Like any world-class gymnast, Jordan Chiles is no stranger to twists and somersaults, but what she's endured since giving her all on the floor exercise at the Paris Olympics makes the toughest routine look like child's play.
The latest: it appears that the president of the three-person tribunal of the Court of Arbitration for Sport that stripped him of the bronze medal has a conflict of interest because he is a lawyer who has represented Romanian interests for years.
Hamid G. Gharavi, chair of the panel that also included Philippe Sands and Song Lu, currently serves as Romania’s legal adviser on disputes at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, according to documents released for the first time by the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution. Gharavi’s work on behalf of Romania dates back to at least 2011, according to his resume.
USA Gymnastics said the court had notified it that under its rules the decision cannot be reconsidered “even when new conclusive evidence is presented.” The CAS verdict was kept secret, and the court released a terse one-page statement confirming the decision and saying a detailed document outlining the reasoning behind the outcome would eventually be distributed.
However, USAG said it would “continue to pursue all possible avenues and appeal processes, including the Swiss Federal Tribunal, to ensure fair scoring, placement and medal awarding for Jordan.”
There is precedent for a CAS decision being overturned for bias. In 2021, the Swiss Federal Tribunal — the only body that can appeal a CAS decision — requested a rehearing of a doping case involving Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, a three-time Olympic champion, because one of the panelists may have had an anti-Chinese bias based on his social media posts. The Swiss court accepted the challenge and lifted Yang’s eight-year swimming ban.
Jordan Chiles' gold and bronze medals at the Paris Olympics.
(Charlie Riedel/Associated Press)
Chile's case does not allege doping or cheating. The bronze medal in the floor exercise at the Paris Olympics was wrongly denied because the judges miscalculated her score, then awarded to her, and then taken away and given to Romania's Ana Barbosu because CAS ruled that the U.S. appeal was filed four seconds late.
The United States says it has video evidence that the appeal was filed within the one-minute time limit, but that would fall into the category of “new evidence” that the CAS panel refuses to consider. The Swiss Federal Tribunal only considers appeals alleging procedural violations, and it is not known whether Ghavari’s conflict of interest with respect to Romania falls into that category.
What is clear is that the appeals process is opaque. Experts say one of the foundations of arbitration is that panel members must be impartial.
“The idea that those who decide disputes should be impartial and capable of rendering an award in favor of either party is a cornerstone of arbitration,” wrote Katherine Simpson, a professor of conflict resolution at Cornell University. “This issue raises on the world stage the question of what restrictions, if any, are or should be imposed on CAS arbitrators with respect to their independence and impartiality in the eyes of the parties.
“An arbitration is only as good as the arbitrators. It would seem that this case needs to be examined more closely, for the benefit of both Jordan Chiles and Ana Maria Barbosu.”
The Romanian Gymnastics Federation says it lobbied for the bronze medal to be shared by Chiles, Barbosu and fourth-place finisher Sabrina Maneca-Voinea of Romania, who the federation says was unfairly penalized for stepping out of bounds.
The Romanian federation and USAG also called for an end to social media attacks against gymnasts. Chiles, who is black, has been the target of an onslaught of racist comments on social media. Her mother and sister responded in her defense and Chiles posted a trio of broken hearts on her Instagram story on Saturday, announcing that she will stay off social media for the time being for her mental health.
USAG issued a statement saying Chiles has been subjected to “constant, completely unfounded and extremely hurtful attacks on social media… No athlete should be subjected to such treatment… We commend Jordan for conducting herself with integrity both on and off the competition court, and we continue to support her.”
