Depending on the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Jordan Chiles will keep the bronze medal she won in the women’s floor exercise at the Paris Olympics, and Romanian gymnasts Ana Barbos and Sabrina Maneca-Boinea will also win one each.
But in a 29-page report detailing Olympic officials’ decisions that led them to strip Chile of its first individual medal, the CAS said the International Gymnastics Federation had misjudged the event and had not intended to compensate by awarding medals to all three gymnasts, despite the fact that each gymnast claimed they deserved a bronze medal.
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) also failed to record the timing of an inquiry by Childs’ coach about her score during the August 5 competition, which the CAS called a “failure.” The court ultimately ruled that the inquiry occurred four seconds into the one-minute time frame allowed for reviewing Childs’ score.
Details released by the CAS on Wednesday placed the FIG at the mercy of the authorities for the problems that occurred during one of the most dramatic moments of the Paris Games. After the competition finished, Romanian authorities appealed to the court, which had set up a three-person Olympic committee dedicated to arbitrating disputes.
The committee said its review was limited and caused heartbreak for the players.
“If the panel had been in a position to apply impartial principles, it would have awarded bronze medals to all three gymnasts, taking into account their performance, their integrity and the injustice and suffering they suffered, in circumstances not presented by the FIG.
“There needs to be some mechanism or arrangement to implement the one-minute rule,” the court said.
The explanation for the ruling also detailed other significant issues with the administration of the floor exercise, which resulted in Brazil’s Rebecca Andrade winning the gold medal and American Simone Biles winning the silver medal.
Since then, Chile’s goals from Barbos and Maneka Boinea have become one of the most controversial and closely watched stories of the Paris tournament.
“The Commission expects the FIG to clarify the outcome of this case with regard to these three exceptional athletes, as well as other athletes and their support staff, to ensure that such an incident does not happen again in the future,” CAS wrote in its ruling.
The gymnastics federation did not respond to a request for comment.
After being denied an opportunity to present new evidence to the CAS, USA Gymnastics vowed to appeal again to the Swiss Federal Court, the body that gives the CAS arbitration legitimacy. Successful appeals to the Swiss Federal Court are rare.
USA Gymnastics said Wednesday that details from the CAS released earlier in the day showed that USA Gymnastics did not have enough time to properly state its case against Childs, and that it believes Childs’ coach, Cecil Lundy, submitted the score 47 seconds after the results were announced.
“We continue to seek justice for Jordan Chiles and will pursue these and other issues through appeals,” USA Gymnastics said.
In a separate statement on Wednesday, the CAS denied a New York Times report that the arbitration panel itself had conflict of interest issues because its chairman, Hamid G. Gharabi, represented Romania for nearly a decade in another arbitration case.
Galavi is serving as Romania’s legal adviser to the dispute, which is being handled by the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, the Times reported.
“The CAS condemns the outrageous statements made by some US media outlets, which, without knowledge of the above and prior to the review of the reasons for the decision, suggest that the Jury, and in particular its chairman, was biased on grounds of other duties or nationality,” it said.
The court said that because Galavi’s participation was not in dispute during the gymnastics arbitration, “it can be reasonably inferred that all parties were satisfied that their cases would be heard by this committee.”
USA Gymnastics said it had not received any disclosures about Galavi or the other judges and “has not received any disclosures to date.”
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At the heart of the competition controversy was a question posed by Chilis’ coach, Randy, regarding the grading of Chilis’ floor exercise. Chilis initially placed fifth with a score of 13.666. Because she was the last of the nine skaters to compete, FIG rules meant that she had only one minute to ask questions.
The judges immediately allowed an investigation and increased Chiles’ score by 0.1 to 13.766, putting her ahead of Barbos and Maneka Boinaire, who each received 13.700 points. (Barbos had the advantage over Maneka Boinaire, as she had more complete execution, but the judges considered her performance to be cleaner.)
In one of the most emotional moments of the Games, Chile’s athletes shouted in joy while a shocked Barbos, who thought he had won the bronze medal, dropped the Romanian flag and left the arena in tears.
But when the Romanian Gymnastics Federation appealed to the CAS, it emerged that the investigation came too late.
After the CAS released its initial ruling on Saturday, the FIG changed its final rankings and the International Olympic Committee announced it would reallocate Chile’s medals to Barbos.
Barbos is expected to receive his medal at a ceremony on Friday, the Romanian federation said.
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In a ruling released on Wednesday, the CAS said the FIG had no mechanism for immediately determining whether a referral had been delayed, even though the referral was submitted electronically.
Donatella Sacchi, chair of the FIG Women’s Gymnastics Technical Committee, said when the investigation was received “there was nothing to indicate that the information arrived late.”
The CAS said that because there was no immediate preparation to show that the investigation was delayed, it was reasonable for Sacchi to proceed under the assumption that the investigation had been carried out on time.
“A lot of heartache could have been avoided if the FIG had put such mechanisms and arrangements in place,” CAS said.
Sacchi said FIG also could not identify the name of the person who conducted the investigation because that person was appointed by local organizers.
Appearing as a witness at the hearing, Lundy said he was aware of the one-minute rule and “believed that the investigation was carried out as quickly as possible.”
The CAS continued, “Because everything happened in a hurry, it was not possible to state with certainty whether she made her enquiry within the one-minute limit or beyond it.”
(Photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images)