Simone Biles is taking the situation in stride after a newly released video showed a missed inquiry might have cost her another gold medal during the Paris Olympics.
Biles’s friend and fellow American gymnast Jordan Chiles appealed to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland on Monday in a bid to reclaim her bronze medal from the Paris Olympics, which was challenged and awarded to Romania’s Ana Barbosu.
A video submitted with the appeal by Chiles to the Swiss Federal Tribunal showed that a scoring inquiry for Simone Biles’ routine in the floor final was never registered, potentially costing her a gold medal. Biles secured the silver medal, finishing a mere 0.033 points behind Brazilian competitor Rebeca Andrade.
“Honestly not a big deal for me, Rebeca had a better floor anyways,” Biles commented on X in response to a user pointing out the missed inquiries for both her and Chiles.
She expressed disappointment over the oversight and appeared more troubled by Chiles’s being stripped of the bronze, and emphasized “Justice for Jordan” in all caps.
Biles’s score of 14.133 in the floor final included a 6.9 for difficulty. With credit for her split leap, her score would have risen to 14.233, surpassing Andrade’s 14.166.
In the appeal video, Biles asked her coach Cecile Landi, if Landi’s husband, Laurent, had inquired. After Laurent exchanged a few words in French, Landi turned to Biles and said, “They didn’t send it,” gesturing helplessly.
Landi had submitted an inquiry for Chiles, pointing out that Chiles did not receive full credit for her split leap, which the review panel acknowledged. Chiles’s score was increased by .10, which placed her ahead of Ana Barbosu from Romania for the bronze.
Romania contested this, appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and argued that Chiles’ scoring inquiry was submitted too late. The court concurred, supported by evidence from Omega showing the inquiry was four seconds overdue. Consequently, CAS mandated a revision of the floor final results, which led to Chiles losing the bronze medal on the last day of the Paris Olympics.
The rules specify that Chiles had 60 seconds to make a verbal inquiry, not a registered one. A time-stamped video showed that Landi repeated the “Inquiry for Jordan” twice within the allowed minute.
In the latest appeal, Chiles’ lawyers argued that CAS refused to consider the footage that “unequivocally proves” that the inquiry was submitted in time.