New Video Evidence Offers Jordan Chiles Hope for Return of Olympic Bronze Medal
Jordan Chiles has appealed to the Swiss Federal Tribunal in a bid to reclaim her bronze medal from the Paris 2024 Olympics, supported by video evidence that USA Gymnastics claims proves her score inquiry was submitted on time. The controversy originated during the women’s floor exercise final, where Chiles was briefly awarded bronze following a score adjustment, only to be stripped of the medal days later when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled the inquiry was filed four seconds past the one-minute deadline.
The core of the appeal relies on time-stamped video footage, allegedly verified by USA Gymnastics, which appears to show Chiles’ coach, Cecile Landi, verbally initiating the inquiry 47 seconds after the score was posted. This evidence directly contradicts the official electronic logs cited by CAS, which recorded the inquiry at one minute and four seconds. USAG contends that CAS violated fundamental procedural fairness by refusing to consider this footage before finalizing their decision.
However, significant obstacles remain in the effort to overturn the ruling. The medal has already been officially reallocated to Romania’s Ana Bărbosu, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) views the CAS decision as binding. Furthermore, the Swiss Federal Tribunal generally has a limited scope of review; it does not typically re-examine the factual merits of a sports competition but focuses instead on whether legal procedures and the right to be heard were violated. Opposing parties argue that the official timekeeping system must remain the standard of record to ensure the finality of sporting results.
