Jordan Chiles said her “heart was broken” when she was stripped of her Olympic bronze medal because of mistakes by gymnastics officials, and she’ll continue to fight it because she did nothing wrong.
Chiles appeared at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit on Wednesday and detailed the toll the last five weeks have taken on her.
“The biggest thing that was taken from me was,” Chiles said before pausing to gather herself, “it was the recognition of who I was. Not just my sport, but the person I am.
“It’s not about the medal,” she added. “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 final on Aug. 5, her 13.666 putting her behind Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea. (The Romanians had each scored 13.7, but Barbosu placed higher because of a better execution score.) But Cecile Landi, who is Chiles’ personal coach in addition to being the U.S. coach in Paris, appealed her difficulty score, arguing Chiles had not been given full credit for a tour jete, a leap.
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A review panel agreed, and the additional 0.100 elevated the American ahead of both Romanians into third place.
But Romania appealed, challenging the timing of Chiles’ inquiry. On the final day of the Paris Games, six days after the event final, the International Gymnastics Federation announced it was re-ordering the floor exercise results after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Chiles’ scoring inquiry had been submitted too late.
The International Olympic Committee then declared Barbosu of Romania the bronze medalist.
USA Gymnastics said video found after the CAS ruling showed Landi had, in fact, made the inquiry in time. But CAS said it could not be considered after the fact.
Though medals are often reallocated, it almost never happens because of someone else’s error. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee have repeatedly expressed support for Chiles and have said they plan to appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.
“I followed the rules. My coach followed the rules. We did everything that was totally, completely right,” Chiles said.
The FIG acknowledged during the CAS hearing that it had not put safeguards in place so officials would immediately know whether verbal appeals were submitted on time or late. Omega, the official timing system at the Olympics, had that data, but it wasn’t linked to the FIG’s system or communicated to the appeal panel.
The FIG also acknowledged it had accepted Chiles’ appeal because it believed it had been filed in time.
In addition to tainting a career highlight — the floor bronze was Chiles’ first individual medal in two Olympics — she’s been bullied and harassed online, with much of the abuse racist.
“It’s definitely been really hard to really, truly see all the love and support,” Chiles said. “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’ bronze medal had produced one of the feel-good, and viral, moments of the entire Paris Olympics. The floor podium was the first to feature three Black gymnasts, with Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade winning gold and Simone Biles the silver.
As Andrade stepped onto the podium to receive her gold medal, Chiles and Biles bowed to her. The International Olympic Committee posted a photo of the moment with the caption, “This is everything.”
“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.”