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U.S. Olympic officials say the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) sent emails to the wrong address amid the dispute over gymnast Jordan Chiles' bronze medal.
On Thursday (August 15), the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) said CAS initially sent “crucial communications” to the wrong email addresses, leaving officials with limited time to properly prepare for hearing involving the bronze medal Chiles earned in the women's gymnastics floor final.
“The USOPC strongly contests the CAS decision due to significant procedural errors,” USOPC told CNN. “From August 6-9, CAS sent crucial communications to erroneous email addresses at USOPC and USAG, an error not corrected until August 9 – three days after filing, two days past the deadline to submit objections, and less than 24 hours before the hearing.
“This deprived us of adequate time to respond meaningfully or gather necessary evidence. We informed CAS of our objections immediately.”
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. CAS ruled in favor of Romania on Saturday (August 10), 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.
In a statement on Wednesday (August 14), CAS maintained that during the hearing there wasn't a dispute over USA Gymnastics (USAG) missing the one-minute deadline.
“At the hearing, there was no dispute between the parties that Ms. Chiles’ inquiry was submitted 1 minute and 4 seconds after her score was official [sic] displayed on the scoreboard,” CAS said. “All parties accepted as clear and determinative the report prepared by Omega, the official timekeeper for the Olympic Games, and submitted by the FIG itself. No party sought the admittance of other evidence.”
However, USAG previously said it didn't have access to the video proving its inquiry was submitted in time until after CAS made its ruling.
“The video footage provided was not available to USA Gymnastics prior to the tribunal’s decision and thus USAG did not have the opportunity to previously submit it,” USAG said on Sunday (August 11).
U.S. Olympic officials said they will continue to appeal the ruling.
“Our pursuit of truth in this matter remains unwavering,” the USOPC said.
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