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Jordan Chiles is coming to try and get her bronze medal back, and Simone Biles may be right there behind her.
Chiles and her legal team filed an appeal to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland to undo a ruling in the Paris Olympics that denied her a third-place finish in the women's gymnastics floor routine final. Chiles was bumped from third place to fifth place after an appeal by U.S. coaches that increased her score over Romanian competitors was submitted too late. She was told to give back the bronze medal, but there are no reports that indicate she has or will.
Now, as Chiles and her legal team look to reinstate her as the official medalist, their case may be aided by footage in a new Netflix docuseries focused on Biles.
According court documents filed in the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland on Monday, her attorney has submitted footage from the company producing Biles' Netflix series that they allege shows visual evidence in favor of Chiles. They claim the footage proves that the request for the review that bumped Chiles' score up was not submitted past deadline, according to multiple reports.
The documents say that the inquiry by U.S. coach Cecile Landy came 49 seconds after the result came in, which falls within the 60-second window granted for appeals.
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Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles of Team United States pose with their Paris 2024 Olympic medals following the Artistic Gymnastics Women's Floor Exercise Final on day ten of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on Aug. 5, 2024 in Paris, France. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Chiles' lawyers have argued that the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which made the final ruling, "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."
Her lawyers also claimed that CAS president Hamid G. Gharavi was acting in a conflict of interest. The medal, which was initially won by Romania's Ana Babosu, taken away after review, then returned to, represented a country that Gharavi had close ties to. Gharavi acted as counsel for Romania for nearly a decade and had been an active representative of the nation at the time of the CAS' decision to strip Chiles of her medal.
Chiles gave her first sit-down interview about the incident this week during a panel at the Forbes Power Women's Summit 2024 on Wednesday. The gymnast noticeably choked up when she was asked about the topic.
"To me, everything that has gone on is not about the medal, it's about, you know, my skin color," Chiles said, tearing up.
Chiles previously claimed she was facing "racially driven attacks" from social media users in a statement posted to X on Aug. 15. When Chiles won the bronze medal, it resulted in the first gymnastics podium in Olympic history that featured three Black contestants.
Biles has been a vocal supporter of her teammate during this time, as she was the one who initially stood on the first all-black podium at the floor exercise final with her and Brazilian Rebecca Andrade.
The controversy has brought international scrutiny upon the judges who scored the event. The Center of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) released a joint statement on Aug. 15 condemning the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the judging crew for the outcome.
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Aug 5, 2024; Paris, France; Jordan Chiles of the United States competes on the floor exercise on day three of the gymnastics event finals during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games. (Jack Gruber-USA TODAY Sports)
"If the FIG had put such a mechanism or arrangement in place, a great deal of heartache would have been avoided," the CAS’ ad-hoc panel said in a release. "The Panel expresses the hope that the FIG will draw the consequences of this case, in relation to these three extraordinary Athletes and also for other Athletes and their supporting personnel, in the future, so that this never happens again."
It has been a point of emotional contention for both Americans and Romanians since the day of the floor exercise final in Paris.
Barbosu had initially clinched the bronze medal for floor on Monday and began celebrating on the mat. But then U.S. coaches appealed to judges over Chiles’ score, and a review resulted in a 0.1-point increase, which moved Chiles ahead of Barbosu for the bronze medal.
The initial ruling resulted in a wave of backlash. Gymnastics legend Nadia Comaneci condemned the score change on social media, and Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that he would boycott the Paris Olympics’ closing ceremony over the scoring decision.
Everything changed on the final day of the Olympics, just ahead of the closing ceremony. That's when the CAS ruled that the judging panel at the event had improperly granted an inquiry that increased Chiles' score. The next day the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) ruled that Chiles would have to return the medal.
Chiles became only the third gymnast in history to have an Olympic medal stripped. The other two were China's Dong Fangxiao and Romania's Andreea Răducan, both of whom lost their medals from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
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Silver medalist Simone Biles (L) and bronze medalist Jordan Chiles (R) of Team United States celebrate after competing the Artistic Gymnastics Women's Floor Exercise Final on day ten of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on Aug. 5, 2024 in Paris, France. (Xavier Laine/Getty Images)
Răducan's individual all-around gold medal was stripped after testing positive for a banned substance from cold-medicine pills given to her by a team doctor. China's team all-around bronze was stripped after it was discovered Dong was just 14 years old in Sydney, which is two years too young to compete.
Meanwhile, Barbosu received her own official bronze medal on Aug. 16, and expressed sympathy for Chiles.
"I can't help but think about Sabrina and Jordan right now," Barbosu said in a statement. "It's a difficult situation for us, with so many uncertainties and overwhelming emotions. I hope everyone understands that we have not done anything wrong at the Olympics. And that the Olympic spirit is more important than any misunderstanding between the authorities.
"I want to believe that the day will come when all three of us will receive a bronze medal."
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