American gymnast Jordan Chiles has reportedly submitted an appeal to Switzerland’s highest court in an attempt to overturn a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport that stripped her of a bronze medal in the 2024 Olympics.
This appeal comes as Chiles attempts to reclaim the bronze after the CAS ruled that an inquiry submitted during the women’s floor exercise event was late, resulting in Romania’s Ana Barbosu being named the bronze medal winner, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
USA Gymnastics stated after the ruling that there was “time-stamped video evidence” showing that head coach Cecile Landi had submitted the inquiry on time; however, the CAS rejected the first appeal despite allegations that the investigation was handled poorly.
Chiles has now submitted an appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal as she attempts to reopen the investigation. Her lawyers wrote in a statement that the CAS investigation was “procedurally deficient,” per the Olympics.
“First, 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,” they wrote.
“Second, the entire CAS proceeding was unfair because Chiles was not properly informed that Hamid G. Gharavi, the President of the CAS panel that revoked Chiles’s bronze medal and awarded it instead to a Romanian gymnast, had a serious conflict of interest: Mr. Gharavi has acted as counsel for Romania for almost a decade and was actively representing Romania at the time of the CAS arbitration,” they continued.
Although it is rare for the Swiss Federal Tribunal to rule in favor of an appeal, Chiles has received support from many within the world of gymnastics as she continues to fight for the medal.
USA Gymnastics released a statement after Chiles filed her appeal and said the program made a “collective, strategic decision to have Jordan lead the initial filing.”
“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,” added the program, per the Olympics.
Chiles spoke about the incident last week and said USA Gymnastics should not be punished for potential mistakes made by the CAS, noting that the court “just took that all away” with the previous ruling.
“I followed the rules. My coach followed the rules. We did everything totally, completely right,” she said, per NPR.
