Gymnastics star Jordan Chiles is appealing the decision that led to her being stripped of a bronze medal she earned at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
During the gymnastics floor final, Chiles initially posted a score of 13.666, falling short of Romanian Ana Barbosu's score of 13.700. However, Chiles' coaches challenged her difficulty score, which added 0.1 to her total and earned her the bronze medal.
Barbosu's team later lodged a complaint that the U.S. didn't make its inquiry into Chile's score within the one-minute deadline. The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) then ruled in favor of Romania, reinstating Chiles' original score of 13.666 and moving Bărbosu’s back to bronze.
The U.S. attempted to appeal the decision to strip Chiles of her bronze medal with video evidence that its inquiry was requested before the one-minute cut-off time. However, CAS declined to reconsider its ruling.
Chiles is now appealing CAS' decision to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, her attorneys announced on Monday (September 16).
“From start to finish, the procedures leading to the CAS panel’s decision were fundamentally unfair, and it is no surprise that they resulted in an unjust decision,” the attorneys said in a statement.
Chiles' team is accusing CAS of violating the gymnast's “right to be heard” by “refusing to consider the video evidence that showed her inquiry was submitted on time.” According to attorneys, Chiles was also not properly informed of a potential conflict of interest in the case involving the President of the CAS panel.
“Jordan Chiles’ appeals present the international community with an easy legal question—will everyone stand by while an Olympic athlete who has done only the right thing is stripped of her medal because of fundamental unfairness in an ad-hoc arbitration process? The answer to that question should be no,” Maurice M. Suh, counsel for Chiles, said in a statement.
“Every part of the Olympics, including the arbitration process, should stand for fair play,” Suh added.
USA Gymnastics (USAG) said the organization isn't directly involved in the appeal at this time, but it fully supports Chiles' move.
“USAG is closely coordinating with Jordan and her legal team and will make supportive filings with the court in the continued pursuit of justice for Jordan," the body said in a statement.
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