American Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles may receive her bronze medal back following new evidence

American gymnast Jordan Chiles may receive her Olympic bronze medal, which was taken from her at the 2024 Paris Olympics after it was ruled that the judging inquiry filed by her coach came too late, following new audio-visual evidence.

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court has sent Chiles’ case back to court due to an audio-visual recording which suggests Chiles’ coach filed a judging inquiry within the correct timeframe. At Paris 2024, Chiles was initially awarded fifth place in the women’s floor exercise final, but this was then changed to third place after her coach placed a judging inquiry which bumped up Chiles’ score.

However, it was ruled in court that this was submitted four seconds too late and that the bronze medal had to be stripped from Chiles. Chiles then filed an appeal to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court later that year.

The Swiss court has suggested that new audio-visual evidence could: “lead to a modification of the contested award in favour of the applicants, since the CAS could consider, in the light of this audio-visual sequence, that the verbal inquiry made on behalf of Jordan Chiles had been made before the expiry of the regulatory one-minute time limit…

The Federal Supreme Court therefore partially overturns the contested award and refers the case back to the CAS for a new ruling, taking into account the probative value of the audio-visual recording in question.”

Maurice M. Suh, one of Chiles’ attorney’s, stated: “We are delighted that the Swiss Federal Supreme Court has righted a wrong and given Jordan the chance she deserves to reclaim her bronze medal…

We appreciate that Jordan will receive a full and fair opportunity to defend her bronze medal. She is ready to fight vigorously, and we look forward to helping her achieve that result.”

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. For full licence details, please click here.

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