How Simone Biles' Netflix docu may help Jordan Chiles reclaim Olympic bronze medal amid Swiss court appeal
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: US gymnast Jordan Chiles might be able to reclaim her Olympic bronze medal thanks to a video shot by Netflix for a documentary on her Olympian teammate Simone Biles.
According to court documents cited by USA Today on Monday, September 16, Biles' Netflix docuseries, 'Simone Biles: Rising', might be of help for Chiles' latest court appeal for the bronze medal she received at the Paris Olympics.
Jordan Chiles could reclaim Olympic bronze medal thanks to Simone Biles Netflix documentary
Team USA gymnast Jordan Chiles, 23, has been making news again as she filed an appeal with a Swiss court to reverse a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that disqualified her from the Olympics.
Chiles finished the floor exercise finale on August 5 with a score of 13.666, but Team USA revised her score within the allotted 60 seconds, moving her up to third place with a new score of 13.766.
However, her bronze medal was later repealed following Romanian appeal and awarded to Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu.
Despite the Court of Arbitration for Sport's ruling that the inquiry arrived beyond the 60-second window, the audio in the Biles documentary revealed Chiles' coach, Cecile Landi, saying, "Inquiry for Jordan!" 49 seconds after the result was announced, per USA Today.
According to the appeal, Landi said "Inquiry for Jordan" and "For Jordan" twice before the deadline lapsed.
In a flash, Landi successfully convinced the judges to recalculate Chiles' difficulty score, moving her up to bronze, which she received at the medal ceremony, ahead of two Romanian gymnasts.
The documents claimed that Chiles was spotted hugging her coach Landi 15 seconds after the result was announced at the Paris Bercy Arena.
The video evidence that Religion of Sports submitted to the court does not show Landi, but per the filing, Landi "clearly and audibly" expressed "an oral objection for the first time" 49 seconds after the outcome, per People.
According to the lawsuit, the video also purports to show two "technical assistants" nodding at Landi and "making eye contact with" her "to indicate receipt of the Verbal Inquiry."
Netflix documentary director Katie Walsh had several cameras set up inside Bercy Arena, the site of the gymnastics competition at the Paris Olympics, and she also got audio access from Landi, per the court record.
Walsh sent the video to Landi, who forwarded it to the Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Team USA Gymnastics, per the court record.
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Court of Arbitration for Sport refuses 'to consider the video evidence', claims Jordan Chiles' attorney
Jordan Chiles was originally ranked fifth on the floor in Paris, but coach Cecile Landi's American appeal improved her score by a tenth, placing her third after Rebeca Andrade and Biles of Brazil.
The Romanian Athletic Commission subsequently contested the results that disqualified their athlete, Barbosu, from the medal stand.
The United States' initial objection to the scores was deemed illegal by the appeal board because it was submitted four seconds late, per Daily Mail.
Chiles' bronze medal was eventually withdrawn by the Court of Arbitration for Sport due to a "lack of jurisdiction" or a "violation of elementary procedural rules," as per the CAS Website.
However, based on footage shot for Biles' documentary, it appears that USA Gymnastics is confident they have the video proof that their challenge was completed ahead of the one-minute deadline.
According to Chiles's legal representative's petition on Monday, the CAS "violated Chiles’s fundamental ‘right to be heard’ by refusing to consider the video evidence that showed her inquiry was submitted on time — in direct contradiction to the findings in CAS’s decision."
USA Gymnastics also claimed that there was a "serious conflict of interest" between Chiles and Romania's Barbosu in the case of CAS president Hamid G Gharavi, per People.
According to the documents, Gharavi represented Romania actively at the time the CAS decided to deprive Chiles of her medal and served as counsel for the country for almost 10 years.
The gymnast's attorneys further claimed that the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) also submitted a letter on Monday endorsing Chiles' appeal.
USA Gymnastics declared in a statement that same day that it was in favor of Chiles' appeal and that it had taken a "collective, strategic decision to have Jordan lead the initial filing."
