Jordan Chiles must return her Olympic bronze medal
The International Court of Arbitration for Sport had previously ruled that the jury had made an error in accepting a request submitted by Chile’s coaches.
The International Olympic Committee announced Thursday morning that Romania can award a bronze medal to gymnast Ana Barbosu, opening the door to a medal ceremony on Friday that Romanian officials said will take place amid the most contentious global sporting drama.
“The adjusted FIG (International Gymnastics Federation) ranking is based on a final award from the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport), which is binding on all parties,” the IOC said in an emailed statement to USA TODAY Sports. “Although an appeal is still possible in the Swiss Federal Court, the CAS award is immediately enforceable and Ms. Barbosu is entitled to the bronze medal.”
American Jordan Chiles is in the United States still in possession of the bronze medal she won in the floor exercise at the Paris Olympics, two people familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified told USA TODAY Sports.
Chile will not return the bronze medal because U.S. officials plan to appeal what the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee calls “significant procedural errors” by the CAS. That appeal would likely go to the Swiss Federal Court.
The USOPC said in a statement Wednesday evening that from August 6 to 9, “CAS sent important communications to incorrect email addresses at USOPC and USAG (USA Gymnastics), an error that was not corrected until August 9 – three days after filing, two days after the deadline to submit objections and less than 24 hours before the hearing. This left us without sufficient time to respond meaningfully or gather necessary evidence. We promptly informed CAS of our objections.”
Since then, U.S. authorities have produced a time-stamped video showing that the U.S. appeal of Chiles’s rating was filed 47 seconds after its rating was announced, within the one-minute deadline – not four seconds after the deadline as argued at the CAS hearing. CAS said it could not reopen the case, even though the conclusive video proved Chiles did indeed deserve the bronze medal. “Our objections have since been substantiated by new evidence pointing to administrative errors by the FIG and mishandling by CAS that could not possibly have been raised at the time of the rushed hearing. In short, we were denied a meaningful opportunity to be heard,” the USOPC said.
Amid this burgeoning controversy, U.S. and Romanian officials offered to award bronze medals to Chile and Barbosu, but the FIG declined. Now the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee is trying to proceed on its own.
This rush to organize a medal ceremony stands in stark contrast to the just-concluded Kamila Valieva doping scandal, in which various international sports organizations and anti-doping agencies took their time so that the U.S. and Japanese figure skating teams finally received their gold and silver medals at the Paris Summer Olympics, exactly 2½ years to the day after their competition at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics had ended.
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