Jordan Chiles spoke about being stripped of her Olympic bronze medal at the Forbes Powerful Women Summit on Wednesday. Speaking to Moira Forbes, Chiles said that the medal itself wasn't just taken away from her.
“The biggest thing that was taken away from me was the recognition of who I was, not just my sport, but the person I was,” the gymnast said.
“It’s not about the medal,” she continued. “It’s about the color of my skin. It’s about the fact that there were things that led to this position as an athlete. And I felt like everything was stripped away from me. I felt like when I came back in 2018 where I lost the love for the sport, I lost it again.”
Chiles initially won the bronze medal for her floor exercise at this summer’s Paris 2024 Olympics. After the medal ceremony, the International Olympic Committee decided to strip her of her medal after Romania appealed that her gymnast, Ana Barbosu, had been moved to third place. Chiles received a lot of abuse on social media following the incident.
Last August, she spoke about the situation in a statement, expressing her disappointment at the “unfair” decision by the sports organization to take her medal and give it to the Romanian team.
“I can’t find the words to express this,” she wrote at the time. “I feel this decision is unfair and a huge blow, not only to me, but to everyone who has supported my journey. What makes it even more heartbreaking is that the unjustified racist attacks on social media are so wrong and hurtful.”
“I put my heart and soul into this sport and I am very proud to represent my culture and country,” she added.
At the Games, Chiles' coaches appealed to the judges, arguing that the difficulty level of her routine was incorrect; the judges agreed, and when the score was adjusted by 0.1, Chiles' new score of 13.766 was enough to overtake Barboso and Voinya's score of 13.700, giving her the bronze medal at the last minute.
However, after Romania appealed, the Court of Arbitration for Sport found that the USA team's appeal came after one minute and four minutes. Seconds — Coaches have the right to appeal the result after one minute of judging – so the Court of Arbitration for Sport threw out the USA team’s appeal and reduced Chiles’ score to 13.666 and fifth place. USAG responded with an appeal that appeared to prove the team’s request came before the allotted 60 seconds, but the decision stood.
Speaking at the Forbes event, Chiles noted, “I followed the rules. My coaches followed the rules. We did absolutely everything right.”
“It’s been really hard to see all the love and support really. Looking out here and seeing everyone, I can relate to it now. But at first it was really hard to take it in, because of how bad my heart was hurting. I appreciate everyone who was able to come out and express what they needed to say. Whether it’s through social media, whether it’s through news outlets, whether it’s just text messages from people, I appreciate it so much,” she added.
Chiles also stressed that this does not mark the end of her career. “Her career is not over yet. Because this is not about the medal in this case. This is about peace and justice,” Chiles said.
Last night at the MTV Video Music Awards, Flavor Flav presented Chili's with a bronze medal as a make-up award. “I know they tried to take that medal away from you, but I got you something they can't take away from you,” the rapper said.
