There’s a positive new development in USA Gymnastics’ relentless pursuit to help Jordan Chiles reclaim her bronze medal from the 2024 Paris Games.
Chiles was stripped of her bronze medal in the women’s gymnastics floor final after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that Cecile Landi, Chiles’s coach, submitted her appeal to raise Chiles’s score four seconds over the allotted 60-second time limit. Chiles originally scored 13.666 on her floor routine on Aug. 5, but Landi filed an appeal to the judges to raise Chiles’s difficulty score which was accepted, bumping Chiles’s score up to 13.766 and awarding the American gymnast a third-place finish.
Over a month later, USA Gymnastics may have unearthed new evidence proving that Landi did, in fact, submit her appeal on time.
Video footage in the Netflix docuseries, Simone Biles: Rising, reveals that Landi tells the judges, “Inquiry for Jordan!” exactly 49 seconds after Chiles received her score in the floor routine—well before the 60-second time limit—according to court documents released Monday. Landi could be heard saying “inquiry for Jordan” several more times prior to the deadline.
The short clip may be the most significant piece of evidence to date in USA Gymnastics’ ongoing efforts to help Chiles get her bronze medal back, though it’s not clear whether the evidence will be accepted.
One day after the CAS’s ruling, USA Gymnastics announced it had new video evidence to prove Landi submitted her appeal before the time limit. However, the CAS rejected the video and said it couldn’t accept new evidence after its decision had been made.
On Monday, Chiles also filed a formal appeal with the Swiss Federal Tribunal to overturn the CAS’s ruling. The appeal, which is currently ongoing, included a seven-minute-long video showing that Landi made her inquiry on time.
Chiles previously called the CAS’s ruling “unjust” and “devastating” in a statement posted to her social media.
Source si.com
