Jordan Childs will be looking to reclaim the bronze medal, and Simone Biles could follow soon after.
Chilis and her legal team have appealed to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that denied Chilis third place in the women's floor exercise final at the Paris Olympics. Chilis dropped from third to fifth place because her U.S. coaches, who outscored the Romanian gymnast, filed an appeal too late. Chilis has been asked to return her bronze medal, but there are no reports that she has done so or has plans to do so.
Now, Childs and her legal team are trying to have her reinstated as an official medalist, and their case could be helped by footage from a new Netflix documentary series focusing on Childs.
According to court documents filed Monday with the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, her lawyers have presented footage of visual evidence in Childs' favor from the company that produces Biles' Netflix series. According to multiple reports, the lawyers argue that the footage proves that a request for review that would have increased Childs' score was not filed in time.
According to documents, the investigation by US supervisor Cecil Lundy took place 49 seconds after the result was announced – within the 60-second grace period allowed for an appeal.
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Team USA gymnasts Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles pose with their Paris 2024 Olympic medals after the women's floor exercise final in artistic gymnastics on day 10 of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena on August 5, 2024 in Paris, France. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Childs' legal team argues that the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which handed down the final ruling, “violated Childs' fundamental 'right to express his opinion' by refusing to consider video evidence showing that Childs' questions were submitted in due time, in a manner that directly contradicts the CAS ruling.”
Her lawyers also alleged that CAS President Hamid G. Garavi had a conflict of interest. The medal, originally won by Ana Babos of Romania, was stripped after review and then returned, represented a country with which Garavi had close ties. Garavi served as Romania's legal counsel for nearly a decade and was an active representative of the country at the time of the CAS's decision to strip Chile of the medal.
Childs spoke about the incident for the first time this week during a panel discussion at Forbes' Power Women Summit 2024 on Wednesday, where she visibly choked up when asked about the topic.
“For me, everything that's happened is not about the medal, it's about the color of my skin,” Chiles said through tears.
Childs previously claimed she had been subject to “racist abuse” from social media users in a statement posted to X on August 15. With her bronze medal, Childs became the first person in Olympic history to have three black gymnasts on a gymnastics podium.
Biles has been a vocal supporter of her teammate throughout this time, as she and Brazil's Rebecca Andrade were the first to stand on an all-Black podium in the floor exercise final.
The controversy has led to increased international scrutiny of the judges who judged the event, with the Centre for Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) issuing a joint statement on August 15 condemning the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the judging team for the result.
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Jordan Chiles of the United States competes in the floor exercise during the third day of artistic gymnastics finals at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, August 5, 2024. (Jack Gruber – USA Today Sports)
“A lot of heartache could have been avoided if FIG had put such mechanisms and arrangements in place,” the CAS special committee said in a statement. “The committee expects that FIG will handle the outcome of this case appropriately, with regard to these three exceptional athletes, as well as other athletes and their support staff, to ensure that this never happens again in the future.”
Since the day of the floor exercise final in Paris, this has been an emotionally charged topic for both the Americans and the Romanians.
Barbos began celebrating on the mat after winning bronze on floor exercise on Monday, but then U.S. coaches protested Chiles' score to the judges, and after a review, Chiles was given 0.1 points to beat Barbos to the bronze medal.
The initial ruling sparked an outcry, with gymnastics legend Nadia Comaneci denouncing the score change on social media and Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Colac threatening to boycott the Paris Olympics closing ceremony over the judging decision.
That all changed on the last day of the Olympics, just before the closing ceremony. CAS ruled that the competition's judging panel had improperly allowed an investigation that inflated Chile's scores. The next day, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) ordered Chile to return its medals.
Chile becomes just the third gymnast in history to have an Olympic medal stripped – the other two being China's Dong Fangjun and Romania's Andrea Raducan, both of whom were stripped of their medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
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Team USA silver medalist Simone Biles (left) and bronze medalist Jordan Childs (right) celebrate after competing in the women's floor exercise final in artistic gymnastics on day 10 of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena on August 5, 2024 in Paris, France. (Xavier Laing/Getty Images)
Raducan's gold medal in the individual all-around was stripped after he tested positive for a banned substance in a cold medicine administered by his team doctor, and China's bronze medal in the team all-around was stripped after it was discovered that Dong was only 14 in Sydney, two years too young to have competed.
Meanwhile, Barbos received his official bronze medal on August 16 and expressed his sympathy for the Chilean athlete.
“Our thoughts are with Sabrina and Jordan at this time,” Barbos said in a statement. “This is a difficult time for us, with so much uncertainty and overwhelming emotions. We hope everyone can understand that we have done nothing wrong at the Olympics and that the Olympic spirit is more important than any misunderstanding between authorities.”
“I want to believe that one day all three of us will be able to win a bronze medal.”
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