Simone Biles’s Netflix documentary could be the reason Jordan Chiles gets her bronze medal reinstated.
Chiles filed her appeal Monday to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, fighting the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision to strip her of her bronze medal in the women’s floor final in Paris. The CAS sided with the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, which claimed Chiles submitted the challenge that launched her into third place four seconds too late. Following the CAS decision, Ana Bărbosu of Romania was declared the bronze medal winner, which bumped Chiles to fifth place.
But Chiles might be able to complete one more stunning flip. Chiles’s appeal reveals that footage for Simone Biles Rising—two episodes of which were released in the lead-up to the Olympics, and two covering the competition are set to be released later this year—shows Team USA, Biles, and Chiles’s head coach, Cécile Landi, multiple times calling for a challenge before the one-minute deadline.
“Inquiry for Jordan!” Landi, who was mic’d up for the documentary, can be heard saying starting at the 49-second mark after Chiles’s score was first announced. “One of the two technical assistants, dressed in white, made eye contact with her and nodded to indicate the receipt of the Verbal Inquiry,” says the appeal, translated from its original publication in German. After that, Landi repeated “Inquiry for Jordan,” and “For Jordan,” all before the deadline passed, according to the appeal.
The whole process since Chiles was given her medal has been a messy one. The CAS attempted to communicate about the situation with invalid USA Gymnastics and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee email addresses for three days. Chiles, USAG, and USOPC officials found out with less than three hours to submit a response before an arbitration hearing the next morning, the appeal claims.
Chiles’s appeal argues the CAS violated her “right to be heard.” The documents also claim a conflict of interest by the president of the CAS arbitration panel, who represents the Romanian government in international court. The lawyer, Hamid Gharavi, disclosed his ties at the time, but none of this reached the Americans.
“Jordan Chiles’ appeals present the international community with an easy legal question—will everyone stand by while an Olympic athlete who has done only the right thing is stripped of her medal because of fundamental unfairness in an ad-hoc arbitration process? The answer to that question should be no. Every part of the Olympics, including the arbitration process, should stand for fair play,” Chiles’s attorney Maurice Suh said in a statement.
On top of the legal back-and-forth, Chiles has also faced an onslaught of hateful comments on social media. “This decision feels unjust and comes as a significant blow, not just to me, but to everyone who has championed my journey. To add to the heartbreak, the unprompted racially driven attacks on social media are wrong and extremely hurtful,” Chiles posted on social media in August.
