Three Olympic gymnasts did absolutely nothing wrong, and they all ended up losers.

0:00 Eva The internet wants you to know a little about everything.

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0:31 Eva Come from people who know way too much. Have you been since Friday?

0:39 Wendy I don't even know what day it is. I'm so excited to talk about gymnastics, like no one ever asked me really to talk about gymnastics. So I was just all day. Probably should have done more work, but I was like, I just I get to talk about genetics. It's no training. I'm Wendy Martelli, and I know way too much about a story where three Olympic gymnasts did absolutely not one single thing wrong, but they all end up being losers at the end of the day.

1:14 Wendy Don't worry, though, because at the very end of this whole debacle, there is some like silver lining that happened literally on March 7th. So this story just keeps the unfolding and keeps unfolding. Let me just set the stage. Okay, I got it. Is it is August 2024 Paris Olympics. Now in Olympic sports, the four final, individual four or final.

1:40 Wendy We've gone through. Team final, all round, final, all of the events. This is literally the last event on the last day of women's gymnastics. So you were there when it was during team finals. Individual all around. So we're at event finals now where we're like in the second week of gymnastics, like they do all the big events. You were there for the big event.

2:02 Wendy Now we're down to the wire. Perfect. I if.

2:05 Eva I still up though the shrine.

2:08 Wendy O the shrine is up. I have my leotard from my childhood hanging up on the wall. I have my grips, my hand grips from bars. This is before I was like five seven and had big boobs, but I still have a mastic shrine hanging up to honor the Olympics.

2:24 Pamala Oh, I have to. I have to back up for one second.

2:27 Wendy I'm sorry. I'm trying to get into this.

2:29 Pamala So are you, like, oh, that's what gymnastics meant when you were a kid. Like, how did this all start?

2:35 Wendy The okay, the OG of me, like, I was just like, club gymnast, you know, like, making my way in the world in a small mining village town in Northern California. We didn't even have a YMCA in my hometown. I would have been one. This was, like, even lower than a YMCA. But I did go to competitions and I had a choreographer like, you know, in my mind, it was a big deal.

2:58 Wendy What happened was now there is this gymnast. Her name was Tracy Talavera from the like 80s. And and she was really tall. She was five feet, four inches tall. And I was like, we're so tall. Yeah. And and and I was like, you know, I'm still under five four. I'm under five four. But once I hit five, 4 or 5 five, I don't know, I might have to rethink this dream.

3:22 Wendy Not only did I like surpassed by 4 or 5 five, but I went through puberty and then I was like an A five Amazon with picked like it just. Yeah when puberty gymnast shaped.

3:34 Pamala Person.

3:35 Wendy No one. So puberty to me puberty killed like ruined everything. It ruined my life. It completely altered and ruined everything I loved in the world. So I starting in high school, I, like, broke up with gymnastics. I was too cool for it. I was mad at it. I became a diver where you can be taller. And I was just.

3:57 Wendy I missed the any Olympics I missed two Olympics because I was upset and and heartbroken. It was like a bad a really bad, sad breakup. You can't stand to even look at it anymore. Like it's just terrible.

4:09 Pamala Okay, okay.

4:10 Wendy But then something happened when I got in college and started, like, growing up a little bit more and kind of owning my Amazonian stature that like, really started to come to terms with how much, for better or for worse, it really was the person I am today and how much of my like, spirit and personality was really wrapped up into gymnastics and then weirdly and into the life up to the drama, the numbers.

4:38 Wendy But, but, but I just loved everything about it and following it, you know, which I think is like normal in sports, like people and the ball sports. I know as much as people know in ball sports, right.

4:51 Eva Like Fox when they traded Mookie to the.

4:54 Wendy Dodgers, you know, it took it.

4:55 Pamala Took a long.

4:56 Eva Time to get in love with that game. I get it.

5:01 Pamala All right. So we got your origin okay.

5:03 Wendy So for the first time in the history of Olympics, there's been no controversy. This sport has grown so much. And I'm thinking about this as Jordan Chiles is the last athlete on the last day, on the last competition at the very end of women's gymnastics. Okay. Just basking in the beauty of the sport at this point. Rebecca Andrade from Brazil has the gold medal.

5:33 Wendy Clint Jordan can't beat her. Jordan USA, she can't beat her, doesn't have the degree of difficulty to beat her. And Simon is locked in for so now maybe people think, oh, I can't believe Simone didn't get the gold, but it's it's fine. Even Simone thinks it's fine. She went out of bounds twice. Not one foot out of bounds, which is 110 two feet out of bounds.

5:56 Wendy Two times that equals 6/10 of a point. So she cannot beat and drive it. And also androgyny is a queen and has been a silver to Simone at this Olympics two times. So it's her turn. She's a queen. She's beautiful. Nobody's mad. We're all we're all agreeing. Yes, yes. And Andre, this is your moment to Simona. This is your moment to get a silver.

6:22 Wendy All is right in the world. Jordan competes last. She has a perfectly fine routine. She has one skill in her routine. And this one skill. This one skill has been talked about for many, many years. We all know that Jordan Chiles never gets her goji in or out. What? Is that? You? Yeah. Yes. Yes. So. So the Gogan is named after Gina Gogan from the late 70s, who used to like a very sad something needs to eat a sandwich.

6:53 Wendy Romanian from the late 70s. But yeah, that's very beautiful. It's like a switch leap where you switch leap. Your legs have to be at least at 180 degrees, and then you do basically a one and a half turn and laughs. So you're like leap, Boulet. Wow. Okay, Jordan never makes it around to the point where like in podcast life over the years all doing it and Jordan falling short.

7:19 Pamala This is like a pattern. This is a pattern. She never makes a pattern.

7:23 Wendy It's a pattern to the point where it has been discussed before. Okay, but I'm watching you.

7:28 Eva To include it in your routine. Why does she keep doing well?

7:31 Wendy Why does anybody ever keep doing something if I mess up all the time like it's a it's one of life's great mysteries. Now she does get he does get credit for part of it. And you do have to do a leap and a turn. So, so it doesn't have to be that one. If you get it around almost you, you do get credits, but you get bonus credits if you get it all the way around, which she never does.

7:54 Wendy Okay, so I'm watching her routine and I was like, dang, Jordan, that looked like a good notion. I, I can't believe it, but I think she got it around. Oh, she got it around. You guys have gotten around maybe for the first time in her entire life. I don't know if she's going to win. Everybody's on the bubble for the bronze.

8:12 Wendy Everybody's on the bubble for the bronze.

8:14 Pamala I'm living for this.

8:16 Eva And we'll be right back. After this, we spotted big ad agencies starting their accounts with untrained children. That's why a tiny ad agency puts the founders on every assignment. So you get brand stories. Get tiny. Today at tiny ad agency.com.

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8:47 Wendy Yeah, so what happens is you have these two Romanians. Okay, here's where it gets crazy. I mean.

8:54 Pamala The Belgian or unrelated, maybe.

8:57 Wendy It doesn't. The Gougeon is just her one success that she got around. Got it that nobody thinks she's going to get around. Now, Anna Barbosa at this point has the bronze medal before Jordan Chiles compete.

9:12 Pamala Yeah, she's sitting in that Jordan chair. Got it.

9:15 Wendy Okay Jordan Chiles does a great job I'm so happy for her. Regardless of what happened. She got that still around for once in my life. So I'm really happy for her. Anna Barbosa at the end of Jordan's team, the scores go up, Jordan is in fifth place and Anna is in third place. She's got the bronze, which isn't too surprising.

9:37 Wendy That's not so weird. They were kind of neck and neck. Okay. Anna is looking up at the jumbotron celebrating now on the job. This is true. And in many sports, it's the unofficial score. Yeah. And you can see this with the U.S. gymnast for the all around final. You know, those pictures of them, like holding hands and, like, looking up the jumbotron and they're like, they know they won by millions of points, but they're still like, looking up, waiting it for it to go unofficial to official.

10:05 Wendy Every know their breath. Yeah. Anybody else who doesn't do that she start celebrating at unofficial. And I was like oh I mean she probably did win but not a good look. Not a good look. Maybe just wait. Just wait for a second. What happens is Cecile Landy, who's Jordan's coach. Love love, love French couple French Mary. Long story about them.

10:28 Wendy Beautiful. Lovely coach is actually actually healthy. Not toxic. Beautiful Simmons. Coach amazing for people. I feel like beautiful humans because she's brilliant and because she knows things. She's like, you know what she didn't get credit for. Yeah, but she actually got it around this time. So she says this is something that you can do in gymnastics. Challenge inquiry inquiry, inquiry.

10:56 Wendy She says to the judges. Now let me just give you a little bit of a rule detail here that you need, because this just gets weirder. So there's like eight finalists. You can do an inquiry and you have two minutes to do the inquiry. If you don't do it within the two minutes, like to come over it to call you to be like, hey, hey, hey.

11:15 Pamala Yeah, yeah.

11:17 Wendy But in the final and the very last scene of a session, you only have one minute because of this godforsaken idiotic rule that says we don't want the audience to have to wait an additional minute for that. So. So for the minute. So for the last routine, you only have a minute. Now. Now you have to imagine, like the coach doesn't just stand next to the judges, like the coaches like, you know, that's a big space.

11:41 Wendy You got to like walk around, which she does. She goes to the coaching panel, she walks around, she says inquiry, inquiry. And when that happens, the clock stops. And then there's like like court of head judges who get together and look at the footage and those those judges rule. You know what she got that goes all the way around.

12:05 Wendy And we didn't give her credit for it. So they give Jordan's credit for the Guardian. And then Jordan gets a bronze medal. He's in the bronze medal position. And then oh, God, you know, as much as I can say negative things about Romania like I it was heartbreaking. Yeah. You see, like they're both face looking up at the scoreboard and then looking at our coaching and looking at the scoreboard and then stopping just loses it.

12:35 Wendy Which is unusual because gymnastics, our gymnasts are tough is tough. You know, like there's no there is crying in gymnastics. But I mean this is a full on emotional breakdown. Her coach comes to her. There's like at it and she goes running off. And actually it's very hard to find that footage. It's just because I wasn't working and was watching it in the moment like it is tragic.

12:59 Wendy So I'm like stupid me for thinking that, like, we have one god damn Olympics or the relaunch of our show, but then to make things even more emotionally complicated, you have the medal ceremony and you may have seen this picture. I feel like it was in like regular news that people watch, not just nerd gymnastics news, where it's the Brazilian Rebecca standing on the podium with the gold medal looking regal and beautiful, and it's Jordan on one side and Simone on the other side on their hands and knees, bowing to.

13:30 Pamala Her. Do you remember that? I remember seeing those photos.

13:33 Wendy And it is the first time in women's gymnastics history that you have three black women on the podium. So you have a crying Romanian. Terrible, heartbreaking. And then you have this beautiful historical moment. Yeah, but wait.

13:49 Pamala Wait, there's more. You oh my God, I barely was able to catch my breath after that.

13:53 Wendy It just. It's so bad like me. There's a second Romanian here. Sabrina. Virginia. Sabrina. Virginia. Also, maybe should have had a medal. And I actually, when I was watching, I was like, dang, girl, I think she got the medal she was given and out of bounds on one of her tumbling passes and questionable. Questionable. Okay. Her coach, who is also her mom, put in an inquiry about something else.

14:24 Wendy And actually when she was putting in the inquiry, they were like, well, you can inquire about degree of difficulty, not execution, but you can also inquire about out of bounds. So her dumb mom inquired about the wrong thing. Had her mom inquired about the out of bounds, they would have watched that video footage she absolutely did not go out of bounds.

14:47 Wendy And she absolutely all is fair in love and war. And there was no controversy. And all of the judges are perfect. Sabrina boy, they're not Anna, not Jordan. She should have had the bronze medal. Oh, but she also didn't get bronze. Okay, back to Anna Barbosa is tough when anybody Rosie's coach does is she submits something to pass, which is the court of Arbitration for sports.

15:15 Wendy It's like a governing body for sports. And she says to them, you know what? Cecile did not put in the inquiry within 60s. So actually, Anna Barbosa, really, it wasn't her that should have won anyway. It should have been the other woman. But but okay, she ends up getting the bronze medal because. And this is the part that I was like, I can't I have not watched gymnastics and more like, I'm going to have an apple.

15:43 Wendy I can't do this. Cecile. Sad inquiry for Jordan, inquiry for Jordan, and then the judgment like this and the time spent stamp on the computer is one minute, four seconds. So Anna Barbosa, who's coach, says she was four seconds late. And then 24 hours later, Jordan doesn't have the medal. The medal goes back to Anna. So it started with Anna.

16:10 Wendy It goes to Jordan. It goes back to Anna. Should have been Sabrina's. It goes back to Anna. And now Anna has the medal because of this frickin four second stamp on a computer.

16:21 Pamala Right? So the technicality of having it have to be stamped versus when you actually call for it. So that's going to be which which is.

16:28 Wendy Which is an A rule. You can actually it should be. But but no one could call it. No one heard her. No one saw her. They don't have Polly footage.

16:35 Pamala There's probably footage of her mouthing, you know. Well.

16:38 Wendy Yeah, that's that's exactly what we're going to get. So, so so no, we don't want to set a precedent, which is complete, utter crap. And all you have to do, like right now, Google, how many times have there been times? So Jordan Chiles literally leaves all social media and and basically goes into hiding now Romania in a smooth move when Anna and Sabrina and go back to Romania and there's a parade, they they treat both Anna and Sabrina as bronze medalists, which means they both both get a car and they both get like the keys to a castle or an apartment, or they treat them equally because of the controversy.

17:24 Wendy Yeah. So that's where it stands. Okay. We're we're in like mid-August 2024. No go go coming January 2026. There's a very good documentary on Netflix called Simone Biles Rising. And Katie Walsh is the director. It's excellent. And I'm very critical of all things documentary about gymnastics. And then I guess because it was like on the editing floor or like something happened where she was like, wait a minute.

17:54 Wendy Oh, I think she literally was like, we've got to go ahead of that footage. Okay, guys, wait, I think I have footage and visual and audio of since you being like inquiry, inquiry. Oh, 52nd. Wait a minute. So this Swiss, there's a Swiss like Swiss courts of sports there. Like the the the like the end of year.

18:20 Pamala Yeah. Okay.

18:22 Wendy Jordan in January submits to the Swiss courts. Yo, there's video footage, audio and video footage of the inquiry being put in within the 60s. And that timestamp was at 104. But that is not she. She got it in at 45 seconds. It's complete b x. Oh my goodness. So now Switzerland neutral Switzerland has gone back to CAS. The courts for arbitration for sports to re arbitrate the entire thing.

18:59 Wendy Anna Barbosa has now had this medal in her possession for like 18 months. And you know what? Jordan Chiles is going to win because they have actual video. And the reason why they didn't have it in the first place is because they gave this moment of arbitration initially 24 hours, 24 hours from the moment to like we have a decision.

19:23 Wendy There was not time to gather evidence. It was a done deal. There was nothing to be had. But then this new evidence pops up. So now it goes back to Switzerland. Switzerland has now taken it back to cash, and cash is now re arbitrating that the right word re arbitrating it because there is now new evidence that shows that this four seconds never happened.

19:47 Wendy In the meantime, under the radar. Very very under the radar. The Fiji Federation for International Gymnastics has been like, you know what, do you like that rule? I didn't really work very well. Let's not have the one minute anymore. For the last. Let's make it two minutes like all the other ones. And also this inquiry thing, we should do that differently because it just didn't really work.

20:12 Wendy So they've changed all the rules. That's now out there.

20:15 Pamala Now going forward log onto the floor. Right. We do in football.

20:19 Wendy You know they have like a form. They have a form. They can go and you like throw out. That's basically a flag on on the field. Yeah. Yes. Yes. So here we are. We still don't have it settled to as of right now. It is still not settle. We still don't know what's going to happen. Although it looks like Jordan Chiles is going to like and is going to have to like Fedex.

20:39 Wendy The bronze medal back to Jordan after Jordan had it for five days to give it to Anna, and it had for 18 months. She's got to get it back from Romania, back into the United States, I don't know. But Jordan's going to win now. It I just want to say, and this is where I feel like if you start crying, this is where like the heart of a gymnast is so fucking fantastic.

21:00 Wendy Can I say the F-word? Yeah. It's so fucking fantastic. Anna Barbosa, who gets a full scholarship to Stanford. She's a freshman in Stanford. Wow. Jordan Chiles is in her fourth year at UCLA. Right? Hailing it, she comes back into social media. She lives again killing it. And she's in college sports. They still use the ten no system they don't anymore.

21:27 Wendy In elite gymnastics she has gotten like four tens on floor. Well, guess what happened March 7th?

21:35 Pamala No, no.

21:36 Wendy But Stanford competes against UCLA. Guess who's in the floor final? No, Jordan. I'll get Anna Barbosa. Serious. Okay. It's going to make me cry. They tied with a 9.95 stop. And for that was two college gymnasts. They tied on the floor. And there's pictures of them. Like there's one picture that I love where they look like this. They're like like they're like oh oh girlfriend's like oh yeah.

22:09 Wendy And then there's another picture with her hugging. It's so beautiful. So through all of this, like, controversy where every single and this is why gymnastics is so heartbreaking, it's never the goddamn yeah sometimes to the athlete. But more mostly it is not the athlete. It is the FBI who never investigated Larry Nassar. We won't go there. But like.

22:31 Pamala It's all the shit around.

22:32 Wendy Every single governing body that continues to just screw over the heart of the sport, but the heart of the sport, it just ends up like living large, regardless of all of the institutions that try to tear down women. It's so beautiful. And that happened on March 7th and we still don't know who has the medal. Oh, but they're in college right now, just competing against each other, hugging and being like, oh like cool bro.

23:01 Pamala Oh my God, I mean wow, okay. When did you just you just you just wrapped up this whole entire episode zero notes. No one else. Wow. Right. Don't think I'm ever going to forget those names now. Yeah. Also an official post review Olympics gymnast podcast to do.

23:21 Wendy Also, this isn't over. We're still like the it's not even over yet. It's not even over. It is not even like a joke. It's not even over yet.

23:29 Pamala I just wrote I was on this roller coaster for the full experience from top to bottom. It was this. I mean, thank you.

23:36 Wendy Thank you for letting me talk about it. Honestly, I was so excited all day. I was like, I just need to get this out of my system to anyone who will listen, which apparently are you fine people? Just thank you. I really appreciate.

23:47 Pamala It. Oh, this is this was absolutely thrilling.

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