American gymnast Jordan Chiles has appealed to Switzerland’s supreme court to reclaim her bronze medal from the Paris Olympics, her attorneys announced Monday.
During the women’s floor exercise final in Paris, Chiles was moved up to third place — and awarded bronze — after she challenged the judges’ score for one of the elements in her routine. However, she was moved down to fifth days later after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (based in Switzerland) ruled her challenge was submitted four seconds late.
The International Olympic Committee then awarded bronze to Romania’s Ana Bărbosu and asked Chiles to return her medal.
Chiles has appealed to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland to overturn the decision. Her appeal claims the CAS decision violated procedural issues, specifically Chiles’ “right to be heard.” It also alleges a conflict of interest, as Hamid Gharavi, the president of the CAS arbitration panel, has acted as a counsel for Romania.
“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?” Chiles’ lawyer, Maurice M. Suh, said in a statement. “The answer to that question should be no. Every part of the Olympics, including the arbitration process, should stand for fair play.”
Chiles, 23, won a team gold in Paris after having won a team silver in Tokyo in 2021.
“The biggest thing that was taken from me was the recognition of who I was,” Chiles said this month, “not just my sport, but the person I am.”
