation. Barbosu has referred her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport Anti-Doping Division. She will have the opportunity to present explanations and evidence for each of the three whereabouts failures.

The athlete could face a suspension of up to two years depending on the outcome.

Barbosu is currently in an ongoing appeals process with Jordan Chiles over the disputed bronze medal from the 2024 Paris Olympics floor exercise. Chiles originally finished third only to have the medal awarded to Barbosu after the Romanian team appealed the score.

Before that dispute the U.S. team had appealed Chiles’ score bumping her from fifth to third. A Court of Arbitration for Sport panel later reversed the decision after finding the inquiry was filed four seconds past the one-minute deadline. This dropped Chiles back to fifth and required her to return the bronze medal.

Chiles challenged the ruling in Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court. That court sent the case back to the Court of Arbitration for Sport earlier this year to review new video evidence suggesting the U.S. inquiry was filed within the allowed window.

Barbosu addressed the suspension on social media. She blamed the transition to college at Stanford for the lapse in filing requirements and stressed the missed tests had nothing to do with prohibited substances. “As you can imagine, moving to the US and starting college within the last year has been a big transition,” she posted on Instagram.