Jordan Chiles seeks justice from Swiss supreme court for return of Olympic bronze medal

American gymnast Jordan Chiles is appealing to the Switzerland supreme court to reclaim her bronze medal from the Paris Olympics. Chiles was initially awarded bronze in the women’s floor exercise final in Paris after challenging the judges’ score, but was later moved down to fifth place by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for submitting her challenge four seconds late. The International Olympic Committee then awarded bronze to Romania’s Ana Bărbosu and asked Chiles to return her medal. Chiles’s appeal to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland claims that the CAS’s decision violated procedural issues and her right to be heard, and alleges a conflict of interest with the president of the CAS arbitration panel having acted as a counsel for Romania. Chiles’s lawyer, Maurice M. Suh, argues that the decision to strip Chiles of her medal is fundamentally unfair and goes against the spirit of fair play in the Olympics. Chiles, who also won a team gold in Paris and a team silver in Tokyo in 2021, has expressed that the biggest loss for her was the recognition of who she was as a person, not just as an athlete.

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