Footage for Simone Biles' Netflix doc could be smoking gun in Jordan Chiles' medal appeal

If Jordan Chiles gets to keep her Olympic bronze medal, she might have teammate Simone Biles − and her Netflix documentary − to thank.

Court documents released Monday reveal that the video footage at the center of Chiles' appeal efforts was provided by director Katie Walsh and production company Religion of Sports, who received special permission to film in Bercy Arena as part of Biles' latest documentary project, "Simone Biles: Rising." The first two episodes of the docuseries were released prior to the 2024 Paris Olympics and two more are still to come later this year.

The footage could prove to be the proverbial smoking gun in Chiles' fight to hold onto her bronze medal, because it undercuts a key factual finding in the Court of Arbitration for Sport's ruling − showing that the American gymnast's appeal of her score, known as an inquiry, had been submitted well before the 60-second deadline.

"Inquiry for Jordan!" Chiles' coach, Cecile Landi, is heard saying on the documentary footage precisely 49 seconds after Chiles' score in the floor exercise final was announced. She also repeats "inquiry for Jordan" and "for Jordan" prior to the 60-second deadline.

The CAS ruling appeared to hinge on the timing of that inquiry, which placed Chiles ahead of two Romanian gymnasts and earned her a bronze medal. The inquiry was accepted in the moment, but the Romanian Gymnastics Federation later argued that it had been submitted four seconds too late and should be nullified. CAS agreed, issuing a ruling that effectively dropped Chiles back to fifth and elevated Romania's Ana Barbosu into bronze medal position.

One day after CAS' ruling, however, USA Gymnastics announced that it had received new video evidence that would prove Chiles' inquiry had been submitted on time by Landi, who is both Chiles' personal coach and was the coach of the U.S. team in Paris. It sent the video to CAS but declined to publicly reveal any details about the footage or its source.

CAS rejected the video, saying it couldn't be submitted after its decision had been issued.

Then, on Monday, Chiles formally appealed the CAS ruling to the Swiss Federal Tribunal. The documents submitted by her attorneys not only disclose the source of the new video footage, which spans nearly 7 minutes, they even include a hyperlink to it. Chiles' attorneys also argued that CAS erred in not accepting the video.

According to the documents, Chiles' team learned of the footage when Walsh, the docuseries' director, texted Landi a message of condolences about the situation.

"We aren't letting this go so easily and will keep looking for video and stuff," Landi replied.

Landi then realized that Walsh's team might have additional video and audio beyond what had already been published by NBC and the Olympic Broadcasting Services, a subsidiary of the International Olympic Committee that distributes footage of competition to media outlets around the world.

According to the documents, Walsh's team had three cameras positioned in Bercy Arena as well as access to audio from Landi, who coaches both Biles and Chiles and was wearing a microphone for the documentary. At Landi's request, Walsh passed along the footage to the coach and then later to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and USA Gymnastics. Landi also passed it along to Chiles' mother, Gina.

"This shows it was done!!" Gina Chiles replied to Landi on Facebook on Aug. 11.

"I keep listening to it. They didn't even try to find the facts!!! This is clear. This shows it was submitted in time."

Walsh and Netflix have not replied to multiple messages seeking comment.

While the video is the most compelling evidence in Chiles' appeal, the filing Monday details several other errors that undercut the CAS decisions.

Wrong email addresses

For three days, CAS sent information about the case to wrong or outdated emails at USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee – including to someone who had left the USOPC almost a year earlier. This despite CAS being in contact with the USOPC during the Paris Games about U.S. figure skaters receiving their gold medals from the team competition at the Beijing Olympics in 2022.

The skaters received their medals, which had been held up by legal wranglings over the eligibility of a Russian skater, during an Aug. 7 ceremony in Paris. That event was a day after CAS sent its first emails to the wrong addresses.

CAS ignored error messages about the email addresses and did not follow up when it did not hear from the USOPC or USAG, so it wasn’t until the morning of Aug. 9 that contact was finally made with Chris McCleary, the USOPC’s general counsel. It was McCleary who then brought Debbie Shon, USA Gymnastics’ chief legal officer, into the chain of correspondence with CAS.

That left Chiles, USAG and USOPC officials less than 24 hours to find legal representation, and for that person to then read the entire case file, prepare and file a response and get ready for the CAS hearing. The time change – Paris is six hours ahead of the East Coast of the United States – and Chiles no longer being in Paris presented additional challenges.

What Paul Greene, the attorney hired by USA Gymnastics, did not know before the hearing, and wouldn’t know until several days after it, was that the Americans had not been given a key piece of information about the hearing.

Arbitrator had ties to Romania

The president of the CAS arbitration panel was Hamid G. Gharavi, a lawyer based in France who has represented the Romanian government at the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes since 2016. It's work that could generate millions of dollars for Gharavi and his firm, and he has at least one open case currently.

When he was named to the panel, Gharavi submitted a declaration disclosing his work for the Romanian government and pledging his independence. But while the declaration was sent to other parties in the case, none of the Americans received it. It also was not included in the document file that was sent to McCleary, the USOPC’s general counsel, once he finally learned of the case.

Gharavi did ask at the beginning of the CAS hearing if there were any objections to the panel. But he did not mention his work for the Romanian government again and Greene did not know to raise a complaint because the Americans hadn’t received Gharavi’s declaration. 

Follow the reporters on social media @nrarmour and @Tom_Schad.