Jordan Chiles said she would make every effort to get her bronze medal back, and that fight continued Monday.
Chiles’ attorneys filed a formal appeal with the Swiss Federal Tribunal, Switzerland’s Supreme Court, to overturn the ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport that stripped Chiles of her bronze in the women’s individual floor exercise at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Successful appeals to the Swiss tribunal are uncommon, but Chiles’ attorneys argue the CAS decision — which prompted the International Olympic Committee to reallocate Chiles’ medal to Romania’s Ana Bărbosu — violated Chiles’ “right to be heard.”
In a news release, Chiles’ attorneys make two arguments for why the decision was “procedurally deficient.” They argue CAS refused to consider video evidence that “showed her inquiry was submitted on time.” They also said the entire CAS proceeding was unfair because Chiles was not properly informed that Hamid Gharavi, the president of the CAS panel that made the decision, had “a serious conflict of interest” because he has served as legal counsel to Romania.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee also filed a letter in support of the appeal. USA Gymnastics said in a statement it will make “supportive filings with the court in the continued pursuit of justice for Jordan.”
“We made a collective, strategic decision to have Jordan lead the initial filing,” USA Gymnastics said.
The ongoing saga stems from the Aug. 5 competition inside Paris’ Bercy Arena.
Chiles initially placed fifth with a score of 13.666, but the judges raised her score by one-tenth of a point following an inquiry filed by her coach, Cecile Landi. After the successful challenge, Chiles was bumped into bronze position — pushing Bărbosu to fourth — and collapsed in cheers and tears after learning of her podium placement.
Jordan Chiles had the BEST reaction when she found out she won bronze in the women’s floor final! 🥹🥉 #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/4hQl4wtF69
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) August 5, 2024
The Romanian Gymnastics Federation then filed an appeal to CAS challenging the timeliness of Chiles’ inquiry, saying it was submitted four seconds after the one-minute window for such an appeal.
CAS ruled that Chiles’ inquiry was indeed raised late and her initial score should be reinstated, effectively kicking her off the podium. The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) altered the results to reflect as such before giving the IOC the final say on who was to be awarded the bronze medal.
The IOC gave the bronze to Bărbosu, who received her medal at a ceremony in Bucharest on Aug. 16.
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USA Gymnastics said it did not have enough time to properly make its case for Chiles and that it believed Landi submitted the inquiry 47 seconds after the score was published, 13 seconds within the acceptable window. It said it had not seen disclosures about Gharavi or any other panelist; the court, in its decision, said that Gharavi’s participation was not challenged during the gymnastics arbitration, so “it can reasonably be assumed that all parties were satisfied to have their case heard by this Panel.”
Chiles’ appeal to the Swiss tribunal asks for a chance to properly make an argument.
“Both briefs could result in a retrial of this matter before CAS in order to allow her — for the first time — to prepare a defense and present evidence, including the video footage showing that her coach’s scoring inquiry was submitted on time,” her attorneys said in a news release.
In its full decision, CAS said it would give Chiles, Bărbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea — whose appeal to CAS to have her score raised was denied — each a bronze if it were up to the court, something Romania requested in its appeal. CAS said FIG did not have any guidelines in place to assure proper protocol was followed or a mechanism in place to track timing of inquiries, even though Chiles’ inquiry was submitted electronically.
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Donatella Sacchi, president of FIG’s Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Technical Committee, said when the inquiry arrived, “the information offered no indication that it had been received late.”
CAS said it made sense for Sacchi to proceed under the assumption that the inquiry was on time, because there was no setup to immediately show it was late.
“If the FIG had put such a mechanism or arrangement in place, a great deal of heartache would have been avoided,” CAS said.
Chiles, who is set to return to UCLA for the upcoming women’s gymnastics season, made extended comments about losing her medal last Wednesday at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit in New York.
“The biggest thing that was taken from me was the recognition of who I was, not just my sport, but the person I am,” she said.
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(Photo: Alex Gottschalk / DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
