Jordan Chiles has given her first interview since losing her bronze medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
During the competition, the Team USA gymnast’s floor routine score was changed from fifth to third after a points system investigation — and then changed back to fifth after an opponent appealed. Chiles now reflected on the experience during the Forbes Power Women’s Summit on Wednesday, Sept. 11.
“The biggest thing that was taken away from me was the recognition of who I was. Not just my sport, but the person that I am,” Chiles said of the medal controversy, per People“For me, everything that happened is not about the medal, but about the color of my skin.”
After Chiles received her bronze medal for the first time, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) — an independent body that settles international sporting disputes — alleging that the U.S. coach had filed the inquiry after the one-minute deadline. CAS ruled last month that the inquiry had indeed been filed outside the one-minute deadline and that the original scores would be reinstated. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) upheld that decision, ordering Chiles to return her bronze medal and give it to Romanian gymnast Ana Bărbosu.
“I felt like in 2018, when I lost the love for the sport, I lost it again,” Chiles said, reflecting on the days after the IOC made its final decision. “I felt like I was really left in the dark.”
The gymnast explained that in 2018, she was dealing with an emotionally and verbally abusive coach that left her unable to speak up for herself. “I didn’t have the ability to have my voice heard or be heard, and that’s something I feel right now in this situation, not being heard,” she recalled.
“I made history and I’ll always make history and that’s something I’ve done right. I followed the rules, my coach followed the rules,” Chiles said at the summit, despite the CAS claim that her coach appealed the score four seconds into the allotted time frame. “So to be left in the dark is something that I feel like they took all that away and just put the name gymnastics on it.”
While Chiles acknowledged “all the love and support” she’s received from fans amid the controversy, she admitted she was too sad to process all the positive messages. “I can feel it now, but at first it was really hard to really process it because my heart was so broken,” Chiles said. “Everything happened so fast. But I do appreciate everyone who has come out and been able to say what they needed to say, whether it was on social media, on news outlets, or just people texting me.”
She concluded, “I appreciate it so much and I don’t think I could sit here where I’m sitting right now and talk to everybody if everybody wasn’t on my side and really recognizing what’s right.”
