US gymnast appeals Swiss court to get back Olympic medal from Romanian Ana Maria Bărbosu
Jordan Chiles, the American gymnast whose Olympic bronze medal was revoked and returned to Romanian gymnast Ana Maria Bărbosu, has appealed her case to Switzerland's highest federal court.
The appeal is the latest act in a fierce battle over the bronze medal between the Romanian and American Gymnastics Federations.
The battle started after the floor exercise routines of all athletes during the Paris Olympics, Chiles appeared in fifth place with a score of 13.666, just shy of Bărbosu, who had scored 13.7, NPR recounts. Her coach believed the judges had scored her incorrectly and filed an inquiry.
The judges agreed, adjusting Chiles' score upward by a tenth of a point to 13.766, and placing her in front of the Romanian gymnast. Bărbosu, who thought she had won the bronze after the initial results were posted, started crying when she saw the revised rankings. The images were widely circulated.
In the days that followed, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation appealed to the independent arbitration court CAS. The panel determined that the inquiry had been filed by the US four seconds too late, one minute being the time limit, revised Chiles' score back to 13.666, and returned the medal to Bărbosu. Chiles’ team submitted an appeal to the CAS, but it was declined.
The Romanian Gymnastics Federation, or FRG, in turn, stated that it was never in favor of withdrawing the Olympic medal from Chiles but rather supported the initiative for Jordan Chiles, Ana-Maria Bărbosu, and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, who was also wronged by the judges according to the Federation, to all receive the bronze medal.
In her appeal to the Swiss court, Chiles now asks CAS to re-evaluate the case. She also wants CAS to remove arbitrator Hamid Gharavi from any future hearing.
Gharavi, the presiding arbitrator on the Chiles hearing, is currently providing legal counsel to Romania in other international proceedings, the New York Times reported last month. However, Gharavi had disclosed the work and none of the parties had objected to his participation as chair before the ruling.
(Photo source: Celso Pupo Rodrigues | Dreamstime.com)
