Jordan Chiles appealed to the Swiss Federal Court against decision to strip of her Olympic medal

American gymnast Jordan Chiles has appealed to the Swiss Federal Court against the CAS decision to strip her of her Olympic bronze medal won in Paris.

Details: Chiles' appeal is based on two key arguments laid out by her legal team Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLC. First, they argue that video evidence ‘unequivocally proves’ that the investigation that led to Chiles' grade revision was filed within the one-minute time limit allowed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).

In a statement, Chiles' lawyers criticised the process, pointing out that the CAS panel failed to take video evidence into account.

Chiles' lawyers argue that Garavi had a direct conflict because he represented Romania for nearly a decade and actively cooperated with the country during the arbitration. According to Chiles' lawyers, that relationship jeopardised the fairness of the proceedings and should have disqualified Garavi from presiding over the case.

‘From start to finish, the procedures leading up to the CAS panel's decision were fundamentally unfair and it is not surprising that they resulted in an unfair decision,’ the gymnast's lawyers said.

Another important aspect of the appeal concerns a conflict of interest involving Hamid Gharavi, the president of the CAS panel that ruled in Barbosa’s favor.

According to the appeal, Chiles was notified of the CAS hearing only hours before it was to begin, leaving her and her team little time to prepare a defense. This last-minute notice, they argue, violated her right to a fair hearing and further highlights the procedural flaws that tainted the original decision.

Recall: Chiles, who placed third in the women’s floor exercise at the 2024 Paris Olympics, lost her bronze medal after Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosa successfully appealed the results. The medal was ultimately awarded to her.