Jordan Chiles appeals in Swiss court to reclaim Olympic medal

Jordan Chiles, the American gymnast whose bronze medal at last month’s Olympics was stripped away over a technicality, filed an appeal in Switzerland’s Supreme Court on Monday in her ongoing effort to reclaim her third-place finish.

After she initially was awarded bronze in the women’s floor final, Chiles’s medal was revoked when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), a Switzerland-based global body that settles sports disputes, ruled that an inquiry into Chiles’s score during the event - which increased her mark by one-tenth and moved her into third place - was not made before the one-minute deadline. The results of the competition were retroactively modified, and the International Olympic Committee awarded Romania’s Ana Barbosu the bronze medal.

The filing also identified the evidence that appears to show the decisive inquiry was initiated before the deadline: The documentary crew that followed teammate Simone Biles at the Olympics captured audio of Chiles’s coach, Cecile Landi, telling an official she wanted to submit an inquiry on behalf of Chiles. The filing includes a video in which Landi says, “Inquiry for Jordan!” within one minute of Chiles’s score posting. Landi is not in view of the camera, so it’s unclear how close she was to the official, but she can be heard requesting an inquiry twice.

U.S. officials raised procedural issues with the CAS hearing that led to the decision, describing it as “rushed.” CAS failed to officially notify USA Gymnastics of Romania’s appeal for days and did not make contact with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee until the day before the Aug. 10 hearing - a lapse that could bolster Chiles’s hopes of successfully appealing in Swiss court.

CAS decisions can be appealed for limited reasons: “lack of jurisdiction, violation of elementary procedural rules (e.g. violation of the right to a fair hearing) or incompatibility with public policy.” The appeals must be rooted in an issue in the arbitration process rather than disagreement with the decision. The Swiss court determines whether an appeal meets the criteria and can dismiss the challenge.

Chiles’s appeal asks the Swiss court to overturn the CAS decision because of procedural issues that violated her “right to be heard,” her attorneys said in a press release. The attorneys also noted CAS’s refusal to consider the new evidence provided by USA Gymnastics after the hearing and an alleged conflict of interest of which Chiles was not properly informed. Hamid Gharavi, the president of the CAS arbitral panel, had represented Romania in past legal proceedings.

Chiles will file another petition to the Swiss court, the statement said, and both appeals could lead to a retrial in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“Every part of the Olympics, including the arbitration process, should stand for fair play,” Maurice M. Suh, Chiles’s attorney, said in a statement.

The bronze medal dispute centers on Landi’s successful challenge of Chiles’s score. Because Chiles was the last gymnast to compete, Landi had only a minute to initiate the inquiry. The Romanian Gymnastics Federation said Landi missed the deadline, rendering Chiles’s score change invalid. Citing timestamps in an official report, CAS ruled that Chiles’s previous score should be reinstated.

The day after the CAS ruling, USA Gymnastics said it had submitted new evidence to the court, presumably the footage from the documentary crew released Monday. But USA Gymnastics said it was told that CAS would not reconsider a past ruling, forcing Chiles to pursue action in Swiss court.

“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,” USA Gymnastics said in a statement Monday. “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.”

The CAS decision centered on a report from Omega, the Olympics’ official timekeeping system, which showed a gap of 1 minute 4 seconds between the time Chiles’s score was logged into the system and the time that an official pressed a button to indicate Landi communicated the intent to inquire on Chiles’s behalf. The sport’s technical regulations specify that the verbal notification of the inquiry must occur before the deadline. The time that the official logs the inquiry in the system could be slightly delayed.

At the CAS hearing, USA Gymnastics did not dispute the timekeeping report and did not ask for more time to prove the inquiry had been made in time, according to a report released last month. Landi testified that the official recorded her request “immediately.” However, the announcement of the appeal from Chiles’s attorneys said, “Chiles directly and repeatedly disputed that issue at the arbitration hearing.”

According to the CAS document, there was no formal system in place for monitoring whether score inquiries were submitted on time.

USA Gymnastics has said its video evidence, which it didn’t have at the time of the CAS hearing, showed “Landi first stated her request to file an inquiry at the inquiry table 47 seconds after the score is posted, followed by a second statement 55 seconds after the score was originally posted.” That timeline mirrors the video referenced in Chiles’s filing.

In a wide-ranging report published after the Games, International Gymnastics Federation President Morinari Watanabe referred to the medal saga as a “tragedy.” Watanabe advocated for the use of advanced technology in judging to minimize such errors in the future.

“We need change,” Watanabe wrote. “We need challenges. And we need the courage to move forward. It was the lack of courage to take that step forward that led to the tragedy in Paris.”