Video footage has surfaced supporting U.S. gymnast Simone Biles’ claim that she should have won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics this summer. Biles won the silver medal, but lost the gold to Brazilian competitor Rebeca Andrade.
The video footage was sent to the Swiss Federal Tribunal as part of a court case involving another U.S. athlete who is arguing that she was deprived of a gold medal. The video shows Biles asking her coach if he had queried the judges about her appeal on the decision about her score. Coach Laurent Landi’s wife, Cecile, says to Biles that he did ask. A moment later, Cecile then spoke to Biles again saying “they didn’t send it.”
Biles got a .6 point penalty for allegedly stepping outside the boundaries on the floor mat. Had she gotten full credit for her performance, she would have scored higher than Andrade, giving her the gold medal.
At the same time, a controversy is unfolding involving the initial awarding of the three top medals to three black women. U.S. gymnasts Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles joined Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade for the ceremony, which U.S. sports reporters went wild over simply because it was what they call the first time in Olympic history that three black women were at the medal podium at the same time. Jordan Chiles later lost her bronze medal to Ana Bǎrbosu of Romania after judges revised their scoring. Chiles has submitted an appeal.
Simone Biles has won the most Olympic medals of any gymnast in U.S. history. She has 11 total medals, with seven of them being gold. This has made her the most decorated gymnast of all time.
Biles has already conceded the gold medal to Rebeca Andrade, despite the recently released video footage. She said she is satisfied with the outcome, and that Andrade did a better job on the floor routine anyway. But Biles did say she was frustrated with the way the decision was made.
