New Evidence Supports US Gymnastics’ Claims That Jordan Chiles Was Wrongfully Stripped of Olympic Medal

Charlie Riedel/AP

New evidence submitted by American gymnastics star Jordan Chiles supports her claim that she was wrongfully stripped of her Olympic bronze medal.

During the women’s floor routine final, Chiles completed a routine that initially didn’t receive a high enough score to put her on the podium. After a coach went to the judges to file appeal, her score was readjusted and given an additional tenth of a point. That extra tenth put her in third place — securing the bronze medal in the event.

Days later, however, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that Chiles’ coach Cecile Landi did not submit the appeal in time. Scoring inquiries must be requested within a minute of the score being posted.

On Monday, it was reported that Chiles filed an appeal on CAS’s ruling in Switzerland’s Supreme Court. Using multiple angles of previously unseen footage, the evidence revealed that Landi made the inquiry well within the one-minute period.

Omega, the Swiss watchmaker responsible to timekeeping at the event, recorded the “Official Score Time” at 3:32:17 p.m. Three seconds later, the score appeared on the video board in the venue.

At 3:33:03 p.m., Landi began walking over to the inquiry table. Three seconds later, she can be heard plainly saying, “Inquiry for Jordan.” Eight seconds later, she repeated the phrase.

Despite clear time stamps in the video, officials at the event logged the times incorrectly. The button pressed to initiate the inquiry came one minute and one second after the score was posted.

As reported by The Washington Post, Chiles’ appeal to the Swiss court cites “procedural issues” by the CAS.