American gymnast Jordan Chiles is seeking to overturn a ruling that stripped her of her first individual Olympic medal.
A video shot for the Netflix documentary series “Simone Biles Rising” could help her do just that.
Chiles' lawyers filed an appeal with Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court on Monday seeking to overturn a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport that named Ana Barbosu of Romania the bronze medalist in the floor exercise at last month's Paris Games.
Chiles had been awarded the medal on Aug. 5 after a query from her coach Cecile Landi resulted in the judges upgrading Chiles’ score, elevating the UCLA gymnast from her initial fifth place to third place. This led to a historic moment, with gold medalist Rebeca Andrade, silver medalist Biles and Chiles forming the first all-black gymnastics podium in Olympic history.
But days later, after a hearing requested by Romanian officials, CAS ruled that Landi's investigation failed to comply with the one-minute-by-four-second time window, prompting the International Olympic Committee to award bronze to Barbosu and push Chile back to fifth place.
USA Gymnastics immediately appealed the decision to CAS, presenting video evidence purportedly showing that Landi's query occurred 47 seconds after Chiles' score was posted. The appeal was denied.
The footage was submitted as evidence to the Swiss court on Monday, and Chiles’ attorney noted in the filing that it came from “Simone Biles Rising” director Katie Walsh and production company Religion of Sport. Walsh and her crew had been on hand in Paris to film Biles’ Olympic journey for the second part of the series, and also ended up capturing key footage for Chiles’ case.
According to the court document, which was filed in German, Walsh reached out to Landi to express his support following Chiles’ decision. Landi asked if the director had any footage of what happened after Chiles’ performance on stage and ended up receiving a video containing footage from all three cameras Religion of Sport had at the event, as well as NBC’s live feed and a ticking clock.
Religion of Sports and Chiles' attorney, Maurice Suh, did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
According to the court document, the video shows Landi addressing the judges’ table 47 seconds after Chiles’ score was shown. Two seconds later, according to the filing, Landi can be heard making a verbal objection while a technical assistant can be seen making eye contact with her and acknowledging that the objection was received. Landi verbalized the objection at least one more time before the 60-second limit expired.
In a statement issued on Monday, Suh said Chiles’ “right to be heard” was violated when CAS refused to allow the presentation of the video evidence. He also alleged “a serious conflict of interest” with Hamid G. Gharavi, the head of the CAS panel that handled Chiles’ case, who was also representing Romania as a lawyer at the time of the hearing.
Chiles and Biles are among the gymnasts appearing on the Gold Across America Tour, which stops at Crypto.com Arena on Friday.
