U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles on Olympic bronze medal controversy: 'I felt like everything has been stripped'
Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles said on Wednesday that "the recognition of who I was" was also taken away from her following the controversy at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where she was initially awarded a bronze medal in the floor exercise, but a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport awarded it to Romania's Ana Bărbosu.
“The biggest thing that was taken from me was, it was the recognition of who I was,” an emotional Chiles said during the Forbes Power Women’s Summit. “Not just my sport, but the person I am.
“It’s not about the medal. It’s about my skin color. It’s about the fact there were things that have led up to this position of being an athlete. And I felt like everything has been stripped. I felt like when I was back in 2018 where I did lose the love of the sport, I lost it again.”
Chiles initially finished fifth in the floor routine final, but was awarded the bronze medal via a score adjustment after her coach Cecile Landi filed an appeal to the judgment of her routine. Upon review, judges determined that Chiles wasn't awarded full credit for a skill.
Her score of 13.666 was changed to 13.766, which moved her ahead of Bărbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, who initially finished the event in a third-place tie with scores of 13.700. Prior to Landi's appeal, Bărbosu was declared the bronze-medal winner over her teammate because of a tiebreaker.
CAS directed the Federation of International Gymnastics to “determine the rankings of the floor exercise and assign the medal(s) in accordance with the [CAS] decision.”
CAS later determined the appeal filed by Landi came four seconds too late, thus negating the score adjustment.
Chiles issued a statement on social media after her appeal was denied in August saying that the decision "feels unjust and comes as a significant blow, not just to me, but to everyone who has championed my journey" and she had been the subject of "unprompted racially driven attacks on social media."
At the Forbes event on Wednesday in New York City, Chiles said rules were followed and that, "We did everything that was totally, completely right.” She added that her career isn't over and right now "it's about my peace and my justice."
Chiles receives gift from rapper Flavor Flav at VMAs
Chiles was at UBS Arena on Wednesday night to take part in the MTV Video Music Awards. During the show, she appeared on stage with rapper and U.S. Olympic enthusiast, Flavor Flav, who gifted her a bronze clock medal.
That's our guy @FlavorFlav bringing #waterpolo to the @vmas, showing love to @ChilesJordan and presenting a moonman to @taylorswift13. What can't he do?! #VMAspic.twitter.com/hsHDk35nNd
— USA Water Polo (@USAWP) September 12, 2024
The pair presented the award for "Best Collaboration," which ended up going to Taylor Swift and Post Malone.
