The U.S. Olympic officials plan to appeal a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that stripped American gymnast Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal from the Paris Olympics due to a timing error in her coach’s appeal.
The International Olympic Committee confirmed reallocating the medal to Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu.
“We firmly believe that Jordan rightfully earned the bronze medal, and there were critical errors in both the initial scoring by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the subsequent CAS appeal process that need to be addressed,” the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee statement said.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee argues that critical errors in scoring and the appeal process unfairly affected Chiles and is exploring further legal actions to contest the decision.
“The initial error occurred in the scoring by FIG, and the second error was during the CAS appeal process, where the USOPC was not given adequate time or notice to effectively challenge the decision,” said the USOPC statement.
Chiles hinted at the decision in an Instagram story, saying she was heartbroken and is “taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health, thank you.”
