You just knew that the Paris Olympics would not end without a judging controversy, didn’t you?
This one involves American gymnast Jordan Chiles, who won the bronze medal on the floor exercises until she didn’t. It seemed her routine had a higher degree of difficulty than that of the original bronze medalist, Romania’s Ana Barbosu, and the U.S. filed an immediate appeal, giving Chiles the medal and devastating Barbosu. But then Romania appealed and Chiles was stripped of the medal, because the U.S. appeal was four seconds too late, even though video reportedly shows that it wasn’t.
The U.S. and Romania agreed to share the bronze medal, but the International Federation of Gymnastics said nothing doing, and now it’s off to the Swiss Federal Tribunal for the ultimate decision. In the meantime, it didn’t take the press long to uncover that Hamid G. Gharavi, who headed the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) panel that ruled against the U.S., had represented Romania in some arbitration cases. So not the most unbiased of judges.
On Friday, Aug. 16, Barbosu got the bronze medal — different from the one awarded at the Paris Games — and Chiles, still in possession of the bronze from Paris, vowed to seek justice.
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