Romanian gymnast Ana Bărbosu, who won bronze in the ground exercise on the 2024 Olympics after a controversial ruling stripped American Jordan Chiles of a medal, will join Stanford's gymnastics team in the autumn. On Wednesday she announced her engagement via Instagram.

“I can't wait to join this amazing family! Go Card,” she wrote.

Bărbosu, 18, was awarded the bronze medal six days after the ground exercise final after her team appealed to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). During the event on August 5, Chiles stood on the rostrum after her coach Cecile Landi successfully requested that Chile's rating be increased by 0.1, moving her from fifth to 3rd place. The court ruled that the judges presiding over the finale shouldn’t have accepted the inquiry because Landi's request was received 4 seconds after the one-minute deadline for submitting the request had expired. The International Olympic Committee awarded Chile's bronze medal to Bărbosu, who received it at a ceremony in Bucharest, the capital of Romania.

Bărbosu's elation and despair were within the highlight on the day of the ground exercise final. As Chiles, the event's final competitor, initially scored 13.666 points, Bărbosu – who scored 13.700 points – began to have fun what she thought was her third place finish. After Landi's investigation led to Chiles changing her rating, Bărbosu dropped her Romanian flag in shock and left the hall in tears.

Although Bărbosu is currently the official owner of the bronze medal, the medal continues to be the topic of appeals. Chiles' lawyers filed a proper appeal with the Swiss Federal Court, Switzerland's highest court, on September 16 to overturn the CAS ruling and added a second appeal transient on September 24. USA Gymnastics also filed a separate appeal related to Chiles' motion. Chiles' lawyers argue that CAS didn’t consider video evidence that “showed that her request was submitted in a timely manner.”

While Bărbosu's participation within the Paris Games was largely marred by the ground final controversy, she helped Romania to a seventh-place finish within the team final and secured a spot in the person all-around final. In the 2026 NCAA gymnastics season, she is going to join a Stanford team that accomplished a Cinderella run from No. 52 in Week 1 to the semifinals of the 2024 NCAA Championships. It is probably going that Bărbosu and Chiles will compete on the collegiate level next season, as Chiles will complete her senior season with UCLA gymnastics and Bărbosu will make her NCAA debut. Former Pac-12 foes Stanford and UCLA currently compete in several conferences (ACC and Big Ten, respectively), but the colleges have a dual meet scheduled for March 9, indicating they’re more likely to proceed meeting together in the longer term will plan.

Another gymnast who competed for Romania within the 2024 Olympics may even soon join the NCAA ranks as Lilia Cosman has committed to Michigan State.

Required reading

Ben Affleck's rep has had little success dispelling reports that the actor is “spending time” with Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy, a member of the Kennedy family and the daughter of polarizing former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Even after the rep issued an announcement to People saying that Affleck, 52, and Kennedy, 36, are a pair and “I don't know if they even know each other,” stories proceed to flow into in regards to the “Argo” star and his alleged special connection to Kennedy. Multiple media outlets have reported that Affleck and Kennedy, an off-the-cuff actor, were hanging out at various trendy Hollywood spots during his divorce from Jennifer Lopez.

On Tuesday, Page Six added a little bit more context on the alleged connection between Affleck and Kennedy, reporting that their “friendship” dates back several years, before he began dating “Blonde” actress Ana de Armas in March 2020.

“Their friendship has been going on for some time, even before Ana,” a Hollywood insider told Page Six. The Daily Mail reported Monday that Affleck, who grew up in Boston, was interested in Kennedy because, a source said, “the Kennedy family is like royalty when you live in Boston.” The source said “he really thought he had landed in the Kennedy family” when he began “hanging out with Kick.”

The Daily Mail even reported that Affleck and Kennedy had “a brief affair” but that the connection didn’t last because “she was too young and not ready for anything serious.”

It is unknown if Affleck himself was ready for anything serious on the time. He finalized his divorce from his first wife, Jennifer Garner, in 2018. During that divorce, Affleck went to rehab for his intermittent alcohol addiction, but he also plunged right into a transient affair with 22-year-old Playboy Playmate model Shauna Sexton. A number of months later, in early 2019, he split for a second time from Saturday Night Live producer Lindsay Shookus after over a yr of dating.

It is just not known when Garner, Shookus and the Playboy Playmate crossed paths with Kennedy. But in early 2020, he began dating de Armas after meeting the Cuban-Spanish actor on the set of their sex thriller “Deep Water.” With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Affleck and de Armas decided to quarantine together.

“Kick wasn’t exactly thrilled” about Affleck’s quarantine companionship, a source told Page Six.

By January 2021, Affleck's relationship with de Armas was over, and he soon reunited with Lopez, with whom he had a three-year, highly publicized romance within the early 2000s. They became engaged but called off their wedding in 2003 and split in 2004 under pressure from intense media scrutiny.

Affleck, Lopez and the world were thrilled once they rekindled their romance in 2021. Lopez reportedly believed within the “fairytale” concept that she had finally found love and that they were each older, wiser and able to commit so their love would last. They married in a lavish wedding in August 2022.

But Lopez was flawed about that fairytale. Affleck reportedly viewed their relationship as a “fever dream,” while his “extreme” mood swings drove a wedge between them and created a “toxicity” of their relationship that was “ever-present,” each Page Six and People reported. He spoke openly about how he didn't like that she at all times gave the impression to be within the highlight and needed to share her private life on social media.

Lopez filed for divorce last week, citing irreconcilable differences, and announced that she and Affleck officially separated in late April. While he moved out of their $68 million Beverly Hills mansion and she or he canceled her summer concert tour and enjoyed an prolonged vacation in Europe and the Hamptons, he reportedly began spending time with Kennedy in Los Angeles.

Page Six reported that Affleck and Kennedy have been spotted together on the Polo Lounge on the Beverly Hills Hotel in recent months. A source told the Daily Mail that she tried to make clear that they only met after Affleck and Lopez split.

But Kennedy isn't saying an excessive amount of, in keeping with the Daily Mail. The granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy and great-niece of John F. Kennedy knows methods to keep secrets and has kept quiet about Affleck because she doesn't wish to be seen as a “mistress,” the Daily Mail source said. Plus, unlike the notoriously attention-seeking Lopez, she “likes to keep her private life private,” the source added.

Originally published: August 27, 2024 at 3:22 pm