Jordan Chiles appeals Olympic medal controversy

Photo: Tom Weller/VOIGT/Getty Images

Jordan Chiles won’t let her Olympic medal be taken away. The American gymnast, whose bronze medal was stripped in August, is now appealing to the Swiss Supreme Court.

In the women’s floor exercise final, Chiles originally finished in fifth place, behind two Romanian gymnasts. Her coach, Cécile Canqueteau-Landi, filed an investigation with the judges, claiming that they had not scored one of Chiles’ vaults. The judges agreed and changed her score, moving her up to third place. Their decision led to a historic moment on the podium, where every spot was filled by a black woman for the first time in the history of the sport.

Days later, the Romanian delegation argued that Canqueteau-Landi had missed the deadline for filing an investigation by four seconds. The Court of Arbitration for Sport agreed and refused to hear USA Gymnastics’ appeal. The bronze medal was re-awarded to Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu during a special ceremony in Bucharest.

Now, Chiles’ lawyers have filed an appeal with the Swiss Federal Tribunal to overturn the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s ruling. They argue that the CAS violated Chiles’ “right to be heard” when it refused to consider video evidence that allegedly showed her investigation was filed on time. They also allege a conflict of interest: Hamid Gharavi, the chair of the CAS arbitration panel, was acting as a lawyer for Romania and was actively representing the country when Chiles’ medal was stripped.

“Jordan Chiles’ appeals confront the international community with a simple legal question: Should everyone stand by and watch as an Olympic athlete who did only the right thing is stripped of her medal due to fundamental unfairness in an ad hoc arbitration process? The answer to that question should be no. Every aspect of the Olympic Games, including the arbitration process, should stand for fair play,” Chiles’ attorney Maurice M. Suh said in a statement.

In August, after her medal was stripped, Chiles shared a statement on Instagram, writing: “I will approach this challenge as I have approached others — and I will do everything in my power to ensure that justice is done. I believe that at the end of this journey, the people in power will do the right thing.”