USA Gymnastics has submitted additional evidence to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in defense of Jordan Chiles, overturning its ruling that she must return her bronze medal. The “time-stamped video evidence” shows that head coach Cecile Landi “first expressed her request to file an investigation at the investigation table 47 seconds after the result was announced.”
Landi then made a second statement at the investigation table 55 seconds after Chiles’ score was initially announced, USA Gymnastics added. The timing of the investigation is crucial because Chiles and her team were given just one minute to submit an investigation at the end of their routine.
The statement reads as follows:
“USA Gymnastics on Sunday formally submitted to the Court of Arbitration for Sport a letter and video evidence conclusively proving that head coach Cecile Landi’s request to launch an investigation was submitted 47 seconds after the result was released, within the one-minute time limit required by FIG rule.
“In the letter, USA Gymnastics calls for a review of the CAS decision and the reinstatement of Chile’s bronze medal score of 13.766.
“The basis for CAS’s decision on Friday to reject the investigation was that ‘the investigation submitted on behalf of Ms. Jordan Chiles in the Women’s Floor Exercise Final was made after the expiry of the one-minute time limit under Article 8.5 of the 2024 FIG Technical Regulations and is deemed to be ineffective.’
“Time-stamped video evidence presented by USA Gymnastics on Sunday evening shows that Landi first uttered her request for an investigation at the investigation table 47 seconds after the result was released, followed by a second statement 55 seconds after the original result was released.
“The video footage provided was not available to USA Gymnastics prior to the Tribunal’s decision and therefore USAG had no opportunity to submit it beforehand,” the statement concluded.
On Saturday, Chile’s sister Jazmin wrote in an Instagram story that she was being stripped of her bronze medal. “Please pray for Jordan (and my family),” Jazmin pleaded. “Racism is real, it exists, it is alive and well.”
“Five days later, she was officially stripped of one of her medals,” Jazmin added. “Not because she didn’t win, not because she was drugged, not because she left the venue. Not because she wasn’t good enough. But because the judges didn’t see the need to give her a hard time and forced an investigation.”
Chiles was the last athlete to compete on Monday night and initially received a score of 13.666, putting her behind Romania’s Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, who each scored 13.700. After Landi’s question, the judges gave Chiles an adjusted score of 13.766.
The Court of Justice for Sport had previously ruled that Landis’ request that Chiles should have been given an extra 0.1 point for the difficulty was submitted four seconds after the one-minute time limit for protests. “She was stripped of her bronze medal for losing four seconds, which should never have happened if the judges had done their job,” Jazmin added.
The International Sport Tribunal recommended that Romanian Barbosu be awarded third place, Maneca-Voinea fourth place and Chile fifth place, but ultimately left the decision to the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).
The Romanian Olympic Committee had requested that three bronze medals be awarded to Chiles, Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea.
“We are devastated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s ruling on the women’s floor exercise,” USA Gymnastics said earlier in a statement released Saturday. “The investigation into the difficulty level of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise was submitted in good faith and, in our opinion, was consistent with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring.”
