LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — A gymnastics medal disputed by the United States and Romania at the 2024 Paris Olympics is heading for a fresh legal review in a Swiss court.
Switzerland’s federal court said on Thursday its judges sent the “highly exceptional circumstances” of the bronze medal awarded in the women’s floor exercise back to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to examine new evidence.
The outcome of an event that created a celebrated Olympic photo featuring bronze medalist Jordan Chiles and silver medalist Simone Biles rests on just a handful of seconds: Can the U.S. team prove it made a timely appeal in the Olympic arena on behalf of Chiles?
The federal judges’ ruling suggested Chiles could regain the bronze medal she originally got in Paris after challenging her judged score.
At the medal ceremony, teammates Chiles and Biles kneeled to acclaim gold medalist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil as she stepped on the podium.
Chiles’ third-place finish was overturned within days on appeal by the Romania team to the CAS’ Olympic court in Paris. The medal was awarded in Bucharest the next week to Ana Maria Barbosu.
The federal court wants CAS to examine a recording that could show the original U.S. challenge of the judged score was within a one-minute deadline on the field of play.
“In the highly exceptional circumstances of the case in question,” the Swiss federal court said in a statement, “it considers that there is a likelihood for the audio-visual recording of the final on Aug. 5 2024 to lead to a modification of the contested award in favor of the applicant (Chiles).”
The CAS said in a statement on Thursday it “can now ensure a thorough judicial review of the new evidence that has since been made available.”
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AP Olympics at https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
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