Jordan Chiles’ stripped bronze is biggest gymnastics controversy since Sydney Olympics disaster

Chiles is the first gymnast to be stripped of an Olympic medal since 2000, when equipment errors and medal-stripping disputes tarnished the results.

The International Olympic Committee’s decision to strip U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles of her floor exercise bronze medal is the sport’s highest-profile controversy since the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the site of the biggest scandal in Olympic gymnastics history.

The IOC found Sunday that a scoring inquiry by the U.S. was invalid, echoing a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, or CAS, which found that the scoring appeal from Chiles’ coach was filed four seconds too late. Romania’s Ana Bărbosu, 18, was retroactively deemed the floor exercise bronze medalist.

Hamid Gharavi was president of the panel that decided the Chiles case, documents show, and he has represented Romania in other cases, according to his company’s online bio, which could raise questions about the decision that elevated a Romanian athlete.

Gharavi said Tuesday that he is not allowed to comment on the Chiles case or any other case. The Court of Arbitration for Sport has not responded to NBC News’ request for comment, but that court told The New York Times that Gharavi disclosed his work with Romania, and none of the parties involved objected to him as chair, so it had no reason to remove him.

On Wednesday, however, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee pushed back, accusing CAS of making “significant procedural errors,” and saying that it did raise objections to CAS after it learned of the supposed mistakes.

A statement from USOPC said the arbitration court “sent crucial communications to erroneous email addresses at USOPC and USAG [USA Gymnastics]” from Aug. 6-9. The error, the USOPC said, was not corrected until Aug. 9, which was “three days after filing, two days past the deadline to submit objections, and less than 24 hours before the hearing.”

The error “deprived us of adequate time to respond meaningfully or gather necessary evidence,” USOPC said.

“We informed CAS of our objections immediately,” the committee said. “Our objections have since been validated by new evidence indicating administrative errors by FIG [the International Gymnastics Federation] and mishandlings by CAS, which would have been impossible to raise at the time of the rushed hearing. In short, we were denied a meaningful opportunity to be heard.”

The statement concluded: “Given these circumstances, we are committed to pursuing an appeal to ensure Jordan Chiles receives the recognition she deserves. Our pursuit of truth in this matter remains unwavering.”

Chiles is the only gymnast in history to be stripped of an Olympic medal for reasons other than age falsification or failed drug tests. Some of the problems in Sydney lay elsewhere.

At the Sydney Games in 2000, the vaulting table was set to the incorrect height during the women’s all-around final, putting the world’s best gymnasts in danger and jeopardizing the validity of the competition’s results.
The table was set nearly 2 inches lower than required. Seventeen gymnasts, including gold-medal favorite Svetlana Khorkina, of Russia, crashed their vaults before officials in the arena pulled out tape measures and discovered the error.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, even at a little, local meet,” then-U.S. women’s program coordinator Kathy Kelly told ESPN at the time. “It’s bizarre, is what it is.”

All competitors who vaulted on the incorrect setting were given a second chance, but for Khorkina, the damage had already been done.

After Khorkina landed a disastrous vault on her knees, she suffered another fall on her second event, the uneven bars. When the equipment error was revealed, she declined to repeat her vault.

Multiple gymnasts in Sydney were eventually stripped of their medals for reasons unrelated to the equipment disaster.