Jordan Chiles addressed being stripped of her Olympics bronze medal at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit on Wednesday. Speaking with Moira Forbes, Chiles said that it wasn’t just the medal itself that was taken from her.
“The biggest thing that was taken from me was, it was the recognition of who I was,” the gymnast said. “Not just my sport, but the person I am.”
She continued, “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 won the bronze medal for her floor exercise during the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer. Following the medal ceremony, the International Olympic Committee decided to strip her of her medal after an appeal by Romania that moved their team’s gymnast, Ana Barbosu, to third place. Chiles received significant abuse on social media following the incident.
She addressed the situation in August in a statement, sharing her disappointment with the sporting organization’s “unjust” decision to take her medal and give it to Team Romania.
“I have no words,” she wrote at the time. “This decision feels unjust and comes as a significant blow, not just to me, but to everyone who has championed my journey,” she wrote. “To add to the heartbreak, the unprompted racially driven attacks on social media are wrong and extremely hurtful.”
“I’ve poured my heart and soul into this sport and I am so proud to represent my culture and my country,” she added.
At the Games, Chiles’ coaches appealed to the judges, arguing that her routine’s level of difficulty was incorrect; the judges agreed, and when the score was adjusted by 0.1, Chiles’ new score of 13.766 was enough to surpass Barbosu and Voinea’s 13.700, giving her the bronze at the last minute.
However, after Romania’s appeal, the CAS found that Team USA’s appeal came after one minute and four seconds — coaches have one minute to appeal a score after judging — and thus the CAS voided Team USA’s appeal and dropped Chiles’ score back down to 13.666 and fifth place. USAG responded with an appeal that seemed to prove the team’s request came before the allotted 60 seconds, but the decision stayed the same.
Speaking at the Forbes event, Chiles noted, “I followed the rules. My coach followed the rules. We did everything that was totally, completely right.”
She added, “It’s definitely been really hard to really, truly see all the love and support. Looking out here, seeing everybody, I can feel it now. But at first it was really hard to really take that in, because of how badly my heart was broken. I do appreciate every single person that has been able to come out and say what they needed to say. Whether it was through social media, whether it was through news outlets, whether it was through just people texting me, I do appreciate it so much.”
Chiles also confirmed that this doesn’t mark the end of her career. “It’s not over,” Chiles said. “Because at this rate, it’s not really about the medal. It’s about my peace and my justice.”
Last night, during the MTV Video Music Awards Flavor Flav presented Chiles with a bronze clock medal as a consolation prize. “I know they tried to make your medal away from you,” the rapper said. “But I got you something that they can’t take away from you.”
