Documentaries are generally seen as providing a record of what happened and perspectives on it, not altering already-underway events. But sometimes the act of observation can indeed change an outcome.
The latest example might be the Simone Biles Rising docuseries on Simone Biles.
That series, from director Katie Walsh as well as Religion of Sports and the Olympic Channel and airing on Netflix, ran two episodes in advance of this summer’s Paris Olympics. But the team involved was filming during those games for two more episodes. And while those episodes haven’t yet aired (they’re set for an Oct. 25 premiere) footage from them could prove key to Biles’ USA Gymnastics’ teammate Jordan Chiles’ appeal to try and regain her bronze medal.
That appeal was filed Monday with the Swiss Federal Tribunal. It’s an appeal of a Court of Arbitration for Sport decision that agreed with a Romanian Gymnastics Federation claim the U.S. requests for an inquiry on Chiles’ difficulty score, which were initially accepted and led to her receiving a higher score and bronze, were submitted after the deadline of a minute after scores were registered.
There’s already been some footage disputing the Romanian federation claim. But a key element in the Simone Biles Rising footage is that they had a microphone on Cécile Canqueteau-Landi, a personal coach for both Chiles and Biles, and the coach whose inquiry was officially accepted by the judges. And that footage appears to show the specific language of Canqueteau-Landi’s request and the specific timing it came in. Here’s more on that from Margaret Fleming of Front Office Sports:
Chiles’ appeal reveals that footage for Simone Biles Rising—two episodes of which were released in the lead-up to the Olympics, and two covering the competition are set to be released later this year—shows Team USA, Biles, and Chiles’ head coach, Cécile Landi, multiple times calling for a challenge before the one-minute deadline.
“Inquiry for Jordan!” Landi, who was mic’d up for the documentary, can be heard saying starting at the 49-second mark after Chiles’ score was first announced. “One of the two technical assistants, dressed in white, made eye contact with her and nodded to indicate the receipt of the Verbal Inquiry,” says the appeal, translated from its original publication in German. After that, Landi repeated “Inquiry for Jordan,” and “For Jordan,” all before the deadline passed, according to the appeal.
It remains to be seen if this appeal by Chiles will be successful. The Court of Arbitration for Sport is generally seen as the top level for sports disputes, so appealing to a Swiss federal tribunal that theoretically sits over it may or may not work. It’s the equivalent of trying to take action in U.S. courts against NFL decisions; that has sometimes somewhat worked on player discipline or broadcasting issues, but attempts to try and reverse or alter game results (even ones where the league has admitted errors) through the courts have not generally been successful.
However, this documentary footage (at least as per how the appeal describes it) does seem like quite an indictment of the previous claims that the request for an inquiry came too late. And there are other notable elements in the appeal, including an argument that CAS panel president Hamid G. Gharavi has a conflict of interest due to past legal ties to Romania and a discussion of CAS’ failure to properly notify USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee so they could present evidence on Chiles’ behalf (they used invalid USA Gymnastics and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee email addresses for three days, only making contact three hours before a deadline).
The appeal could take months, so there may not be a quick resolution here. But if it does wind up being successful, that’s huge for Chiles and USA Gymnastics. And if part of that winds up being due to this documentary, that’s going to be quite the feather in the cap for Walsh and the team behind Simone Biles Rising. And that could be an interesting precedent on if mic’d-up footage from documentaries should be submitted to leagues or courts to impact decisions, even before those documentaries are visible by the public at large.