Jordan Chiles medal controversy: Everything about the American gymnast's recent Swiss court appeal to reclaim her Olympic bronze

American artistic gymnast Jordan Chiles has filed an appeal against her Paris Olympics floor exercise bronze medal being reassigned to a Romanian gymnast following Romanian authority's appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Chiles and her legal team filed their appeal to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland recently.

In July, Chiles earned the first individual Olympic medal of her career by finishing third in floor exercise apparatus, scoring 13.766. Initially, Chiles had finished fifth in the event with a score of 13.666, and Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Voinea of Romania were ahead of her, making Barbosu the bronze contender. However, Team USA Gymnastics coach Cecile Landi's appeal to recalibrate Chiles' difficulty score made the judges update her score to 13.766, resulting in Chiles being awarded the bronze medal.

In response, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, arguing that Landi's appeal came four seconds after the allowed time limit of one minute and requested the medal to be awarded to Barbosu. Consequently, the 23-year-old had to return her medal.

In a recent development, Jordan Chiles and her lawyers have filed an appeal with the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland to overturn CAS's verdict and have the medal restored to Chiles. They said in their statement that CAS did not consider the video evidence that suggested that Landi's inquiry was submitted within the permissible time and also accused Hamid Gharavi, president of the CAS panel, of having a conflict of interest.

"Chiles asks the Supreme Court to find that the CAS decision was procedurally deficient for two reasons. 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" said a statement from Chiles' legal team (as quoted by Olympics.com).

"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."

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Jordan Chiles quit social media after she was stripped of her only individual Olympic medal

Jordan Chiles pictured at the 2024 US Open Tennis Championships (Image via Getty)

Jordan Chiles was heartbroken after CAS's decision and decided to leave social media. In her statement, she said:

"I am taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health, thank you."

In response to the verdict, Chiles said in her statement that it was a significant blow for her.

"I am now confronted with one of the most challenging moments of my career" (as quoted by CNBC TV18).

Jordan Chiles had also hinted that she intended to challenge the decision and seek justice for her medal.