US gymnast Jordan Childs is looking to overturn a decision that stripped her of her first individual Olympic medal.
Video footage shot for the Netflix documentary series “Simone Biles Rising” may help her succeed.
Chilean lawyers on Monday filed an appeal with the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, seeking to overturn a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport that awarded Romania’s Ana Barbos a bronze medal in the floor exercise at last month’s Paris Olympics.
Childs was awarded the medal on Aug. 5 after an investigation by her coach, Cecil Lundy, led judges to increase Childs’ score, moving the UCLA gymnast to third place from her initial fifth place ranking. This created a historic moment as gold medalist Rebecca Andrade, silver medalist Biles and Childs became the first all-Black athletes to make the podium in Olympic history.
But a few days later, after a hearing requested by Romanian authorities, the CAS ruled that Randi’s investigation had gone four seconds over the one-minute limit, and the International Olympic Committee awarded Barbos the bronze medal, dropping Chile to fifth place.
USA Gymnastics immediately appealed the decision to the CAS, presenting video evidence that purportedly showed Lundy’s question came 47 seconds after Childs’ score was announced. The appeal was denied.
The footage was submitted as evidence in a Swiss court on Monday, but Childs’ lawyers said in their filings that it was provided by “Simone Biles Rising” director Katie Walsh and her production company Religion of Sport. Walsh and her team were in Paris to film Biles’ Olympic journey for the second part of the series, but they also captured footage that is key to Childs’ case.
According to court documents filed in German, Walsh contacted Randy after Childs’ sentence to express his support. Randy asked if the director had any footage of what happened after Childs’ floor exercise, and eventually received a video that included footage from three cameras Religion of Sport had at the event, as well as footage from NBC’s live broadcast and the running clock.
Maurice Sue, an attorney for Religion of Sports & Chilis, did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
According to court documents, the video shows Lundy approaching the judges’ table 47 seconds after Chiles’ score is displayed. Lundy can be heard verbally objecting two seconds later, and the technical assistant can be seen making eye contact with her and acknowledging that the objection was accepted, according to the lawsuit. Lundy verbally objected at least one more time before the 60-second time limit expired.
Su said in a statement Monday that CAS’s refusal to provide video evidence violated Chilis’ “right to express his opinion.” He also alleged a “serious conflict of interest” with Hamid G. Garavi, the head of the CAS committee that handled Chilis’ case and who was also representing Romania as a lawyer at the time of the hearings.
Chiles and Biles are among the gymnasts competing in the Gold Across America Tour, which begins Friday at Crypto.com Arena.