Getty Image
As it turns out, Team USA gymnast Jordan Chiles may have never actually had a chance to keep her Olympic bronze medal once her case went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Don Riddell and David Close revealed a bombshell report on Wednesday stating that Dr. Hamid G. Gharavi, one of the three panelists for the case, lists multiple arbitration cases on his resume in which he has represented Romania.
Gharavi, the head of the three-person panel, ruled in favor of stripping Chiles of her bronze medal in the floor routine and instead giving it to Romanian gymnast Ana Bǎrbosu.
Jordan Chiles Has Received Plenty Of Support Over Romania Controvery
“Sabrina, Jordan, my thoughts are with you. I know what you are feeling, because I’ve been through the same,” Barbosu said in an Instagram post after the ruling. “But I know you’ll come back stronger. I hope from deep of my heart that at the next Olympics, all three of us will share same podium. This is my true dream!”
Now even United States congress members are weighing in, with Tennessee’s Steve Cohen penning a letter backing Chiles.
“I write to express my support and appreciation for your effort to restore Jordan Chiles’ Olympic Bronze Medal for the Gymnastics Women’s Floor Exercise. I have been watching the Olympics closely since 1960, and these games were some of the most inspiring and heartwarming ever. After such a successful games, it is deeply disappointing for this injustice to be the last, sour taste of Paris,” Cohen wrote.
“When weighing the equities at stake, the miscalculation of Ms. Chiles’ score and when an inquiry about this issue was raised on her behalf, the conclusion seems obvious. The rules and procedures should be structured to promote fair play, not to protect against judging mistakes. Further, it is preposterous that an arbitrator could refuse to reconsider a very recent wrongfully decided case in the face of ‘conclusive evidence.'”
Whether Chiles retains her medal is yet to be seen. But it sure seems like the process was rigged against her.