Chuck Schilken | (TNS) Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — American gymnast Jordan Chiles is seeking to overturn a decision that denied her her first individual Olympic medal.
Video footage shot for the Netflix docuseries “Simone Biles Rising” may help her do just that.
Chiles’ lawyers filed an appeal Monday with the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, seeking to overturn a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport that named Ana Barbosu of Romania, the bronze medalist in floor exercises last month at the Paris Games.
Chiles was awarded the medal on August 5 after an investigation by her coach Cecile Landi led the judges to improve Chiles’ score, which moved the UCLA gymnast from her initial fifth-place finish to third. It led to a historic moment, with gold medalist Rebeca Andrade, silver medalist Biles and Chiles making up the first all-Black gymnastics podium in Olympic history.
But days later, following a hearing requested by Romanian officials, CAS ruled that Landi’s investigation had missed the one-minute time window by four seconds, leading the International Olympic Committee to award Barbosu bronze and drop Chiles to fifth place.
The U.S. gymnastics team immediately appealed the decision to CAS, submitting video evidence that Landi’s investigation took place 47 seconds after Chiles’ score was released. That appeal was denied.
The footage was presented as evidence in Swiss court on Monday, with Chiles’ lawyer noting in the filing that it came from “Simone Biles Rising” director Katie Walsh and the production company Religion of Sport. Walsh and her crew were on location in Paris to film Biles’ Olympic journey for the second part of the series — and they 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 after Chiles’ decision. Landi asked if the director had any footage of what happened after Chiles’ floor performance and ended up receiving a video that included footage from the three cameras Religion of Sport had at the event, as well as NBC’s live feed and a running 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 walking toward the judges’ table 47 seconds after Chiles’ score was posted. 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 time limit expired.
In a statement Monday, Suh said Chiles’ “right to be heard” was violated when CAS refused to allow the video evidence to be presented. He also alleged a “serious conflict of interest” with Hamid G. Gharavi, the president of the CAS panel that handled Chiles’ case, who also represented Romania as a lawyer at the time of the hearing.
Chiles and Biles are among the gymnasts competing in the Gold Across America Tour, which stops at Crypto.com Arena on Friday.
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