Jordan Chiles Appeals Olympic Medal Decision to Swiss Court: ‘Fundamental Unfairness’
USA Gymnastics is standing firm “in the continued pursuit of justice for Jordan”
Jordan Chiles is not backing down.
On Monday, Sept. 16, attorneys for the Olympic gold medalist, 23, filed an appeal on Chiles’ behalf with the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland to overturn a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that stripped the athlete of her bronze medal in the women’s gymnastics floor event following the 2024 Paris Olympics, according to a press release. The bronze medal was awarded to Romanian gymnast Ana Bărbosu.
The “CAS violated Chiles’s fundamental ‘right to be heard’ by refusing to consider the video evidence that showed her inquiry was submitted on time — in direct contradiction to the findings in CAS’s decision,” her lawyers alleged in the press release.
Chiles’ lawyers claim that Chiles was never properly informed that CAS president Hamid G. Gharavi had “a serious conflict of interest,” the press release states. Gharavi had acted as counsel for Romania for almost a decade and was actively representing Romania at the time of the incident, Chiles’ lawyers said.
“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. Every part of the Olympics, including the arbitration process, should stand for fair play,” said Maurice M. Suh, counsel for Chiles.
United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) filed a letter in support of Chiles’ appeal, her lawyers said in the press release.
USA Gymnastics announced their support for Chiles’ appeal in a statement on Monday.
“USA Gymnastics supports the appeal submitted today by Jordan Chiles at the Swiss Federal Tribunal as we made a collective, strategic decision to have Jordan lead the initial filing,” the statement read. “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.”
Chiles, who won a gold medal as a member of Team USA on July 30 in the women’s artistic team all-around competition, competed in the individual floor exercise competition on Aug. 5. At first, Chiles finished fifth, but her coach filed an appeal over a scoring error. After the Romanian gymnasts filed their appeal to the CAS, the International Olympic Committee ordered Chiles to return her bronze medal on Aug. 11.
The CAS claimed the gymnast’s coach was four seconds late when making an inquiry to correct her score of 13.766 to 13.666. Chiles disputed this finding, “even submitted video footage which unequivocally proves that the inquiry was submitted on time,” her lawyers’ press release reads.
