Week 10 of the NCAA gymnastics champs felt like deja vu as Jordan Chiles and Ana Barbosu faced off once again. After all, their controversial history is hard to forget. At the 2024 Paris Olympics a scoring appeal briefly gave Chiles the bronze medal on floor, only to be overturned later as the medal returned to Barbosu. While the case currently sits with CAS, the NCAA match has brought this rivalry back into limelight, but it was Chiles’ reaction that added the real twist to it.

The meet took place on March 7, 2026, at Maples Pavilion, where No. 5 UCLA Bruins faced the No. 10 Stanford Cardinal. But the real magic was what the 6834 fans in the stadium witnessed live. During Stanford’s floor exercise, as Barbosu performed her routine, Chiles was seen nearby, cheering her on.

Jordan Chiles had her hands raised up in the air and was clapping for Ana Barbosu. Not just this, what was even more surprising was that Chiles knew Barbosu’s choreography and was following it along and dancing in the background, as captured on the stream.

The commentator said, “And what you can see in the background is, Jordan Chiles knows her [Ana Barbosu] choreography. She’s doing it along with watching every second of this routine.”

Fans immediately noticed this gesture, considering the gymnasts’ controversial history. A journalist on X even highlighted the moment, “This is the narrative. Sportsmanship at its finest from Jordan Chiles, while her Olympic and NCAA competitor Ana Barbosu competes on the floor.”

In fact, Jordan Chiles and Barbosu were seen speaking to each other and even sharing a warm hug after the meet.

But the sportsmanship didn’t end here. Another gesture came in, this time for Chiles from the other side.

During her floor routine, Jordan Chiles scored 9.900, a solid performance. But what’s beautiful is that Barbosu’s mom was reportedly filming and clapping for Chiles’ floor routine, which felt like an adorable moment to many viewers.

Not only now, even when the bronze medal dispute was fresh, both Barbosu and Chiles had shown empathy towards each other. Barbosu had said, “Sabrina, Jordan, my thoughts are with you. I know what you are feeling, because I’ve been through the same. But I know you’ll come back stronger.”

Even Chiles had mentioned before the ruling was overturned, “Ana Barbosu, she’s an amazing athlete, she’s done amazing things within her gymnastics as well.”

Nevertheless, this time, both gymnasts demonstrated why they deserve to be on the top. Jordan Chiles contributed significantly to the victory of UCLA. She scored a perfect 10 on the uneven bars, and also claimed the all-around title with 39.700. Barbosu meanwhile put in a strong performance, scoring 9.900 on the balance beam and contributed to her team getting a strong total and on uneven bars she got 9.875.

However, against this background now looms a decision that is yet to come regarding their 2024 Paris Olympics bronze medal controversy.

Olympic drama still shadows Jordan Chiles and Ana Barbosu

In 2024, the results of the women’s Paris Olympics floor exercise caused an uproar. Originally, Ana Barbosu was placed third and was due to be awarded the bronze medal, with Jordan Chiles coming in fifth. However, Chiles’ coach made a scoring inquiry as to the difficulty of one of her skills. Officials accepted that review and raised the score of Chiles to the point that she advanced to third place.

But things changed when the Romanian Gymnastics Federation appealed that ruling to the CAS claiming that the inquiry was submitted beyond the one-minute time-limit. CAS upheld the Romanian challenge and restored Barbosu as the bronze medalist which left Jordan Chiles off the medal podium.

While the case has been on ever since, first with CAS, then with the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, in January 2026, a fresh update came in. The Swiss Court partially allowed an appeal lodged by Jordan Chiles and directed the case to be reconsidered by CAS due to finding of new audiovisual evidence that could indicate that the scoring inquiry was lodged in time.

This means the earlier CAS decision no longer has legal effect, and the medal situation is once again open. While the CAS review process plays out, the case could still take many months to resolve.

So, just before the week 10 NCAA meet, when Barbosu was asked whether the legal proceedings linger in her mind, she replied,

“I’m just trying to be the best I can here at Stanford, as part of the team. Everything besides that is not in my control, so I don’t see why I should put too much energy into it.”

At the same time, the two players involved in the controversy shared a heartwarming moment on the NCAA mats, showing a shared focus on the sport, even as the legal battle continues.