A major conflict of interest may be surrounding the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision to strip gymnast Jordan Chiles of her Olympic bronze medal and award it to Romania’s Ana Barbos.
The president of the three-judge tribunal that ruled in Romania’s favour had previously represented the country in arbitration cases. According to documents reported by The New York Times.
The complaint alleges that the U.S. failed to request an investigation into Chile’s scores — which was ultimately successful — before a one-minute deadline.
The US now claims it has video evidence showing the appeal was made within the one-minute deadline, but has failed to persuade CAS to reconsider the ruling.
The decision to reallocate Chiles’ bronze medal in the floor exercise to Barbos was made over the weekend, but few details have been released about the deliberations or how the decision was reached.
The decision has sparked outrage in the United States, with US Olympic and gymnastics officials threatening to take the issue to a Swiss court.
Outrage over the decision is likely to be further fuelled by revelations that the head of the committee, Hamid G. Garavi, has ties to Romania.
According to details first published by the International Institute for Dispute Resolution and Prevention and reported by The Times, Garavi is a French lawyer who is acting as legal adviser to Romania in the dispute at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
He began working for the Romanians nearly a decade ago, but sports court rules require arbitrators to disclose any conflicts of interest before hearings begin.
In an email to The Times, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said Garavi had disclosed his work for Romania and that no objections had been raised by the parties involved.
“In accordance with the guidelines on conflicts of interest issued by the International Bar Association (IBA), the CAS has no grounds to remove an arbitrator who makes such a disclosure, unless the parties challenge the arbitrator’s appointment,” the statement said.
USA Gymnastics has said it intends to explore all options to challenge the CAS ruling, including taking it to the Swiss Federal Court, which can only hear appeals of CAS decisions regarding procedural violations.
China has argued that the chairman of the tribunal that investigated the doping cases of top Chinese swimmers may have been biased against China, and got lucky in front of Switzerland.
The decision to award Barbos the bronze medal dropped the Chilean team to fifth place, and Barbos was heartbroken by the decision.
