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If it were up to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Jordan Chiles would keep the bronze medal she won for her performance in the women's floor exercise at the Paris Olympics, and Romanian gymnasts Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Manica-Voinia would also get one medal.
But in a 29-page ruling detailing its decision that led Olympic officials to strip Chiles of her first individual medal, CAS said gymnastics' world governing body had botched its judging of the event and was unwilling to make up for it by awarding medals to all three gymnasts, even though each had arguments for bronze.
The International Gymnastics Federation failed to track the timing of Chiles' coach's inquiry into her score during the August 5 competition, which the Court of Arbitration for Sport called a “failure.” The court ultimately ruled that the inquiry came four seconds after the one-minute time limit allowed for Chiles' score to be verified.
Details released by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Wednesday blamed the International Gymnastics Federation for the problems that arose during one of the most dramatic moments of the Paris Olympics. After the competition ended, Romanian officials appealed to the court, which set up a three-person panel at the Olympics specifically to arbitrate disputes.
The committee said its review was limited, leaving athletes very upset.
“Had the panel been in a position to apply the principles of fairness, it would certainly have awarded the bronze medal to all three athletes in light of their performance, good faith and the injustice and pain they suffered, in circumstances where the FIG did not provide a mechanism or arrangement to implement the one-minute rule,” the court said.
The ruling's explanation also included other serious details related to the management of the floor exercise, which ended with Brazilian Rebecca Andrade winning the gold medal and American Simone Biles winning the silver medal.
Since then, the results of Chiles, Barboso and Manica-Voinha have become one of the most controversial and closely followed stories of the Paris Olympics.
“The Panel expresses its hope that the International Gymnastics Federation will draw the consequences of this case, with regard to these three exceptional athletes as well as other athletes and their support staff, in the future, so that this does not happen again,” CAS wrote in its ruling.
The Gymnastics Federation did not respond to requests for comment.
USA Gymnastics, denied the opportunity to present new evidence to CAS, has promised to file another appeal with the Swiss Federal Court, the body that gives CAS its authority in arbitration. Appeals to the Swiss court are rare and successful.
USA Gymnastics said Wednesday that details from the Court of Arbitration for Sport released earlier in the day showed the federation did not have enough time to properly present its case for Chiles, and that it believed Chiles' coach, Cecile Landy, made her assessment 47 seconds after the result was posted.
“We will continue to pursue these and other matters through appeal as we continue to seek justice for Jordan Chiles,” USA Gymnastics said.
In her first direct response to the controversy, Chiles posted on X on Thursday, saying, “I will approach this challenge as I have others – and I will do everything I can to ensure justice is served.”
She's holding out hope that her bronze will stay the same.
“I think at the end of this journey, the people in control will do the right thing,” Chiles said.
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Chiles on being denied the medal: “This decision seems unfair”
In a separate statement issued on Wednesday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected a New York Times report that the panel itself had a conflict of interest because its president, Hamid J. Gharavi, represented Romania for nearly a decade in separate arbitration cases.
The Times reported that Graffi is Romania's legal adviser in disputes handled by the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said it “condemns the outrageous statements published in some US media outlets which alleged, without knowledge of the above and before the justified review of the award, that the panel, and in particular its president, was biased due to other professional engagements or for reasons of nationality”.
The court said Garavi's participation was not challenged during the gymnastics arbitration, and therefore “we can reasonably assume that all parties were satisfied that their case was heard by this panel.”
USA Gymnastics said it had not seen any disclosures regarding Garavi or any other member of the committee, “nor have we seen any disclosures to date.”
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What We Know About Jordan Chiles' Olympic Bronze Medal Case and What Comes Next
At the heart of the competitive dispute was a question posed by Chiles' coach, Landy, about how Chiles' floor routine should be scored. Chiles initially scored 13.666 to place fifth. She was the last gymnast of nine competing, giving her just one minute to ask a question under FIG rules.
The judges allowed a query at that point, and raised Chiles' score by 0.1 to 13.766. That put her ahead of Barboso and Manica Voinha, who each scored 13.700. (Barboso had the advantage over Manica Voinha due to a better execution score, meaning the judges thought she had a cleaner score.)
In one of the most emotional scenes of the Games, Chiles screamed in celebration, while Barbosu, who thought she had won the bronze medal, dropped the Romanian flag in shock and left the stadium in tears.
But the Romanian Gymnastics Federation's appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport found that the timing of the investigation was too late.
After the Court of Arbitration for Sport issued its initial ruling on Saturday, the International Gymnastics Federation changed the final rankings, and the International Olympic Committee said it would redistribute Chile's medal to Barboso.
Barboso is scheduled to receive her medal at a ceremony on Friday, according to the Romanian federation.
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The IOC's handling of Jordan Chiles' decision is disturbing and shameful.
In a ruling issued on Wednesday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said that FIFA had no mechanism to determine immediately whether an investigation was late, even though the investigation was submitted electronically.
Donatella Sacchi, chair of the FIG Women's Artistic Gymnastics Technical Commission, said that when the investigation arrived, “the information did not give any indication that it was received late.”
CAS said it was logical for Sacchi to proceed on the assumption that the investigation was timely, because there was no preparation to show that it was immediately delayed.
“Had the International Gymnastics Federation put in place such a mechanism or arrangement, a great deal of pain could have been avoided,” the Court of Arbitration for Sport said.
The International Gymnastics Federation was unable to identify the person who conducted the investigation, because the person was appointed by local organizers, Saki said.
Landy appeared as a witness at the hearing and said she knew the one-minute rule and “believed she did the investigation as quickly as she could.”
The Court of Arbitration for Sport continued: “It was unable to determine whether it conducted the inquiry within or after the one-minute time limit, as everything happened in great haste.”
(Photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
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