American gymnast Jordan Chiles and the US Olympic team may very well feel like protagonists in a Franz Kafka novel, as they find themselves trapped in an increasingly surreal scenario while attempting to reclaim her bronze medal.

Their efforts to reclaim the bronze medal that Chiles thought she had won during the floor exercise at the Paris Olympics are encountering some increasingly bizarre obstacles, and a new twist in the ongoing saga emerged Tuesday.

The head of the three-person panel at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which ruled that the USA’s initial inquiry over Chiles’ floor exercise score was filed after the one-minute deadline and awarded third place to Romanian Ana Bǎrbosu on Saturday, has been representing Romanian interests for years.

Dr. Hamid G. Gharavi, Philippe Sands and Song Lu sat on the panel, of which Gharavi was the president, according to CAS. Gharavi’s resume, linked on CAS’ website, lists multiple legal cases in which he has represented Romania in arbitration cases.

American gymnast Jordan Chiles and the US Olympic team may very well feel like protagonists in a Franz Kafka novel, as they find themselves trapped in an increasingly surreal scenario while attempting to reclaim her bronze medal.

Their efforts to reclaim the bronze medal that Chiles thought she had won during the floor exercise at the Paris Olympics are encountering some increasingly bizarre obstacles, and a new twist in the ongoing saga emerged Tuesday.

The head of the three-person panel at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which ruled that the USA’s initial inquiry over Chiles’ floor exercise score was filed after the one-minute deadline and awarded third place to Romanian Ana Bǎrbosu on Saturday, has been representing Romanian interests for years.

Dr. Hamid G. Gharavi, Philippe Sands and Song Lu sat on the panel, of which Gharavi was the president, according to CAS. Gharavi’s resume, linked on CAS’ website, lists multiple legal cases in which he has represented Romania in arbitration cases.

Initially, Bǎrbosu thought she had the medal until the US team successfully appealed the judge’s scoring of Chiles’ routine, elevating the American from fifth place up to third and into an instantly iconic image of the first-ever all-black podium in Olympic gymnastics. Chiles held the medal for just five days before CAS awarded it to Bǎrbosu.

Complicating matters, the communication ahead of the court’s decision was flawed.

According to CNN’s contributor Christine Brennan, CAS notified the wrong US officials of the hearing on Saturday.

The US team now says they have video evidence that their appeal was lodged well within the designated 60-second window – but US Gymnastics says CAS informed them that, according to its own rules, the decision cannot be reconsidered “even when conclusive new evidence is presented.”

On Monday, USA Gymnastics said it would “continue to pursue every possible avenue and appeal process, including to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, to ensure the just scoring, placement, and medal award for Jordan.”